Legal and genuinely competitive. Six apps now operate anywhere in the District — FanDuel, BetMGM, Caesars, DraftKings, Fanatics and theScore Bet — after the city scrapped a lottery-run monopoly. You have to be physically inside DC, which the apps check by GPS.
Legal, and built into the stadiums. Caesars runs the sportsbook at Capital One Arena, BetMGM at Nationals Park, FanDuel at Audi Field and DraftKings at Northwest Stadium, with Caesars kiosks in bars and restaurants around the District.
Legal since 1982, and online since 2021 — DC iLottery lets you play Powerball, Mega Millions and instant games from your phone at 18 and over. That makes the District one of a minority of US jurisdictions selling lottery games online.
There are none in the District — no commercial casino, no tribal casino, no card room. DC law makes it a crime to keep a gambling premises. The casinos Washingtonians actually visit are just over the line in Maryland, chiefly MGM National Harbor and Live! Casino.
No poker room exists in the District, and there’s no charitable-poker route either. Running a game for profit is a serious offence under DC law, carrying up to five years. For a live table, players cross into Maryland.
Not legal — the 2018 law that brought sports betting to DC didn’t cover casino games. But this is the live question in the District right now: a bill introduced in April 2026 would license online slots, table games and poker at 21 and over, taxed at 25% of revenue. It had a public hearing in May and has not passed.
Available, but never formally addressed. The District has no fantasy-sports statute either allowing or banning it, and DraftKings and FanDuel both serve DC players. Treat it as tolerated rather than regulated.
A gray area with a target on it. No DC law currently bans sweepstakes casinos — but the same 2026 bill that would legalise online casinos would also outlaw them outright, defining sweepstakes gaming broadly enough to catch the dual-currency model.
Councilmember Wendell Felder introduced the Internet Gaming and Consumer Protection Act in April, which would license online slots, table games and poker at 21 and over, charge 2 million dollars for a five-year licence and tax revenue at 25% — while banning sweepstakes casinos outright. A public hearing followed in May; it has not passed.
FanDuel replaced the failed city app in April 2024. BetMGM, Caesars and DraftKings went district-wide that July, Fanatics followed in September, and ESPN BET arrived in January 2025 before rebranding to theScore Bet — turning a monopoly into a six-app market.
The District launched betting through a lottery-run app operated by Intralot. It was widely criticised for poor odds and underwhelming revenue, and rival apps were fenced into a two-block radius around their partner venues. The city eventually abandoned the model.
Mayor Muriel Bowser signed the Sports Wagering Lottery Amendment Act of 2018, which took effect that year and put sports betting under the Office of Lottery and Gaming rather than a new regulator.
The DC Lottery began in 1982. Nearly four decades later, in 2021, it moved online — DC iLottery brought draw and instant games to phones and desktops for players 18 and over.
The District is a genuinely unusual gambling jurisdiction — a city rather than a state, wedged between two states with completely different rules, and small enough that you can walk out of it. On sports betting it has ended up in a good place: six apps now work anywhere in DC — FanDuel, BetMGM, Caesars, DraftKings, Fanatics and theScore Bet. On casino games, it hasn’t arrived yet.
There is no legal online casino or online poker in Washington DC. The 2018 law that authorised sports betting simply didn’t cover casino gaming, so slots, table games and poker were never licensed. That is now the live debate in the District: in April 2026, Councilmember Wendell Felder introduced the Internet Gaming and Consumer Protection Act, which would license online slots, table games and poker for players 21 and over, regulated by the Office of Lottery and Gaming — with a two-million-dollar, five-year licence and a 25% tax on revenue. It would also ban sweepstakes casinos outright. It had a public hearing in May 2026 and has not passed, so nothing has changed yet.
How DC got its current sports market is worth knowing, because it’s a cautionary tale other jurisdictions cite. The District first launched betting through GambetDC, a lottery-run app operated by Intralot, while fencing the big commercial books into a two-block radius around their partner venues. Bettors complained the odds were worse than elsewhere, revenue disappointed, and in April 2024 the city replaced the app with FanDuel — then opened the market to everyone else. It’s one of the few places where a lottery monopoly was tried, judged a failure, and reversed.
One quirk worth flagging: the District’s legal minimum betting age is 18, lower than the 21 used by neighbouring Maryland and Virginia — but some operators, including BetMGM and Caesars, still require you to be 21, so the practical age depends on the app. And because DC has no casino of its own, the casino floors and poker rooms Washingtonians use are across the district line: MGM National Harbor and Live! in Maryland. For legal online casino games today, licensed markets like Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Michigan are what DC’s pending bill is modelled on.
The practical reality: In DC you can bet sports on six apps anywhere in the District and play the lottery online at 18. You cannot legally play online casino games or poker — a 2026 Council bill would change that and ban sweepstakes at the same time, but it hasn’t passed. There’s no casino or poker room inside the District; those are in Maryland.
Six betting apps inside the District, and a short drive across the line for an actual casino.
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Solid all-rounder — poker + sports + casino with the best card deposit rates
Strong casino library with 500+ games, fast crypto, but no poker room
Good casino, no poker — best for slots and blackjack variety
Solid all-rounder — poker + sports + casino with the best card deposit rates
Subscription sweepstakes poker from the official WPT — novel legal structure, thin games.
Solid all-rounder — poker + sports + casino with the best card deposit rates
Polished app and strong brand, but thin video poker, no 24/7 support, and state-variable game counts hold it back from the top tier.
Slickest casino app in US regulated gaming on the surface — but Trustpilot sits at 1.2/5 on consistent complaints about slow withdrawals, poor support, and bet-grading disputes.
The District has no casinos at all — no commercial casino, no tribal casino, no racino, no card room. It is 68 square miles of city with no casino floor anywhere in it, and DC law makes keeping a gambling premises a criminal offence carrying up to five years.
That has never really been the constraint people assume, though, because of geography. Washingtonians live minutes from two different state gambling regimes. Maryland has the casinos: MGM National Harbor, just across the Potomac in Oxon Hill, and Live! Casino in Hanover, both with full floors and real poker rooms. Virginia sits on the other side with its own newer casino market. In practice the District functions as a city whose casino district happens to be in another jurisdiction.
What DC does have is an unusually mature online market for its size — six sportsbooks and an online lottery — and a Council now weighing whether to add online casino gaming to it. If the 2026 bill passes, the District would license internet slots, table games and poker under the Office of Lottery and Gaming, which would make DC one of a small group of US jurisdictions with legal online poker, without ever having had a poker room on the ground. Until then, a live game means crossing into Maryland.
The Office of Lottery and Gaming licenses every sportsbook operating in the District and runs DC iLottery, with geolocation checks, age verification and published responsible-gaming resources.
The District runs a voluntary self-exclusion program through the Office's Responsible Gambling Specialist, who takes appointments directly — an unusually personal setup compared with most states' online-only forms.
No DC protection. Online casinos, poker rooms and sweepstakes sites are unlicensed in the District — no fund segregation, no dispute process, no recourse. A pending 2026 bill would license the first two and ban the third.
Our guidance: DC’s sportsbooks and online lottery are licensed by the Office of Lottery and Gaming, which also runs a self-exclusion program with a dedicated specialist you can book an appointment with. There is no legal online casino or poker in the District yet, so anything of that kind means an unlicensed offshore site with no local recourse. Note too that the District’s minimum age is 18 while some apps require 21 — check before you deposit.
The District's Office of Lottery and Gaming publishes help resources and staffs a responsible-gambling specialist. If gambling stops being fun — or you're chasing losses — free, confidential support is available 24/7.
Primary sources cited throughout this guide.
