Slot Machines

Opening: Preview, Monday-May 24; grand opening, May 25. Size: 6.3 million square feet, 47 stories on 20 acres. Cost: $2.4 billion. Guest rooms and suites: 1,898 (all rooms have ocean views). Smoking policy: 100 percent smoke-free. Spa: 31,000 square feet. Retail: 55,000 square feet. Theaters: Two, with capacity for 5,050 and 700 seats, respectively. Nightclubs: Two. Day clubs: One, featuring performance deck, cabanas and saltwater pool (42,000 square feet of space)

Legislation that would allow up to 3,000 slot machines at each of Pennsylvania's two thoroughbred and two standardbred tracks has been introduced by State Sen. Robert "Tommy" Tomlinson (R., Bucks). Proponents believe the slots would produce $375 million in annual revenues targeted to increasing purses at the tracks and helping support public education and other programs in the state. A similar measure, attached to existing legislation, was voted down by the state Senate, 27-23, in November.

My pulse quickened and my heart beat faster as I sat down in front of a row of vintage one-arm bandits. I am not a gambler and yet I spent more than an hour last week playing with a dozen slot machines. The operative word here is "with. " I was not playing the slots, I was playing with the slots, and when I was done, I felt more like a kid in a candy store in Pennsauken than a gambler in Atlantic City. That's because the slot machines were in the Pennsauken, N.J., display showroom of Bob Levy, who owns one of the largest coin-operated machine dealerships in the country.

Anyone who believes that nothing beats hearing old 78s on the machines on which they were meant to be played will enjoy this weekend's third annual Philadelphia Antique Jukebox, Slot-Machine and Advertising Show and Sale. Do you like rhythm-and-blues, country-western, the big bands or rock-and- roll? You'll hear them coming from one or another of the 65 dealers booths at the George Washington Motor Lodge's convention center on Route 611 in Willow Grove. At this show, there will be 50 to 60 jukeboxes, ranging in price from $1,000 to nearly $10,000.

Robert Cogan's May 24 letter ("Take creative approach to casinos in Pa. ") refers to Jeff Hooke's testimony before the state Senate Finance Committee regarding the auctioning of gambling licenses. What Hooke proposed was selling eight licenses over a period of time to the highest bidders to permit them to construct full-blown, Las Vegas-style casinos in the state's major cities. This will never happen because the public doesn't want it and the politicians will never vote for it. Therefore, we will still hear the continuous sucking sound of billions of dollars leaving Pennsylvania to support social programs in Delaware, West Virginia and New Jersey.

It's a real wonder how Pennsylvanians survived back in the 1950s, when they couldn't legally gamble their money on horse racing, lotteries or off-track betting. Must have been pretty boring with all those spare millions jangling around in their pockets. Then in 1959, the state placed one of its first big bets, by legalizing racetracks. Once it bet on that first horse, the legislature, like a compulsive gambler, found itself seduced by other long-odds ventures. Now the legislature is being suckered by a new gamble - a proposal to allow slot machines at struggling Pennsylvania race courses.

The state's House of Representatives failed yesterday to override Gov. Castle's veto of a bill that would legalize slot machines at Delaware race tracks. The vote on whether to bring the issue to the House floor was 20-20 with one abstention, five votes short of the three-fifths majority needed for approval. Slot machines were hailed as the potential savior of Delaware's financially beleaguered race tracks by those involved in the racing industry and by the effort's chief proponent, Rep. William A. Oberle (R., Scottfield)

Jeff Hurvitz lives and writes in Abington Township I think the bill bringing slot machines to Pennsylvania is a good thing. There is at least the chance that gambling will seed other opportunities for commerce in this state. The bill itself is a gamble, and, despite the odds, the downsides of gambling, and the stakes at hand - which includes the future of Philadelphia - I think it's a chance we should take. The bill, approved July 2, allows for the placement of up to 61,000 slot machines into 14 venues throughout the state.

About 30 years ago, New Jersey was on the verge of legalizing casino gaming. Mac Seelig, then assistant manager at a hotel chain in Atlantic City, realized someone would have to supply the slot machines. Today, Seelig, 65, is president and chief executive officer of the company he founded in his Absecon home. A.C. Coin & Slot, in Pleasantville, N.J., has become the largest slots manufacturer and diversified casino supply company in the Atlantic City-Philadelphia region and one of the largest privately owned companies of its kind in the world.

Talk about a mixed message. First the casino gave Rudolph Smejkal his breakfast buffet on the house - french toast, bacon, sausage, the works. Now it was encouraging him to work it off at the slot machines. Smejkal wasn't buying the concept of the Pedal 'n' Play, a slot machine attached to an exercise bike that made its casino debut last week at the Tropicana Casino Resort. "Not after breakfast," said Smejkal, 51, of Toms River. "I'm not an eat-and-run kind of guy. " Instead, Smejkal just gambled away his quarters, allowing the calories from his ample breakfast to settle in nicely on his ample girth without any interference from the LifeCycle 9100 bike attached to his Triple Diamond slot machine.

