BENSALEM, Pa. -- Philadelphia Park opened southeastern Pennsylvania's first slot-machine parlor and the second statewide yesterday, attracting gamblers who said they were happy for a local alternative to the casinos in Atlantic City, N.J.

Hundreds of people poured in when the doors opened shortly after 11:30 a.m. and began stuffing bills into the machines, and the casino enjoyed a brisk business in its first hours of operation.

Ines Beiez, a North Philadelphia woman who was one of the first to sit down at a machine, said Philadelphia Park would become her gambling destination of choice.

Although she was a frequent patron of Atlantic City and the Delaware Park casino in Delaware, "I'm coming here now,'' Ms. Beiez said as she played Hot Hot Super Jackpot, a nickel machine. "It's closer to my house.''

The racetrack -- home of champion horse Smarty Jones -- features a gambling hall with more than 2,100 slot machines, a bar and buffet about 20 miles north of downtown Philadelphia. It is larger than Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs, a racetrack casino near Wilkes-Barre that opened last month with 1,000 fewer machines.

Philadelphia Park officials anticipate that slots revenue will increase the size of purses at the track, attracting bigger bets and better horses, if not the next Smarty Jones, who won the 2004 Kentucky Derby and Preakness.

In an effort to reverse the horse racing industry's long decline in Pennsylvania, the state's 2004 slot-machine law virtually guaranteed slots licenses to racetracks. As part of the law, the racetracks will receive 9 percent of slots revenues for racing purses, an incentive that is already attracting breeders to Pennsylvania.

Philadelphia Park and the state's five other racetracks have received conditional slots licenses over the past three months and are expected to be granted permanent licenses from gambling regulators today. Harrah's Entertainment Inc.'s Chester Casino and Racetrack, south of Philadelphia, is scheduled to open its slots parlor in January.

Dave Jonas, president and chief operating officer of Philadelphia Park, said yesterday marked the opening of a strong gaming market in Philadelphia. The city is slated to get two standalone casinos in addition to Philadelphia Park, which is just outside city limits.

But some gamblers who headed to Philadelphia Park said they wouldn't stop going to the Jersey Shore.

"There's entertainment and other things to do in Atlantic City. You don't have to gamble all the time,'' said Mary Becker, of Abington, who plans to gamble in Bensalem only during the winter months.

Vince Lodise, of Bensalem, also said he would continue going to Atlantic City because the casinos there offer complimentary rooms and meals. "We get a free hotel room, gamble a little bit and eat for free. You can't beat that,'' he said.

Mr. Jonas said Philadelphia won't have to compete with Atlantic City for gamblers because the city's casinos will expand the market for gambling, not cannibalize it. "There is more gaming demand than there is supply right now,'' he said. "The pie will get bigger.''

He noted there are more than 450 acres ready for development at his site, and said that planning is under way for hotel, entertainment and retail space that will allow Philadelphia Park to become a full-service destination.

"The opportunities here are pretty limitless,'' he said.