By Douglas Holtz-Eakin
The young drop coverage to avoid higher premiums
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
The D.C. Council took a major step Tuesday toward reconfiguring the city's $38 million lottery contract when it voted to repeal an online gambling law once urged by its supporters as a pivotal revenue source for the city.
A D.C. Council committee finally showed its cards in the tortured bid for Internet poker and other games through the city's lottery system — and it's game over.
A trio of D.C. Council members signaled their intent Wednesday to re-examine the $38 million D.C. Lottery contract and a plan to launch the nation's first online poker system, an idea promoted by council member Michael A. Brown, at-large independent, and approved without public discussion in a supplemental budget bill in December.
Two former D.C. Cabinet officials are dismayed that their joint request for an investigation by the Inspector General's Office of the D.C. Lottery contract has gone nowhere.
A lucrative school security contract awarded to a troubled company and its questionable subcontractor is being extended on a monthly basis by the mayor's office in spite of a D.C. law and a promise by Mayor Vincent C. Gray that all contracts in excess of $1 million would go to the D.C. Council for review.
D.C.'s attorney general called for a formal investigation into how a firm with questionable credentials and limited experience took a majority share in the city's $38 million lottery contract.
Mr. Gragan told The Times that he and Mr. Nickles saw "anomalies" in the lottery contract that he has not seen in 18 years as a procurement officer but that he had no indication if an investigation was begun.
D.C. Council members to scrutinize lottery contract, online poker →
Now an assistant director of procurement at the federal level, Mr. Gragan said the matter "warranted scrutiny" by the OIG.
Ex-officials have no luck urging probe of D.C. lottery bid →
