HARRISBURG -- Anyone who gambles at state casinos knows that for many people, cigarette smoking goes with slot machines like beer goes with pretzels.

So some casino officials have been worried about a provision in the state's new law that bans smoking in most public places. It allows gamblers to light up, but limits casino smoking to slots on 25 percent of the total gambling floor.

But the law, which took effect Sept. 11, also gives casino operators a chance to expand their smoking sections. If a casino can show, after 90 days, that the win per machine in the nonsmoking area is less than the win per machine in the smoking area, the area for gamblers who puff can be increased -- up to 50 percent of the total floor space.

And that's what's happening, now that slots operators have the required three months of data. State officials say that all seven casinos want to expand the size of their smoking sections, and if the difference in revenues is certified, the expansions can occur, probably this week.

"Our smoking-section machines did twice as much business as the machines for nonsmokers," said David LaTorre, a spokesman for The Meadows, which now has a temporary casino in Washington County. "We filed papers with the state Gaming Control Board [yesterday] seeking to increase our smoking area to the maximum allowed by law."

He said The Meadows, like the other six casinos now open in Pennsylvania, is trying to cater to the wishes of smokers and nonsmokers.

The lower revenue from slots used by nonsmokers is costing the state money, he noted. The state places a 55 percent tax on "gross terminal revenues," the amount of win per machine that remains after the winners are paid.

That state revenue goes for lowering property taxes; for increasing prizes for horse race winners and for benefiting the horse industry in general; and for economic development projects in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, including the new arena being built for the Penguins.

John Held, a Philadelphia-based spokesman for the American Cancer Society, opposed the larger smoking sections. "It's unfortunate, and we are disappointed that casinos would take any measures to increase the number of their employees exposed to secondhand smoke.

"From our perspective, allowing smoking on even 25 percent of a casino floor is too much. Studies have shown that air filtration systems [at casinos] don't remove all the carcinogens from the air and aren't an effective way to eliminate secondhand smoke."

However, Mr. LaTorre said there has been "a dramatic difference" in the gross terminal revenue at slots used by smokers versus those played by nonsmokers. As a result, he said, "State taxpayers are losing a lot of revenue" by limiting slots for smokers to just 25 percent of floor space.

Enlarging the smoking area will be done "rather quickly" once the revenue figures are certified, he said. The temporary casino has 1,800 slots, so about 900 of them will be for smokers. The permanent Meadows casino to open next spring will have up to 4,000 slots, so as many as 2,000 could be for smokers.

Jennifer See, a spokeswoman for Presque Isle Downs in Erie, which has 2,000 slots, said yesterday the racetrack/casino also wants to increase its floor area for slots played by smokers.

On Monday, Philadelphia Park, a racetrack/casino in Bucks County, north of Philadelphia, became the first gambling parlor to say it plans to double its smoking area, to 50 percent of the floor area. The amount of money wagered on machines where smoking was allowed was more than twice the amount bet on slots in the nonsmoking area.