WITNESSES NAMED FOR WASHINGTON DC ONLINE GAMBLING HEARING

Wednesday June 29, 2011 : Committee on Finance and Revenue to deliberate decision on internet gambling Wednesday
 
The decision by the Washington DC council to legalise online gambling will be under the microscope of the council’s Committee on Finance and Revenue tomorrow (Wednesday) as committee chairman Jack Evans explores how the games will work and why no one else in the country has introduced state-sanctioned gambling on the Internet.
 
Last week's news that council lottery officials were pressing ahead with the plans and had released details of the games on offer has been followed by the release of the committee's witness list for the enquiry.
 
DC Lottery chied exec Buddy Roogow heads the list, and will appear along with chief financial officer Natwar M. Gandhi and D.C. Attorney General Irvin B. Nathan. A citizens' group that opposes the measure is also listed.
 
Evans has expressed disquiet regarding the employment connections of the proposer of the DC bill, Michael A. Brown, and the manner in which the council quietly approved the measure within a larger budget bill last December.
 
Congress has still not objected to the passage of the measure, and did not do so within the 30 day window set aside for the review of DC laws.