D.C.’s Office of Lottery and Gaming is attempting to salvage its poor-performing sports gambling app, GambetDC, by turning it over to a private operator with a more established platform, the agency’s director said Thursday.
The decision, revealed at a D.C. Council hearing, came as a surprise to the lawmaker who arranged the discussion to chart a path forward for the troubled app before a five-year, no-bid contract with its maker, the Greek gaming company Intralot, was set to expire in July.
That agency head Frank Suarez had worked with Intralot to identify a possible subcontractor prompted fresh questions from city leaders unhappy with the performance of GambetDC. The app’s rollout in May 2020 was marred by technical problems, poor odds and other issues that damaged its reputation among D.C. bettors. The platform has brought just a fraction of the $20 million in annual revenue that D.C.’s former chief financial officer forecast in 2019, when the council awarded Intralot $215 million to develop city’s sole sports betting platform.
