HARRISBURG — Get ready for "gaming reform," Harrisburg style.

A bill originally designed to correct some flaws that critics identified in the state's slot-machine gambling law has bounced around the Legislature for a year now, as the House and Senate seem to feud endlessly over what it should say.

The primary points of contention, however, do not revolve around shoring up gambling oversight, strengthening anti-corruption measures or putting more money into addiction programs. Rather, much of the drag is from lawmakers' pet provisions that adorn the bill and have created friction between the House and Senate.

"There's some people trying to use the bill and bring everything into one vote to accomplish things that they might not be able to do in a straight-up vote," said Rep. Steve Nickol, R-York.

Sen. Jane Orie, R-40th, said she believes that if one major disagreement is resolved — how to speed up potential casino zoning appeals in Philadelphia — then it will be easier to strip the other pet provisions from the bill.

"Once somebody puts something in, it opens the door to everybody else to say, 'Let me get this in,"' Orie said.

The fourth and most recent version, unveiled just hours before the vote, passed the House on Tuesday as a 141-page amendment — almost as long as the original law that legalized slot machines in 2004. Senators have vowed they will make changes and produce yet another version of the bill.

That fifth version is expected to surface as early as today as legislators rush to complete business in Harrisburg before returning to their campaigns ahead of the Nov. 7 election.

Buried in the House's latest stab at the bill — labeled gaming reform by some legislators — is a paragraph that would divert some gambling revenue for civic development projects from any Somerset County slots resort to its neighbor, Greene County.

The latter has no applicant for a slots license and happens to be the home of the House's Democratic leader, H. William DeWeese.

"I think any member of the General Assembly would try to share the revenue and that's exactly what I'm trying to do," DeWeese said.

It also includes a provision that would move up the date that state gambling regulators could convert a dormant slots license originally earmarked for a racetrack into a license for a standalone site.

Such a change could provide a new slots opportunity for Indianapolis-based Centaur Inc., whose application for a racetrack in the Beaver County district of the House's Democratic whip, Michael Veon, was rejected by state racing regulators last year.

The House agreed with a Senate amendment that would exempt slots casinos from any local smoking ban, such as the one in Philadelphia and another that will take effect in Allegheny County in January.

But the House took out a provision championed by Sen. Vincent Fumo, D-Philadelphia, that would temporarily cap the number of slot machines each manufacturer could sell in Pennsylvania.

In another twist, a paragraph penned by Nickol and meant to keep slots revenue from a proposed Gettysburg-area casino in Adams County — and away from its neighbors — got stuck in the wrong place in the House's version of the bill.

As a result, it would not have the desired effect. Even if drafted correctly, that provision will run into opposition from the Senate's Democratic leader, Robert Mellow.