The city council in Washington, D.C. has applied the brakes to its sports gambling legislation. The council decided yesterday to postpone a decision on a measure to allow competitive bidding for management of the city’s expansion into sports bets. It explained that it wants to give the community more time to provide feedback on the issue before making its ruling.

The concern centers on the possibility that the council would choose an entity to manage the activity, instead of letting companies bid for the rights to the contract. Typically in the U.S., any government contract has to be open to bidding in an effort to ensure that there isn’t any shady or under-the-table deals made.

According to the council member for D.C.’s Ward 3, Mary M. Cheh, “We would lose some months … [but] we would at least have it out there in the open and have a hearing.” Her position was supported by Ward 1’s representative, Brianne K. Nadeau, who said that it would be a bad idea to handle any sports gambling proposal as an emergency bill that doesn’t require a public hearing. She asserted, “I’ve just not seen anyone demonstrate that this is an emergency situation.”

D.C. officials approved sports gambling last month. In doing so, it became the first jurisdiction in the Washington area to give the green light to the activity. It is now joined by seven other jurisdictions, in addition to Nevada, to allow gambling on professional sports games. Two other areas tied to Washington – Maryland and Virginia – have not yet approved their entrance into the industry, which means D.C. will be the first to make the cash grab.