Cautiously, Rendell inks gaming bill

HARRISBURG - Pennsylvania legalized poker, blackjack and other table games at slots casinos yesterday, upping the ante in the increasingly fierce competition among states for gamblers' money.

Gov. Rendell, whose signature was the last step in the protracted process of passing the law, said that he had misgivings about expanded gambling, partly because not all of the 14 casinos authorized by the 2004 law that legalized slot machine gambling are up and running.

He described the bill as "laden with WAMs and pork," a reference to the "walking-around money" grants that lawmakers direct toward favored projects.

"That's not a good way to run a railroad," Rendell said.

It may be more than six months before the first cards are dealt, but millions in license fees are expected to begin pouring into the state treasury much sooner.

The table-games bill was a critical component of the October deal that ended Pennsylvania's 101-day budget stalemate, largely because other means of raising tax revenues proved politically unpalatable.

The larger Pennsylvania casinos will qualify for up to 250 tables, while the two smaller resorts casinos will be limited to 50. A third resort can be added in 2017.