When Washington, D.C. passed a law allowing intra-district online gambling, it was heralded as a success by the gambling community. After all, D.C. became the first jurisdiction in the United States to regulate online gambling. Though the market is not yet up and running, it is already becoming more controversial.

Michael A. Brown was the District Councilmember most responsible for passage of the gambling legislation. He pushed hard for it last year and eventually had the council include the gambling amendment in a supplemental budget bill. The bill passed last December and the time period for the federal government to strike it down expired, but since then, more information about Mr. Brown has come out.

The Washington Post took a break from their usual regurgitation of liberal talking points to do some investigative reporting. They found that at the time he was pushing the bill and at the time it was passed, Brown was employed by a group called Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge. The international law firm represents a number of companies in the gambling industry, including casino owners and companies that provide gaming equipment. As someone with a client base of gambling companies, his work on the online poker bill could be seen as a conflict of interest.

Brown says he worked as a lobbyist for Edwards Angell and lobbied Congress for various causes beneficial to his clients. However, he never registered as a lobbyist in Washington. Add that to the secrecy surrounding the bill – that then-Mayor Adrian Fenty was not consulted and there was no public debate – and the controversy surrounding the bill is continuing to pick up steam.

Tags: gambling legislation, gambling regulation, Washington D.C. online gambling

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 8th, 2011 at 11:57 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.