HARRISBURG -- A weary but excited Gov. Ed Rendell talked to reporters at about 7:30 a.m. yesterday, not long after the state Legislature had handed him the political victory he craved most -- approval of slot machines at 14 casinos in Pennsylvania.

Speaking about a new seven-member Gaming Control Board that soon will be appointed to award slots licenses and oversee gambling in Pennsylvania, Rendell said, "This commission has to get to work -- it's got to get ready to rock and roll.''

The House vote, which came at about 3 a.m. yesterday, was 113 to legalize slots and 88 against. It followed a 30-20 vote in the Senate early Friday for slots.

Rendell will hold a special bill-signing ceremony this morning at Philadelphia Park in Bensalem, just north of Philadelphia. The thoroughbred racetrack is the home of Smarty Jones, winner of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness this year.

The legislator whose district includes that racetrack, state Sen. Robert Tomlinson, R-Bucks, was one of the most outspoken advocates of slots, which he sees as a way to raise money to increase purses for race winners and help horse owners, trainers and breeders and the overall state agricultural industry.

So what's next? Within 60 days, the Gaming Control Board is to be named. Rendell gets three appointments and the leaders of the four legislative caucuses -- Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate -- each get one.

Once members are in place, they will start accepting applications from groups that want a slots license. Competition is expected to be fierce. It will probably take about 12 months to award those lucrative licenses, which some lawmakers called "a license to print money.''

Seven or eight of the casinos will be at racetracks. Four will be at the state's existing tracks, including The Meadows in Washington County, with two other slots parlors at new tracks to be built in Erie and in Chester, Pa., south of Philadelphia. One more casino will go at a new harness track, whose location isn't known yet. Three of the harness track applicants are from Western Pennsylvania, one from Beaver County, one from Washington County and one from Lawrence County.

There are also four or five standalone casino licenses, for parlors not associated with a racetrack. There are also two slots licenses for resort hotels with at least 275 rooms. Nemacolin Woodlands and Seven Springs are said to be strong candidates for those licenses.

Altogether, there will be no more than 12 large casinos, each with up to 5,000 slot machines, plus the two resort casinos, with no more than 500 slots each and with play restricted to hotel guests.

All members of the House and Senate -- those who favor expanded gambling and those who condemn it -- agreed that the vote approving slot machines was historic, the biggest expansion of gambling in Pennsylvania since the state lottery was approved in 1972.

To anti-gambling lawmakers, the change was profoundly wrong, and will make life worse, increasing domestic violence, crime, personal bankruptcies and other social miseries.

To supporters, putting slot machines at racetracks, standalone venues and two resort hotels is simply a way for the state to recapture entertainment and gaming dollars that are being wagered in other states, including West Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey, Connecticut and now at new American Indian casinos in New York state.

State Sen. Jim Ferlo, D-Highland Park, who has fought for a standalone casino for Pittsburgh, either Downtown near the convention center or at Station Square, said people are already gambling, either out of state or at illegal amusement machines in bars, or at bingos or on legal or illegal lotteries.

As for critics' complaints that legalizing slots will increase gambling addiction, Ferlo noted that there are already many gambling addicts but the state provides no money to help them. He said this new bill contains $1.5 million a year to set up gambling addiction treatment programs.

Outspoken supporters of slots, including the top two Democrats in the House, H. William DeWeese of Wayneburg and Mike Veon of Beaver Falls, touted two major aspects of the slots bill.

They said it will raise up to $1 billion in new revenue, which will be used to reduce homeowners' school property taxes by an average of $300 or so apiece, and generate a new $2 billion tourism and economic development fund.

That fund will pump $404 million into Pittsburgh and Allegheny County, including $150 million to reduce the debt at Pittsburgh International Airport, $44 million for a new David L. Lawrence Convention Center hotel, $60 million to retire debt on the Pittsburgh Development Fund, $20 million to offset the ongoing operating deficit at the convention center, and other benefits.

The bill also has a provision for 4 percent of a casino's net revenues to be split between its host city and county. For a casino in Pittsburgh, that would mean about $7 million a year each for Pittsburgh government and Allegheny County government, to ease their budget woes.

Rendell was also happy about the $1 billion in new slots revenue that will be used to lower school property taxes. That was one of the key elements of his 2002 campaign for governor. As it stands now, taxpayers could first see those reductions in the 2006-07 fiscal year.