D.C. appeals court rejects suit against Intralot's sports betting contract 

Dylan Carragher, a Washington D.C. resident who brought legal proceedings the city over the $215 million contract granted to gaming firm Intralot has lost his appeal.

Carragher argued in his lawsuit first filed in September 2019 that the sole-source contract to manage the District's sports betting operation violated the federal Home Rule Act and the D.C. Procurement Practice Reform Act of 2010 in bypassing the procurement process, the Washington Business Journal reports.

A D.C. Superior Court judge issued a restraining order on the contract a few days after the lawsuit was filed, only for another judge to strike down a request for a preliminary injunction the next month, finding the District was within its purview to hand Greek gaming firm Intralot the deal.

Carragher and his attorney, Donald Temple, subsequently filed an appeal. The D.C. Court of Appeals ruled Oct. 22 that Carragher lacked standing to even bring forward the lawsuit. It remanded the case to the D.C. Superior Court "with instructions that it dismiss the suit for lack of standing."

Carragher argued he had "competitor standing" since he created a web application for esports and sports wagering that could have been selected through a competitive procurement and he had "municipal taxpayer standing" because he's a D.C. resident.

The harm Carragher alleged was his frustrated desire to launch his own "online sports betting platform designed to compete in D.C.’s sports wagering marketplace," the appeals court said in its opinion. But he "has not suffered any injury traceable to the illegality he alleges," the court found, as "that marketplace does not exist."

"Nor would one have emerged in the event the District accepted competitive bids for awarding a contract to operate its own platform," the court wrote.

Carragher argued the District could have generated more revenue had it opened the contract to competitive bids, which justifies his injury on the grounds of taxpayer standing. But the court also sided with the District on this matter, citing its previous rulings in similar cases.

"We held that failure to generate tax revenue did not give rise to municipal taxpayer standing," the court found, "because it involved no 'misuse or misappropriation of' municipal taxes, so that the plaintiff’s suit intruded 'into the political issues of revenue collection.' So too here."

Temple believes the court was premature in its ruling that taxpayer dollars were not used for the lottery contract. He said the record was undeveloped because both parties agreed to approach the substantive issues and standing was not litigated.

"The only thread of public accountability has been cut," Temple said in an email. "Sadly, the government is sanctioning this behavior. We are carefully pondering our options."

The Office of Lottery and Gaming continued its bumpy rollout of sports betting even as the appeal process rolled on. In-person sports betting at lottery retailers was delayed until the summer of 2021, and initial reviews of the Lottery's sports betting application, GambetDC, found difficulties depositing money, spotty geolocation and poor design.

"The Lottery is committed to maximizing revenue generated for the District through the responsible management and sale of innovative and entertaining game offerings," a Lottery spokesperson said in an email. "We are pleased with the judge's decision and are fully focused on implementing the programs and initiatives under the contract. GambetDC is steadily generating revenue for the critical services and we expect those funds to continue to increase."