Frank Angelo makes his twice-weekly visits to The Meadows Racetrack & Casino with a pack of Doral Ultra Lights in his shirt pocket, ready to hold a cigarette in one hand while pushing a slot machine button with the other.

He's just the kind of guy June Dorsner can't stand to play next to. On a recent trip, she and her husband moved seven times inside an hour in a futile effort to avoid secondhand smoke.

"It's their right to do it, and I understand that, but it's an irritant to me," said the 59-year-old South Park resident. "It's a nice form of entertainment if you take it for what it is, but to have to enjoy your entertainment in a smoky area, that takes the edge off for us."

Mrs. Dorsner might breathe more freely soon. The Legislature begins its fall session tomorrow, and lawmakers who passed different versions of statewide smoking restrictions earlier in the summer are expected to try to settle on a consensus.

The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a strong measure that would eliminate smoking in all workplaces, restaurants, taverns and casinos. The Republican-led Senate just as solidly approved a version with key exemptions, such as for taverns that serve little food. The Senate bill also would keep 25 percent of a casino floor open to smoking.

The question of how far Pennsylvania should go, especially in regard to casinos, is the latest in a series of debates playing out across the nation.

Illinois has a complete smoking ban taking effect Jan. 1, despite claims from the state casino association that a majority of gambling patrons use tobacco and that a 20 percent drop in gaming revenue will result.

Colorado passed a smoking ban in 2006 with exemptions for casinos, but altered the law this year to include them. It takes effect Jan. 1. Nevada casinos, meanwhile, won exclusions from new curbs placed on other workplaces in a citizen referendum.

Atlantic City casinos have been operating since April under a city requirement restricting smokers to no more than 25 percent of the gaming floor.

Casinos were exempted from a previously approved state law there, but the New Jersey Legislature has been debating whether to rescind that. Casino workers in Atlantic City have organized to lobby for tough restrictions, saying they're the ones most harmed by secondhand smoke.

On their own, some casinos in the East's biggest gambling center have moved to cut off smoking on their own. Harrah's Entertainment, which owns four Atlantic City casinos, announced last week it will allow people to light up only in newly created smoking lounges, which have no table games, slot machines or cocktail service.

Tables turning

Seemingly overnight, it appears that the deck is stacked in favor of the anti-smoking lobby. The Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights group counts at least 24 states with smoking bans of various levels, with the number growing each year.

"It's just inevitable," state Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, R-Montgomery. "The scientific evidence just keeps accumulating, and more and more people are realizing they don't want to be exposed to this substance."

As the Senate majority's leading proponent of a strong statewide ban, he is a potential member of a House-Senate conference committee seeking compromise this fall.

Mr. Greenleaf said he could live with an initial exemption for Pennsylvania casinos, allowing smokers 25 percent of the floor, if that's what it takes to get the a bill passed. He's more strongly opposed to a provision, approved by the Senate but not the House, that would forbid local governments from enacting bans that are tougher than the state's.

Casinos on the western side of the state insist, for competitive reasons, that smoking be allowed smokers . The closest racetrack casino to The Meadows is Wheeling Island in West Virginia, where smoking is permitted. Presque Isle Downs in Erie County competes with a tribal casino in western New York, which is also free of any state restrictions.

Presque Isle Downs provides a "substantial" no-smoking section, its officials say, but they want the right to set rules instead of having the state dictate.

Bill Paulos, an executive with the Las Vegas-based parent firm of The Meadows, said the open, tent-like structures of the temporary casino there aren't conducive to restricting smoking, other than in dining areas. The facility has an extensive ventilation system that officials say replaces all the air inside every 10 minutes or less, supposedly eliminating any stale smoke.

Mr. Paulos said he's worried about a possible 20 percent drop in revenue if he can't allow smokers inside.

"It would certainly affect our business," he said. "Thirty miles down the road in Wheeling, West Virginia, they allow smoking and they're adding table games. We're going to get a double whammy."

