HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — State lawmakers are stepping up work on a bill to legalize table games, such as poker and blackjack, now that most legislative leaders and Gov. Ed Rendell have embraced the move to help bring in tax dollars and close a massive budget shortfall.

"That's driving the whole issue," said Sen. Jane Earll, R-Erie.

On Wednesday, the Senate Community, Economic and Recreational Development Committee, chaired by Earll, heard testimony on a bill to legalize table games, while legislative staff members worked behind the scenes.

Table games are played in at least 28 other states, either in commercially or Indian-owned casinos.

In Pennsylvania, nine slot-machine casinos are open, providing more than $1.5 billion in tax revenue to the state and local governments in the 2008-09 fiscal year. That placed it in the top echelon of states that collect gambling revenue.

Major issues on which the Senate and House disagree, so far, include how much money each casino owner should pay for a table games license and how high the state tax rate on the revenue should be.

Other questions include whether legislation should cap the number of gaming tables at each casino, and whether slots resorts — establishments that can operate up to 500 slot machines versus the 5,000 at the slots casinos — may also apply for a table games license, Earll and others say.

An evolving deal announced Friday by leaders of the House Democrats and both parties in the Senate counts on $200 million from the legalization of table games in an effort to help close a multibillion-dollar budget gap driven by the recession.

However, Earll said the $200 million may be too optimistic, based on the studies she's seen.

"Whether that's real or not, I'm skeptical," Earll said.

In the GOP-controlled Senate, Earll and other top Republicans say they are willing to consider the legalization of table games only after a thorough discussion and perceived flaws in the state's regulatory approach are fixed.

In July, the Senate voted 47-1 to approve a bill making changes to the five-year-old law that legalized slot machines in an effort to thicken the walls between Pennsylvania's gambling industry and public officials who regulate it.

The House has not scheduled a vote on the bill, though House legislators and staff are studying it.

A key provision of the bill would reinstate a ban on cash contributions to political causes by gambling industry executives and investors. In April, the state Supreme Court struck down the ban, saying a complete prohibition on contributions went further in practice than called for by the 2004 law.

However, it is unclear whether the House will go along with the Senate's version, change it or drop it completely.

"There's concern that the courts have ruled that it's unconstitutional," said House Gaming Oversight Committee Chairman Dante Santoni Jr., D-Berks. "I'm sure if we reinstate it, it will be challenged again."

The Senate's bill also would toughen the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board's "revolving door" policy to require top and midlevel employees to wait two years, instead of just one, before leaving the agency to go to work in the industry.