HARRISBURG -- Now that the state Supreme Court has upheld Pennsylvania's slot machine law, the Gaming Control Board has put its hiring efforts into high gear. Two top positions were filled yesterday.

	Biographies Anne L. Neeb Age: 49 Title: Executive director, Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. Work History: Served as director, Louisiana Gaming Control Board, since 2004; worked in Gaming Division of Louisiana attorney general's office, 1996-2004; private practice lawyer in New Orleans, 1991-1995; deputy disciplinary counsel for state bar association, 1985-1990; worked in Orleans Parish district attorney's office, 1981-1985 Education: Bachelor's degree in psychology, Loyola University, New Orleans, 1978; law degree, Loyola University Law School, 1982 Family: Husband, David, a lawyer; two children, Michael and Matthew David J. Kwait Age: 62 Title: Director, Bureau of Investigations and Enforcement for Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board Work History: Served with FBI, 1966-1996, working in New Orleans, Chicago, Washington and Pittsburgh; was manager of the Office of Municipal Investigations in Pittsburgh, 1996-1997; worked in Pennsylvania attorney general's office, 1997-2005 Education: Bachelor's degree in French, Duquesne University, 1964; Defense Language Institute, California, 1965 Family: Wife, Diana; five grown children

Anne L. Neeb, 49, director of the Louisiana Gaming Control Board for the past two years, was hired for the top state post, executive director.

Neeb, a New Orleans native, had worked for 10 years in the Louisiana attorney general's office, helping to regulate that state's 14 riverboat casinos, three racetrack/casinos and one land-based casino.

She will direct a staff that eventually is to number about 130, and will head up the process of developing regulations to license 14 slots casinos in Pennsylvania. Neeb's salary will be $180,000.

She said she was excited about helping get the state's young slots gaming industry off the ground.

"Pennsylvania has an opportunity to revitalize its horse-racing industry [by using revenue from slots], help its economic situation and bring about tax relief," she said.

Another major executive hired yesterday was David J. Kwait, who has spent 40 years in law enforcement, including 30 years in the FBI and 10 years with the state attorney general's office.

He will run the Bureau of Investigations and Enforcement, which will do background checks on casino companies, gambling executives and officials of non-gaming companies that will operate at casinos.

Kwait, 62, has been chief of criminal investigations for the Pennsylvania attorney general. His salary at the gaming board will be $140,000.

The executive director and director of licensing and enforcement are two of the top three jobs at the Gaming Control Board. The third is the chief counsel, who hasn't been hired yet, but three members of the counsel's staff were to be hired today.

They are Nanette Horner, a gaming law specialist at an Atlantic City, N.J., law firm; Michael Schwoyer, director of the state House Judiciary Committee since 2001; and Lisa McClain, a graduate of Chatham College and the University of Pittsburgh law school, who has been assistant counsel at the Pennsylvania Judicial Conduct board. She also is a former Neighborhood Legal Services lawyer in Pittsburgh.

Gaming board Chairman Thomas "Tad" Decker said the board will be moving expeditiously to implement the July 2004 gaming law now that the state Supreme Court has upheld it.

He stuck to a previous forecast that gaming licenses for the first seven establishments -- all racetrack/casinos -- could be issued by late 2006 or early 2007, once more staff members are hired and background checks are completed. Those checks still have to be done on the five people hired, Decker said, but he's confident no problems will be found.

Decker said "hundreds" of potential candidates for Neeb's job were considered, with about a dozen having formal interviews. It came down to Neeb and one other person, who wasn't identified.

Because of her experience in Louisiana, which has had legalized gambling for about 15 years, Neeb was the ideal choice, said Decker and other gaming board members. Besides running the Louisiana gaming board and working in that state's attorney general's office, she also worked in the 1980s for the New Orleans district attorney.

Unlike Pennsylvania, Louisiana uses its attorney general to look into the backgrounds of gaming operators, along with that state's gaming board and its state police.

While Louisiana had some alleged corruption with its casinos, especially in the early 1990s under then-Gov. Edwin Edwards, Neeb said those problems pre-dated her service with the attorney general's office and are now long gone.

"Louisiana has improved dramatically in gaming regulation over the last few years," she said.

Decker said the board's "top priority is in ensuring the integrity of gaming in Pennsylvania, and Anne and David will help us do that. David will be our top law enforcement person. He will make us a leader in gaming integrity."

Kenneth McCabe, the former FBI supervisor in Pittsburgh and a gaming board member, said that as an FBI agent, he had worked with Kwait when he was in the attorney general's office.