Opening: Preview, Monday-May 24; grand opening, May 25. Size: 6.3 million square feet, 47 stories on 20 acres. Cost: $2.4 billion. Guest rooms and suites: 1,898 (all rooms have ocean views). Smoking policy: 100 percent smoke-free. Spa: 31,000 square feet. Retail: 55,000 square feet. Theaters: Two, with capacity for 5,050 and 700 seats, respectively. Nightclubs: Two. Day clubs: One, featuring performance deck, cabanas and saltwater pool (42,000 square feet of space)

Slot machines at Pennsylvania's 10 casinos generated $190.5 million in gross revenue last month, up 7.4 percent from January 2011, according to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. The board said it was the 11th time in the last 12 months that slots revenue showed a year-over-year increase. Leading the pack was Parx in Bensalem, which generated $31.6 million, up 8.8 percent from a year ago; Sands Bethlehem Casino came second at $22.5 million, up 13.6 percent; and Rivers in Pittsburgh rounded out the Top 3 with $21.9 million, up 8.4 percent.

ATLANTIC CITY - More than 320 slot machines were wheeled into the Revel Atlantic City casino on Wednesday, the $2.4 billion mega-resort that officials say could open well before Memorial Day. Construction at Revel, which takes its design inspiration from the ocean's waves, is about two weeks ahead of schedule, according to Lisa Johnson, a spokeswoman for the Revel Entertainment Group. The facility may welcome guests before its previously announced May 15 opening date, she said.

The SugarHouse Casino wants to break ground on an expansion next summer to almost double its gaming space and add a restaurant, meeting rooms and a seven-story parking structure, an architect for the project told the Philadelphia City Planning Commission Tuesday. The casino also plans to link its site to Penn Treaty Park by extending a waterfront trail, said Ian Cope, a managing partner for Cope Linder Architects. In a presentation Tuesday to commissioners, Cope said the revised plan calls for a lower and longer parking garage than previously envisioned in 2009.

MONTERREY, Mexico - Hundreds of soldiers and federal agents raided casinos in this northern city, authorities said Saturday, two days after an arson attack on a gambling house killed 52 people and stunned a country that had become numb to massacres and beheadings. Security forces had so far confiscated about 1,500 slot machines at 11 casinos in Monterrey and its surroundings and arrested three people, Mexico's tax agency said. It said the continuing operation was meant to verify whether casinos had paid taxes or introduced slot machines illegally.

More than Syria deserve outrage While the United Nations, the United States, The Inquirer, and others condemn President Bashar al-Assad's actions in Syria ("Syria's tyrant," Saturday), Bahrain is spared outrage, despite shooting demonstrators and dragging wounded people and their doctors out of the hospital and into prison, to say nothing of televised "confessions" and executions. And is no one concerned that enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya has turned into free-for-all bombing attacks?

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - Atlantic City and casino officials are mostly failing to enforce the measure that bans smoking on most areas of casino floors, according to a published report. After nearly banning smoking altogether at casinos, the city imposed the partial ban in 2007. The change of heart came when the economy crashed and casinos feared that a complete smoking ban would cost them more customers. As a compromise, smoking was banned from 75 percent of casino floors. And casinos were allowed to construct enclosed smoking lounges on the remaining floor area.

NEWARK, N.J. - Legalized gambling should remain restricted to Atlantic City and likely won't be allowed at Meadowlands anytime soon, the head of Gov. Christie's commission on casinos and racetracks said Thursday. Jon Hanson told a forum on the future of the gambling industry in New Jersey that the state is focused on healing the ailing casino industry while trying to make horse racing self-sufficient. Those were the central recommendations of a report his commission issued last July.

HARRISBURG - For enforcement lawyers with the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, the Foxwoods Casino project in South Philadelphia should be judged on what it is today: broke and overdue. "Here's the bottom line," said Dale Miller, the board's deputy chief enforcement counsel. "There's a vacant lot on Columbus Boulevard that doesn't have a casino on it. " But Stephen A. Cozen, a lawyer representing Foxwoods, urged the seven commissioners to focus on what the project could become: a thriving partnership with Harrah's Entertainment Inc., open for business in 20 months.

I chuckled when I first approached the SugarHouse Casino that opened to long lines last month in Philadelphia. That's it? I'm not an architecture expert, but to me the outside resembles a Circuit City. Maybe it should be called the SugarWarehouse. So it's no Bellagio in Las Vegas. But compared with the meat warehouse across the street and the law office with "Legal Eagle" painted on the building, SugarHouse practically spiffs up the neighborhood. However, considering the steady stream of cars pulling into the parking lot Wednesday morning, and the people getting off a SEPTA bus across the street, the gamblers don't care where the casino is or if it looks like a discount retailer.