HARRISBURG -- "Drafting errors" by the state Senate have derailed, at least temporarily, two important bills -- one aimed at improving the 2004 slots law and another that would regulate lobbyists.

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The House voted 195-0 last night to restore a ban on political campaign contributions by racetrack slots applicants, a ban that the House claimed had been mistakenly removed by the Senate.

Later in the night, the House voted 194-1 to approve a new law that will require lobbyists to register with the state and report their spending to influence legislators.

The Senate version of the changes to the slots law, Senate Bill 862, would have permitted applicants for racetrack/casino licenses to make unlimited campaign contributions to state and local public officials, complained Rep. Kevin Blaum, D-Luzerne, who led the move to overturn what the Senate had done.

"This was a serious error in drafting the slots amendments," he told his colleagues. "We should put back the prohibition on campaign contributions from gaming interests. That will tell the public we are serious about maintaining the integrity of the gaming law.''

Mr. Blaum said House staffers, when analyzing the bill yesterday morning, discovered the Senate's error in drafting.

"The change made by the Senate would have looked real bad to the public," added Rep. Paul Clymer, R-Bucks.

Some House members rolled their eyes suspiciously when asked if they thought the Senate intentionally deleted the prohibition on contributions.

House members said they liked many of the Senate slots amendments, such as prohibiting elected officials from owning up to 1 percent of a casino, restoring local zoning authority over casinos, and giving the state attorney general power to investigate wrongdoing at casinos. But they said they couldn't let the slots bill go forward with the ban on contributions removed.

"We aren't trying to kill the slots amendments. We are trying to make them better," Mr. Clymer said. "We shouldn't make it easier for racetrack slots applicants to make political contributions that might influence the Gaming Control Board," which issues slots licenses.

"Shame on the Senate if they don't pass the corrected version [of the slots bill] that we send them,'' added Rep. Robert Freeman, D-Northampton.

Senate spokesman Erik Arneson issued a statement late yesterday saying he didn't think the Senate had made the mistake the House claimed.

The Senate bill, he contended, "does not allow any existing gaming-related entity -- applicant or licensee -- to make campaign contributions.''

Mr. Arneson said senators are "reviewing our options for future action" and could announce something today.

The House made another change to the Senate Bill 862. It approved an amendment by Rep. Dan Frankel, D-Squirrel Hill, to let municipalities ban smoking in casinos.

The Senate had done something similar on Monday but it used a different bill to permit the smoking bans.

Until yesterday, legislators had been hoping to leave town this week after sending two major bills to Gov. Ed Rendell for signature -- the slots amendments and a new lobbyist law.

But what were called "clerical mistakes,'' or errors in drafting both bills, will make it impossible to send either one to Mr. Rendell for signature for a few weeks.

The Senate recessed after approving its package of slots amendments early yesterday, and doesn't plan to return to session until Nov. 20-21.

House Majority Leader Sam Smith, R-Punxsutawney, warned his colleagues that upsetting the Senate might make it impossible to pass final amendments to the slots law before the current legislative session adjourns Nov. 30.

By amending the Senate's language, he said, "You are changing the dynamics in a way that I can't be responsible for."

Mr. Smith was one of the House negotiators who worked with senators on the slots amendments.

"Our efforts have been legitimate and straight up to get a good gaming bill,'' he said.

The slots bill wasn't the only piece of legislation where clerical or drafting errors were made.

Senate officials admitted yesterday that printing mistakes also occurred on the lobbyist registration and reporting bill.

The lobbyist registration and reporting law would go into effect on Jan. 1, 2007, as long as it wins another vote in the Senate next month and Mr. Rendell signs it, as he said he would.

The clerical errors on the lobbying law are "embarrassing," admitted Senate general counsel Stephen MacNett, "but we will still have a strong lobbyist regulation law in place on time.''

"This won't delay implementation of lobbyist disclosure [rules] by one nanosecond,'' added Mr. Arneson.

There is still plenty of time to take final action on the corrected lobbyist bill so that it can take effect Jan. 1, Mr. MacNett said.

The lobbyist bill was discussed in closed political caucuses Monday and not voted on by the Senate until the early morning hours of yesterday.

Tim Potts of Democracy Rising PA, a citizens group often at odds with the Legislature, criticized the bill as being "created in secret and debated in the middle of the night.''

Mr. MacNett said the technical errors didn't result from the late-night drafting.

"This could have just as easily happened at 2 p.m. as at 2 a.m.," he said.

The errors concerned whether the secretary of state, rather than a lawyer in the governor's office, would sit on a panel to implement the law (it's the former); whether the state sales tax would be expanded to lobbyists' activities (it won't); and whether the names of anyone, including lobbyists, who ride on official state planes must be disclosed (they must).

Mr. MacNett and Mr. Arneson said there was absolutely no effort to "sabotage'' the lobbyist regulation bill by inserting clerical mistakes.

"That's nonsense. It's not sabotage. It's just an error,'' said Mr. Arneson, adding he was as much to blame as anyone by failing to catch the misprints, which were part of an earlier version of the bill but were supposed to be changed before the Senate voted on it.

Mr. MacNett said he was disclosing the clerical errors now so that opponents of the lobbying bill couldn't use them as legal grounds to challenge it.

The bill requires hundreds of special-interest lobbyists, who wine and dine lawmakers in attempts to have them vote certain ways on bills, to register with the state annually and report their spending on lobbying every three months.

If they spend more than $250 a year on gifts for any one legislator -- or if they spend more than $650 a year on hotels, travel, food or entertainment for one legislator -- that legislator's name must be listed.

Pennsylvania is the only state without a lobbyist regulation law, and state government critics have been urging the Legislature for three years to enact one.

Some critics continued to say that the new law doesn't go far enough in curbing the influence of special interests.

Some advocates wanted to lower the $650-a-year threshold on spending on legislators, or completely prohibit lobbyists from paying for any gifts, meals, transportation and entertainment for legislators.

Mr. Potts of Democracy Rising called the lobbyist law "a miserable failure at providing the level of integrity that citizens want from their government.''