Intralot to Pay $6.5 Million to Settle Washington DC Sports Betting Fraud Case
Posted on: January 14, 2025, 02:03h.
Last updated on: January 14, 2025, 02:18h.
Greek gambling giant Intralot and its Washington DC sports betting subcontractor have agreed to pay $6.5 million to the DC Office of the Attorney General to settle allegations of fraud. The payment isn’t an admission of guilt, according to settlement documents, and the two companies deny any wrongdoing.

Intralot was awarded the District’s sole sports betting tender in 2019. Because companies with large public contracts are required to subcontract work to small local businesses to boost the economy and create jobs in DC, Intralot partnered with a local company called Veterans Services Corp (VSC).
Shell Company
VSC is operated by Emmanuel Bailey, a businessman who lives and works in Maryland. VSC qualified as a “local” company because it was registered at Bailey’s 75-year-old mother’s house in DC, who is listed as its majority shareholder, the Washington Post discovered at the time. The company had no employees apart from Bailey and his mother.
Under the terms of the $215 million, no-bid contract, VSC was supposed to do the lion’s share of the work, for which it would receive 51% of sports betting revenues from Intralot. However, this was not the case.
After securing the contract, Intralot and VSC teamed up under this covert agreement to obtain millions of dollars from the District under false pretenses, misrepresenting that VSC performed work that Intralot’s subsidiary actually did and that VSC received a majority of the compensation despite funneling much of it back to Intralot,” the Attorney General’s Office said.
Intralot offered a “high hold” sports betting model which promised the DC Council high percentage returns, but it ultimately proved to be uncompetitive. “Hold” refers to the percentage of bets the operator keeps after winning bets are paid out.
Stingy Odds
While a high hold might yield a greater percentage for the District, it was only sustainable by offering some of the stingiest odds in America.
Intralot’s sports betting app, GamBetDC, was over-juiced and lacked a competitive edge over its neighbors in Virginia and Maryland.
After three years of poor performance, GamBetDC was replaced by FanDuel as a subcontractor to Intralot, which made an immediate impact on the District’s sports betting revenues.
This is a warning to any company that tries to manipulate and exploit District contracting laws, especially laws intended to build the capacity of the local businesses vital to our economy,” Attorney General Brian Schwalb said in a statement.
“Intralot and VSC’s sports betting deal was a sham from the start — an elaborate scheme to secure a lucrative, high-profile opportunity on a sole-source basis while circumventing the District’s small business contracting laws,” Schwalb added.
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