Residents and visitors could be casting legal wagers on sports in D.C. as soon as this fall, putting the city among the first adopters of sports betting in the country and far ahead of both Maryland and Virginia.

The D.C. Council approved sports betting late last year and on Tuesday, lawmakers passed a bill that will fast-track its implementation. The bill allows for skipping the competitive bidding process for a new lottery contract and allowing Intralot, the current operator of the D.C. Lottery, to become the sole provider of a sports betting app.

The speed with which sports betting has moved through the Wilson Building — the Supreme Court made it legal last May and a bill was introduced in the Council in September — is a reflection of city officials’ desire to beat Maryland and Virginia to the punch, and capitalize on the estimated $90 million in revenue expected from sports betting over the first four years of its existence.

D.C. Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey DeWitt had urged lawmakers to fast-track a new lottery contract for Intralot, telling them that putting the lucrative contract through the usual competitive bidding process could delay the arrival of sports betting by up to two years and leave the city with a fraction of the expected revenue.

“This will result in early revenue and maximize the ability of the District to be an early adopter of sports wagering,” said Council Chairman Phil Mendelson.

But opponents of DeWitt’s plan worried that by giving Intralot a sole-source contract, taxpayers could end up paying more than if the contract were bid competitively. They also raised doubts over the revenue estimates for sports betting, and questioned whether Intralot, a Greece-based company that runs lotteries in 12 states, is on stable financial ground.

“We’re voting on legislation that is a rush to tax the poor, a rush to skirt procurement rules, and a rush to retain a company that was recently downgraded by Moody’s to B3 status which is a speculative grade and considered a high credit risk,” said Council member David Grosso (I-At Large) on Tuesday.

With the final vote completed, negotiations are expected to begin between the city and Intralot as soon as Mayor Muriel Bowser signs the bill; a new contract could be finalized within two months. A final contract will then be submitted to the Council for approval. City officials say that unless there’s a major mishap along the way, sports betting could become a reality by the fall.

The bill passed by the Council late last year will allow sports betting within existing stadiums and arenas, and also within other brick-and-mortar facilities like bars and restaurants. There will be one caveat — those facilities can’t be within two blocks of any stadium or arena where sports betting occurs.

Sports betting will also be allowed via mobile apps, although the D.C. Lottery — operated by Intralot — will have the exclusive right to run an app that works across the city. Other apps provided by private operators will only be allowed within existing brick-and-mortar facilities. A number of the professional sports leagues, as well as sports betting websites like FanDuel and DraftKings, had pushed D.C. lawmakers to instead allow multiple citywide apps, but DeWitt argued that the city would take in the biggest share of revenue if the D.C. Lottery operated the only one.

There are currently eight states in the country where sports betting is legal — the closest to D.C. is Delaware — and more than a dozen states are currently considering legislation to implement sports betting. One of those is Maryland, where lawmakers are set to consider a bill next month that would allow sports betting in existing casinos. What remains to be seen is whether sports betting there would have to be approved by voters in a referendum.

Negotiations over a possible bill to legalize casinos and limited sports betting operations are ongoing in Virginia’s General Assembly, which wraps up its annual legislative session later this week.

Under D.C.’s bill, much of the city’s portion of the revenues from sports betting would be split between violence-prevention and early childhood education programs, both of which are widely supported on the Council.

But Grosso said Tuesday that the revenue from sports betting would not be as stable as boosters have claimed, and worried that its implementation would come at the expense of low-income residents and visitors.

“This is a bill that will rush to tax the poor,” he said.

This story originally appeared on WAMU.