HARRISBURG -- State legislators pushing slot machine legislation are putting their faith in Pittsburgh's Sports & Exhibition Authority.

Rather than directing that slot machine revenue go toward Pittsburgh's convention center, as an earlier version had done, the slots bill nearing a Senate vote tonight will leave that decision up to the city-county sports authority, Sen. Robert Tomlinson, R-Bucks, said yesterday.

That means that slots money could still be used for a new hockey arena as requested by the Pittsburgh Penguins if the authority board, whose members are named by Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato and Mayor Tom Murphy, decides to do so.

If approved by the Senate and House this week and signed by Gov. Ed Rendell, the slots bill would allow for 12 casinos -- at horse racing tracks and at standalone sites -- around the state, each with up to 5,000 slot machines, plus two smaller "resort" casinos, each with up to 500 slots.

Rendell has said the slots bill would provide up to $1 billion a year for school property tax relief. The bill also would create a new statewide economic development fund of up to $2 billion.

Some Senate Democrats had been seeking as much as $404 million from that fund for Allegheny County projects.

They had listed some specific priorities, such as $44 million to help finance a new convention center hotel, $20 million to defray the convention center's annual deficit, another $20 million to finish construction of the convention center, $80 million for infrastructure needs in smaller Allegheny County towns, $60 million to retire the debt of the Pittsburgh Development Fund, and a slim possibility of funds for a new hockey arena in Pittsburgh.

But after meeting yesterday morning with Sen. Vincent Fumo, D.-Phila., the other principal slots backers, and House leaders, Tomlinson said the slots bill will contain just three specific targets for funding.

One is expansion of the convention center in Philadelphia, which could get up to $700 million from the development fund; another is providing up to $150 million to reduce the outstanding debt at Pittsburgh International Airport.

The third allocation will be an unspecified amount for the Sports & Exhibition Authority. The authority owns the new convention center as well as 43-year-old Mellon Arena and the new baseball and football stadiums on the North Shore.

The state Department of Community and Economic Development will decide exactly how much goes to the three specified targets, Tomlinson said. The agency also will decide on smaller amounts of funding for projects in the other 65 counties.

A draft of the slots legislation, which could be amended further, does call for three potential other local uses for money from the $2 billion fund. No sums were specified, but the uses included development projects in small towns in Allegheny County, payments for the city of Pittsburgh's retirement fund and payments for Allegheny County's retirement fund.

Tomlinson said that even if the slots bill becomes law next month, it will take at least a year to name a casino commission, award slots licenses to the 14 facilities and build the gambling facilities that will generate money for the operators and the state. That means the money for the Philadelphia convention center, the Pittsburgh airport and the authority won't become available for some time, he said.

Meanwhile, legislators who oppose slots say they aren't giving up the fight, even though the Senate is expected to approve the bill tonight and the House as early as tomorrow.

Sen. Gibson Armstrong, R-Lancaster, said he'll try to amend the bill to auction off the 14 slots licenses to the highest bidder rather than award them for a flat one-time fee. Armstrong is a slots opponent but said the state should get as much as possible for the valuable licenses rather than just $50 million per license at each of the 12 large casinos and $5 million for each of the two resort casinos.

Tomlinson is confident he has a majority of votes in the 50-member Senate to defeat such an amendment and approve the bill.

In the House, Rep. Paul Clymer, R-Bucks, a strong opponent of slots, said he, too, will try to amend the bill to require auctions of slots licenses. Also, Clymer will try to slap a $100 yearly fee on every slot machine that comes to Pennsylvania -- there could be as many as 61,000 -- as a way to raise money for treatment of gambling addictions.

Currently, Tomlinson's bill provides $1.5 million a year for such treatment, but Clymer said that wasn't nearly enough for all the problem gamblers that will be created by the new slots bill.

This morning, a group of black legislators, mostly from Philadelphia, will hold a news conference at the Capitol to criticize a lack of action by state officials to ensure that sufficient numbers of black and other minority workers are hired at the new racetracks and casinos.

The legislative black caucus has three senators, all Democrats, and if those three were to vote against slots, the margin of victory for Tomlinson would be in question. Currently, all 21 Democrats in the Senate are expected to vote for slots, along with Tomlinson and five or six other Senate Republicans.

Rendell, a strong backer of slots, has vowed to make sure that racetrack and casino operators pay attention to the need to hire sufficient minorities.