Only two days after the Super Bowl—one of the most lucrative days for legal and illegal wagering—the D.C. Council took a first step towards ensuring that residents and visitors will be able to legally cast bets on the next big game.

The Council on Tuesday initially approved a bill that gives Intralot, the current operator of the D.C. Lottery, a sole-source contract to continue selling lottery tickets. The bill also gives the Greek company the authority to be the sole operator of a mobile sports betting platform in the city, which would allow residents and visitors to cast bets on games from the comfort of their home or hotel room.

By advancing the bill, D.C. comes closer to joining the handful of states who rushed to legalize sports betting after the Supreme Court tossed out a federal ban last May.

Proponents of the fast-track plan, including Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey DeWitt, say that Intralot, whose contract expires next year, has done a good job operating the D.C. Lottery, and for D.C. to jump in front of its neighbors in implementing sports betting, the city should skip the time-consuming competitive bidding process for a new lottery contract.

“The advantages are to move sports betting ahead so we can get in place ahead of Maryland and Virginia and to benefit from the funds that will be inured to the District,” said Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans.

Both Maryland and Virginia are considering sports betting legislation during their respective legislative sessions.

According an analysis from the CFO, legal sports betting is expected to bring in $90 million worth of revenue over its first four years, the majority of which would be split between violence-prevention and early-education programs. Another analysis commissioned by the D.C. Lottery said that a competitive bidding process for the lottery contract—including sports betting—could take more than two years and risk $60 million of the estimated revenue.

But opponents of the plan have warned that sole-sourcing the lucrative lottery contract could put at risk the city’s competitive procurement process and leave taxpayers paying more for the lottery contract than if it had been competitively bid.

“I share our chief financial officer’s desire to get sports betting up and running as quickly as possible because we can benefit from that additional revenue. But I still think we need to have a lottery contract process, especially in light of what happened with the lottery last time, that our residents actually have confidence in. We are rushing this process unnecessarily,” said At-large Councilmember Elissa Silverman.

She was referring to the lottery contract process a decade ago that spawned accusations of misdeeds and corruption. But city officials say that Intralot has proven to be an effective operator of the D.C. Lottery, and asked that lawmakers trust DeWitt’s judgement on how best to implement sports betting quickly.

The bill that passed last year to legalize sports betting would allow for physical wagering locations, both within the city’s arenas and stadiums and in other brick-and-mortar establishments like bars and restaurants. (No other sports gambling facility could be within two blocks of a stadium or arena, though.)

Private operators could allow visitors to use an app to place a bet within their facility, but only the D.C. Lottery will be able to operate a sports betting app that works anywhere in the city. Some of the professional sports leagues had urged the Council to allow multiple operators for app-based sports betting platforms, but DeWitt said a monopoly for the D.C. Lottery to do would bring in the most revenue.

City officials say that with the ability to sole-source the lottery contract to Intralot, sports betting could become a reality as soon as this fall. The bill approved on Tuesday still requires a second and final vote; Mayor Muriel Bowser has said she supports the measure.

Along with Silverman, dissent to the bill on Tuesday came from Ward 1’s Brianne Nadeau, Ward 5’s Kenyan McDuffie, Ward 8’s Trayon White, and at-large councilmembers Robert White and David Grosso .

“I fail to understand the emergency needed to bring sports wagering to the District faster in order to take money from the poor in the name of expanding the District’s financial portfolio,” said Grosso. “And I fail to understand why this cannot be competitively bid through our traditional procurement process.”

This story was originally published on WAMU.