If all goes well, Washington D.C. could become the first place in the country to offer regulated online poker, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal on Friday.

Despite murky waters created by the federal government’s Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), the district’s city council approved a budget in 2010 to allow its lottery system to offer internet poker to residents. According to the article, the window for Congress to nix the bill has likely been closed.

With about 600,000 people within Washington D.C., the district’s lottery could have a online poker chip set system, albeit small in scope, within its boundaries by 2012, leap frogging other efforts across the country to legalize and regulate internet card playing. Online poker bills are still being debated and worked on in New Jersey, Iowa, California, Hawaii, and Nevada.