“Long-term economic growth”
After trying and failing just a few months ago, Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser is giving the legalization of poker in the District another go. On Tuesday, the Executive Office of the Mayor issued a press release previewing legislation included in what she calls her “Growth Agenda,” one of which would make both poker and blackjack legal.
While poker was not explicitly addressed in her comments, the Mayor said, in part, “With tools like the Vitality and Growth Funds and legislation that removes barriers to doing business, we’re creating the conditions for long-term economic growth right here in the District.”
There are no casinos in Washington, D.C., though there are some in neighboring Maryland. Mayor Bowser sees poker and blackjack tournaments, even without full-fledged casino gambling, as a way to create jobs and raise tax revenue to begin to fill the billion-dollar hole in the District’s budget.
Interestingly, Bowser and her team do not have any projections of how much revenue poker tournaments could bring in. At a Tuesday press conference, she said the idea of such tournaments is “so novel” that D.C.’s CFO hasn’t come up with any estimate yet.
“….the revenue projections really depend on how many events we host,” Deputy Mayor Nina Albert elaborated. “So, we’re still sort of formulating what the plan would be. But even if we had just one or two marquee national tournaments here, that is another attraction that brings both national and international visitors to D.C., which is always the platform we wanted to create for our entertainment ecosystem.”
Second try
Bowser originally introduced the Poker and Blackjack Gaming Authorization Act of 2025 in May when she presented D.C.’s $21.8 billion budget for the 2026 fiscal year, but it did not make it to the finish line.
The Act would legalize poker and blackjack, putting them under the authority of the Office of Lottery and Gaming (OLG). Licenses would be fairly inexpensive: $5,000 application fee and $2,000 per location, with a flat renewal fee of $1,500 plus $500 for each location. Gross gaming revenue would be taxed at 25 percent.
Unlike most non-tribal gambling venues in the United States, where the legal gambling age is 21, the minimum age to gamble at licensed locations would be just 18.
While Mayor Bowser said her office did not have any revenue projections, it does estimate the Act would incur total expenses of just over $1 million from 2026 through 2029.
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