Pa. lawmakers step up work to legalize table games

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — State legislators are stepping up debate over a bill to legalize table games such as poker and blackjack.

A Senate committee heard testimony today on a bill to legalize table games at the state’s slot-machine casinos.

Legalization appears to be just a matter of time. That’s because most legislative leaders and Gov. Ed Rendell support using revenue from table games to help close a massive, recession-driven budget shortfall.

Major issues on which Republicans and Democrats disagree include how high the state should set the tax rate on the revenue.

Legislators say the legalization of table games will be packaged with other changes to the five-year-old law that legalized slot machines.

Those changes are designed to thicken the walls between Pennsylvania’s gambling industry and public officials who regulate it.