As today's election ballots are tabulated, the interest of state officials and voters won't be confined to the results of Pennsylvania races and which party will control the state legislature and the two Houses of Congress.

Many eyes also will be looking west to Ohio, where voters will be deciding a referendum that could have a signficant impact on this state's future slot-machine gambling operations.

Known as Issue 3, the Ohio referendum, if approved, would permit slot machines to operate at seven existing racetracks statewide plus at two stand-alone parlors that would be developed in downtown Cleveland.

The Ohio operations would have the most significant impact on Presque Isle Downs, a new racetrack set to open next year in Erie County, and a track currently being considered for either Lawrence County or Beaver County.

Pennsylvania Democrats, based on a study carried out in 2004, estimated that those two tracks, because of their proximity to the Ohio border, could lose $100 million in combined revenue if Ohio were to set up slots.

If the referendum passes, the already controversial estimate that Pennsylvania slots would generate about $3 billion in revenue shared between the operators and the state would be open to more legitimate skepticism than the estimate already has generated.

Less revenue for Pennsylvania coffers would be less property tax relief for real estate owners. And the fear — or the dream, depending on which side of the slots issue Keystone State residents have been — probably would be more quickly realized than anyone was willing to admit when introduction of slot-machine gambling was being considered by this state's legislature.

That is, introduction of table games such as blackjack, which were not part of the slots legislation approved originally by the Pennsylvania General Assembly.

For two good reasons:

The Ohio measure would permit the two stand-alone sites and two racetracks in Cuyahoga County to begin table games in four years, if Cuyahoga voters give their OK in a future referendum. And, with the arrival of slots operations in Pennsylvania and Ohio, it seems likely West Virginia would enter the table games picture in order to remain competitive in attracting gamblers.

Meanwhile, a third good reason seems on the horizon — the possibility that Maryland will become a competitor in the "slots war." Maryland officials reportedly are eyeing approval of slots gambling in 2007.

Although Ohio voters rejected constitutional amendments twice in the 1990s dealing with expanded gambling, the fact that Pennsylvania has gone ahead with it and the fact that the nearby states of New York, Indiana, West Virginia and Michigan also already have it provides the incentive for Ohio to try to keep as much of its residents' gambling money as possible at home — or to attract other nearby states' gamblers.

From Ohio voters' perspective, an attractive argument for referendum approval would be the provision earmarking most of the revenue collected from a 45 percent tax on the slots operations for college scholarships and economic development. In Pennsylvania, a third of the slots revenue is targeted for property tax reduction; that money was used to sell the slots idea.

Meanwhile, a skepticism similar to the kind that exists over Pennsylvania's projected $3 billion revenue estimate also is an issue in Ohio, where officials are estimating that the slots operations, if approved, would generate $2.8 billion in revenue.

Pennsylvania's first of 14 approved slots locations is scheduled to open next week at Pocono Downs near Wilkes-Barre. While that will attract considerable focus over coming months, so will Ohio, if the voters give their OK to slots today.

The message being directed at registered voters in Pennsylvania on this day is to be sure to vote for whom they feel to be the best candidates. In Ohio, the message, in addition to the one like Pennsylvania's, is predominantly to give a "yes" vote to slots — since so much could be at stake financially for the state.

Slots proponents in that state have spent more than $20 million to get their message out on behalf of the big-money endeavor.