Maryland neighbor Washington D.C. is expanding its online sports betting market, but customers aren’t able to partake just yet.
In fact, they aren’t even able to place a mobile wager despite previously having access to FanDuel.
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser chose to return the Fiscal Year 2025 budget unsigned to the DC Council, effectively pausing Washington D.C. online sports betting for now.
Mayor’s action was not related to sports betting
Originally, Caesars and BetMGM aimed to launch their online sports betting operations district-wide on Monday this week. The mayor’s action has delayed that.
It’s important to note that Bowser did not veto the budget that includes expanding district-wide online sports betting to other sportsbooks besides FanDuel. She simply didn’t sign it.
And it appears to have nothing to do with sports betting.
The mayor wrote that she wants to see more spending cuts. She wasn’t thrilled with the higher taxes called for in the FY 2025 budget.
“I cannot support a budget that needlessly increases our residents’ property and income taxes, raises the paid family leave tax to untested levels, or harms our public schools.”
She went on to encourage DC councilmembers to “pick up areas of spending each is willing to tackle” and to “work with us.”
“Without a dramatic change in our revenue growth, many of the programs the council is championing this year will be on the chopping block in a few short months. By working together on this important task, we can do the work needed before next year’s budget formulation.”
Confusion around Bowser’s objections
According to one councilmember, there is some confusion around why Bowser didn’t sign the budget.
Council Chair Phil Mendelson said he doesn’t understand “the mayor’s endgame” with the move.
“She criticizes the council for raising taxes, but leaves out that she asked to raise taxes, too.”
Mendelson notes that Bowser’s four-year totals are above what the council proposed. Additionally, he said that while she went after the council’s plans for spending, the budget she submitted was more than $1 billion over the Fiscal Year 2024 budget.
“The final budget has fostered very little criticism from the community at-large. Only the mayor seems to still be upset.”
Pathway for Caesars, BetMGM mobile sports betting
Even though the budget was returned unsigned, mobile sports betting in DC is still expected to expand.
Bowser’s unwillingness to sign is not a deal-breaker. It’s more of a demonstration. Provisions of the budget can still take effect. Because of that, it’s expected that DC residents should be able to use their Caesars and BetMGM apps soon. The same goes for FanDuel.
Caesars has a brick-and-mortar sportsbook inside Capital One Areana. BetMGM has a retail sportsbook, too, at Nationals Park.
And technically, both operators do have a mobile sports betting presence in DC. But bettors can only wager on their apps within a two-block radius of the brick-and-mortar locations.
Still, DC residents have some exposure to the operators, a major plus for both Caesars and BetMGM as they expand their online sportsbooks across all of DC.
FanDuel not accepting wagers at this time
The only operator offering online sports betting across the entire DC area, FanDuel, is not accepting mobile bets due to the mayor’s action.
FanDuel notified its DC customers this week with a note labeled: “Wagering Suspended Momentarily!”
“We have temporarily disabled wagering until district-wide mobile sports wagering is re-authorized – we hope to be back soon! Depositing and withdrawals are still available during this time.”
Again, it’s expected that FanDuel customers will soon be able to resume wagering.
In April, FanDuel gained exclusive access to the district-wide online sports betting market. Before that, Gambet D.C. was the only option for customers looking to place a mobile sports wager away from the sports venues.
Players in DC wagered roughly $30 million in FanDuel’s first month, which resulted in about $5 million in gross gaming revenue.