Delaware, which has racetracks with slot machines, passed one of the nation's first smoking bans, taking effect in 2002 with no exceptions for casinos. The facilities, which fought against the ban, saw a quick revenue drop, a fact often cited by gaming officials in other states. But then, aided by the installation of more slot machines, they rebounded to make more money than ever before, a fact stressed by anti-smoking groups.

"In the first year, we experienced about a 10 percent dip in revenue, but we more than recovered that within a year, and we now advertise the fact that we are smoke-free and we are very proud of that," Ed Sutor, Dover Downs Hotel & Casino president, said in a statement.

Some officials elsewhere also point to a drop in revenue at Atlantic City casinos this year as an example of how smoking restrictions hurt the bottom line, but new competition from Pennsylvania has been cited as possibly a bigger factor in the reduction.

At this stage, the casino industry is full of differing opinions on how to handle the smoking issue, said Judy Patterson, executive director of the American Gaming Association, which has no formal position of its own.

Don Barden, the head of the group of Majestic Star casinos, said his North Shore casino, which is to open by 2009, will allow smokers if it's legal. He made a non-smoking area last year on one deck of two riverboat casinos he operates in Gary, Ind., only to scrap the plan after a few months.

"We looked at the [revenue] numbers and they didn't work for us," said David Schugar, vice president and general manager of the Majestic Star in Gary. "Non-smoking in general is something that has not established itself or received much traction in casino gaming."

In most casinos with table games, including the Majestic Star, poker rooms are the one area where smoking is off-limits, perhaps because players are so close to one another.

For all the discussion going on in so many states -- Michigan is another debating a new law and how it would affect casinos -- little research has been done on any link between gambling and smoking.

Dispute over numbers?

Many in the industry state they are certain more people smoke in casinos than smoke in the general population. Yet, a University of Nevada researcher reported last year that a study of 17,000 gamblers in various locations in that state showed they smoke at a rate similar to the 21 percent that's reported among all Americans.

Dr. Chris Pritsos, a biochemistry professor, conducted the study for the Nevada Health Department while aware of statements by casino officials that as many as 60 percent to 70 percent of their patrons were smokers.

"I knew there was no way it was as high as the gaming industry was claiming, but I was struck by the fact that it was as low as it was," Dr. Pritsos said. "What the gaming industry has done is basically just put out numbers that they think might be true, and they have nothing to back it up."

Tom Swoik, executive director of the Illinois Casino and Gaming Association, acknowledged last week there was no scientific research to support testimony he gave to state lawmakers that up to 70 percent of patrons smoke. He said officials from two casinos there did informal polling and provided estimates to him of 60 percent in one case, and 70 percent in the other.

"It's significantly higher than 20 percent," he asserted.

Among a middle-aged and older crowd at The Meadows on a weekday afternoon last week, it appeared that fewer than one of 10 patrons at the machines was smoking. That would still fit with Dr. Pritsos' estimates, based on an equation that smokers in that environment are actually puffing only about one-third of the time.

"You walk into a casino and you often think more people are smoking than really are, because the smoke lingers in the air and can be a pretty toxic atmosphere," suggested Annie Tegen, senior program manager for Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights. "When you actually stop and look around and count the smokers, you're surprised to see a majority of people aren't smoking, and just like the vast majority of the public, prefers smoke-free air."

June Dorsner doesn't need any research to tell her that no matter what the air filtration system, if someone right next to her is smoking a cigarette, she's going to recoil from it. And no one has estimated how much more time people like Mrs. Dorsner might spend in casinos, adding to revenue, if a ban is imposed. She for one says she would gladly settle for just a non-smoking section.

Frank Angelo, 67, of Port Vue, the man with the pack of Doral Ultra-Lights in his pocket, said he's seen other patrons waving his smoke away, and he usually feels bad enough when that happens that he moves to another machine.

But the half-pack-a-day user also maintains that there should be a place for him on the floor like everyone else, and he gives some foundation to the fears of The Meadows executives.

"I wouldn't come here if it went non-smoking," he said. "They should have something for everyone."