The typical gray-haired, midday crowd played the slot machines in The Meadows Racetrack & Casino on a rainy afternoon last week, with every handicapped-parking space filled.

Imogene Crain, who has breathing difficulties from pulmonary disease, parked a wheelchair inside to take a seat risking 20 cents a spin at a lively game called Super Jackpot Party.

Another octogenarian, Eugene C. Ocepek, was headed down an adjacent aisle to the exit, driving a scooter due to arthritis and foot surgery. He was a little poorer but content for the three hours spent out of the house with his wife.

And 82-year-old Vera Cutler shuffled through the aisles pushing a walker, clutching a cash voucher for $100.27 just won playing Super Fire 7777. Her bum knee seemed of no concern once sitting at a machine.

"I enjoy it. You don't think of anything else," said the South Park woman who visits with her daughter about every two weeks.

Walk into any of Pennsylvania's new slots parlors -- or virtually any casino in America, for that matter -- and you are likely to see people in wheelchairs, carrying canes, pulling oxygen tanks or reflecting other forms of disabilities. With broad, flat floors and elimination of need to pull levers on the one-armed bandits, it's easy for almost anyone to play. That way, of course, the casino can maximize its revenue.

"Look around -- most of us have handicaps of one kind or another," Mr. Ocepek, 80, of Library, said aboard his motorized vehicle.

But The Meadows petitioned the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board recently over one issue the casino said was unfair to its customers with disabilities. The board had specified that every Pennsylvania casino needed to have seats rooted into the ground in front of slot machines. It's supposed to be a safety measure, so if a fire occurs people aren't knocking down seats and tripping over them in a scramble for the doors.

Meadows officials argued that the seating requirement forced patrons in wheelchairs to face delays playing the machines. If they could not easily transfer from wheelchair to seat, they would have to request that an employee be summoned to remove the seat with an Allen wrench and temporarily store it. The process takes several minutes, and must be repeated every time the player wants to change machines.

"After three or four times of that, our handicapped guests get kind of embarrassed about calling on someone to make the change," explained Meadows General Manager Mike Graninger. He said most casinos across the country have moveable seats, like bar stools with back rests, which anyone can move to the side to make room for a wheelchair.

The gaming board approved the change, after hearing from the state police fire commissioner that he saw no fire safety issue. The Meadows will keep the fixed seating in its temporary slots parlor, but it plans to install the portable seats in the permanent racetrack-casino it will open next spring.

The change was praised by Michelle Brozinski, assistant deputy director of Tri-County Patriots for Independent Living, a disabilities assistance and advocacy organization based in Washington, Pa. The seating issue was one of several the group has raised with The Meadows since the casino opened.

"You would have to sit there and wait while a person with no disability could jump from machine to machine," said Ms. Brozinski, who uses a wheelchair herself and has visited The Meadows a couple of times to play. She generally commended efforts at the casino to accommodate people with disabilities.

The issue of handicapped parking spaces arose, however, because the casino opened with just 14, the minimum required by North Strabane's zoning code.

Mr. Graninger said officials quickly realized the number was too few and raised it to 24, and then expanded again to 33. The permanent casino, for which an attached garage is being built, will have 70, he said.

It's unclear, however, whether even that will be sufficient. At the Presque Isle Downs & Casino in Erie County, the 96 handicapped spaces appear to fill daily, said Jennifer See, director of marketing.

"As soon as someone pulls out, another one pulls in," she said. Like at The Meadows, valet parking and shuttle buses are available for anyone who can't find a space and can't walk far to or from a car.

Ms. See said that on some chartered buses visiting the casino, as many as 80 percent of the visitors have been in wheelchairs, typically visiting from a nursing home.

"We've had people on gurneys come in before," she said, and the casino accommodates them -- though with a little more difficulty than for most patrons.

Presque Isle Downs has no plans to change its seating like The Meadows, she said, because removing the seats has not been viewed as a problem. Such changes are more cost-effective for casinos like The Meadows that are building new facilities or expanding.

At Mountaineer Casino Racetrack & Resort, which already has moveable seats, scooters for disabled customers are available for rent by the hour or day, in addition to the free wheelchairs provided at many casinos. This fall Mountaineer, in Chester, W.Va., will add a blackjack table deliberately set at a lower height than its existing 31 tables to make it easier for wheelchair users to play, said spokeswoman Tamara Pettit.

The casinos must conform to requirements of the Americans With Disabilities Act, covering facilities that serve the public. The most difficulty has come for riverboat casinos, because space constraints limit the ability to provide wide aisle space, said Judy Patterson, senior vice president of the American Gaming Association.

In some cases, she said, casinos provide machines with no chairs in front of them to make it easy for wheelchair patrons to slide in. At the same time, customers with disabilities seek equal access to any machine.

"We have the same wants and needs," said Ms. Brozinski, from the disabilities group. "I think society in general forgets that sometimes."

For Ms. Crain, 81, the slots player from Washington, Pa., who can't walk far but can enjoy sitting for hours at the machines, the casino has replaced regular trips to bingo, where the smoking was bothering her lungs too much.

"It makes her feel better to get out of the house for a while," said her daughter, Barbara Maglaya, playing the machine beside her. "And when she gets tired, I take her home."