West Virginia lawmakers who are pushing forward a bill to permit table games at racetracks have moved one step closer to one-upping Pennsylvania in competition for gamblers.

The table games measure cleared the West Virginia House of Delegates last week and advanced to the Senate, where it could come up for a vote within the next week or two. While the action in the House was the first time a proposal to expand beyond slot machines cleared that chamber, the Senate has passed a similar bill in a previous session.

Proponents and opponents of allowing blackjack, craps and roulette at Mountaineer Racetrack & Gaming Resort, Wheeling Island Racetrack and Gaming Center, and two other tracks said the launch of slots casinos in Pennsylvania is a major factor behind building momentum for the proposal.

West Virginia has largely enjoyed a regional monopoly, attracting Western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio gamblers to its slots-only racetrack casinos and producing $5.2 billion in revenue since 1995, but that is ending.

Presque Isle Downs plans to open its slots parlor in suburban Erie Feb. 28. The Meadows intends to open a temporary casino in Washington County in May, and PITG Gaming LLC hopes to have its Majestic Star Casino ready on the North Side in a little more than a year from now.

West Virginia officials predict a resulting decline in revenue from slot machines for both the tracks and government, and operators there want the table games added to offset or minimize the loss.

"They are certainly using that as a lever to sell the issue," said Raamie Barker, a spokesman for West Virginia Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin, a Logan County Democrat who supports the legislation.

"A lot of those opposed to it say, 'We don't want to have table games because it's bad for society,' but others turn around and say, 'If we don't do it, people are going to go to Pennsylvania.' "

The vast majority of gamblers at the two tracks in West Virginia's Northern Panhandle are from Pennsylvania and Ohio. Ohio voters rejected a statewide referendum last fall that would have enabled racetracks there to add slot machines.

Opponents of table games in West Virginia sought unsuccessfully to include a statewide referendum as part of the House-passed bill. Instead, only voters in the counties that host tracks -- Ohio, Hancock, Kanawha and Jefferson -- would be required to approve the table games before their local facility could add them.

Proponents are hoping the promise of several hundred new jobs for dealers and other personnel at each location will be a strong selling point.

The Rev. Dennis Sparks, executive director of the West Virginia Council of Churches which opposes gambling, acknowledged his side is an "underdog" to block the expansion, as table games don't seem to be drawing the same level of opposition that slot machines received before their approval.

Opponents have not given up, he said, and will be publicizing the extent of campaign contributions from the gambling industry aimed at influencing legislation.

"We have to draw a line in the sand that any gambling expansion will further increase people playing the slots," generating related social problems, Mr. Sparks said.

"The purpose of table games, in my mind, is to attract the younger participants to the tracks, so they can get them there, and in the end people will move from table games to slots, where there's more addictive behavior."

A longtime supporter of adding table games, Sen. Andy McKenzie, a Wheeling Republican, expects them to eventually be approved, but only after the Senate passes a different version of the gambling bill from the House's. A conference committee would have to settle those differences and come up with a compromise version.

Mr. McKenzie said that among the major differences is the level of government tax to be levied on table game revenues, as industry lobbyists contend the 35 percent in the House bill leaves too little potential profit. There also are differing opinions of how much money should be funneled to host communities and counties.

Assuming the bill passes, the senator said, it's possible that special elections will be held in the four counties this summer, and racetracks that win approval could start table games by late this year.

"The question is, can everybody live with the bill we end up with, or will some special interests get in the way," he said. "There's a better chance of passage than not, but there's no guarantees."