Political posturing, ethics investigations, committee responsibilities, and revenue allocation. All these factors played into the D.C. Council’s 7-5 vote on Tuesday to approve a $215 million, five-year contract with Greek gaming company Intralot to operate the city’s lottery and develop a sports betting app. 

With the vote, Intralot — which currently operates the D.C. Lottery — will be responsible for standing up the region’s first online legal sports betting program and running the only citywide sports betting app. Physical venues for sports betting will operate separately, and are expected to open as early as this fall.

But the issue of sports betting itself was far from the discussion on the dais Tuesday.

The sole-source contract appeared headed for failure when the day started, as the Washington Post reported. Concerns cropped up after the Post reported that several of the subcontracts would benefit those with ties to the Wilson Building. About half of the Council had concerns and said they wanted to rebid the contract with a competitive bidding process. 

But Chairman Phil Mendelson urged the councilmembers to approve the contract to avoid a years-long delay if they reopen the bidding process.

“There will be a protest [of the contract], a lot of controversy, a lot of dispute and a lot delay,” Mendelson said. “And there is a significant cost to a delay of a couple years.”

Mendelson said D.C. could miss out on $17 million in estimated revenue in the next fiscal year.

“I can assure you there will be more contractors and more allegations of favoritism toward cronies. It will be inescapable. If you’re uncomfortable now, [you] will be far more uncomfortable then,” Mendelson said of a new contract process.

Ultimately, the contract was approved despite member pushback.

Residents will be able to legally bet on sports at arenas and other locations later this year. Intralot’s app — which residents and visitors to the city will be able to use to place bets — is not expected to be ready until next year.

Sports betting has been a topic of major focus for the Council, but it wasn’t the only big news out of Tuesday’s meeting. Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans was stripped of his chairmanship of the powerful finance and revenue committee.

Critics Outline Their ‘No’ Votes

Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh said the reasons to approve the deal — getting the jump on Virginia and Maryland — are now gone. Those states haven’t begun to setup a sports betting program, and the annual estimated revenue is now about $20 million instead of $35 million.

At-large Councilmmber Elissa Silverman questioned why big venues like Capital One Arena and Nationals Park would be the only players allowed to have sports betting venues within a two-block radius of the facilities. 

Other lawmakers even questioned embattled Councilmember Evans’ involvement with Intralot. A lobbyist for Intralot, William Jarvis, also helped Evans legally organize his consulting firm, NSE Consulting, that has been the center of a federal investigation and got Evans in hot water with the WMATA ethics committee.

Evans has said Jarvis only helped him organize and had no other involvement with NSE. But the Post found emails that said he was a primary point of contact for negotiating with NSE.

Many councilmembers called for Evans to recuse himself from the sports betting vote, but he did not. 

Long Backstory To Sports Betting

After a Supreme Court decision last year overturned a federal law that largely banned sports betting, states across the country lined up to set up their own legal programs and reap what they claimed would be significant amounts of revenue. D.C., looking to be first out of the gate in the region, leaped ahead of both Maryland and Virginia, quickly passing a bill allowing sports betting facilities to open in stadiums, arenas, bars, restaurants and other venues last December.

In order to secure the needed votes, Councilmember Evans made a deal with wavering colleagues: the revenue from sports betting would be used to fund the Birth-to-Three For All D.C Act and the NEAR Act, ambitious and expensive new programs to improve early childhood education and tackle violence, respectively. But the fine print showed only about $750,000 to each program.

Instead, the Council found extra money for the NEAR Act’s provisions, and also increased funding for Birth-to-3, although it fell short of what advocates wanted.

Ward 7 Councilmember Vincent Gray proposed an amendment Tuesday to designate that betting revenue directly to those programs, but he didn’t have the votes.

Mendelson called to rearrange the agenda to allow that vote to happen first. Some councilmembers accused Mendelson of getting Gray’s vote for the overall sports betting bill by moving up the vote on Gray’s resolution. Mendelson didn’t answer questions about those accusations, but when Silverman asked again, he said he was “offended.” Mendelson, however, did not deny it outright.

Gray said he will continue working into the fall to write legislation that specifies what he says was the Council’s intent all along: to dedicate half the sports betting revenue to Birth-to-3, the other half to the NEAR Act.

This story first appeared on WAMU.