TABLE GAMES UPDATE

Forget About Roulette Wheels ..
.
...under the Christmas tree this year. From the way things went in the Senate last night, it looks like the last verses of "Auld Lang Syne" will be but a memory by the time lawmakers finally get around the approving a table games bill.
The voted 27-22 last night to kick an amended version of a table games bill over to the House, which immediately said it wasn't interested in the Senate changes.

As you might expect, parochial issues skewed the results as the chambers differed over smaller "resort" casinos and control over the local allocation of state taxes from table games.

The Senate vote came after a closed-door meeting between legislative leaders and Gov. Ed, who tried to smooth over the differences between the two chambers.

The impasse leaves unresolved the fate of funding bills for Penn State, Temple, Pitt and other state-related universities, which House Democrats and Rendell have said the state can't pay for without the legalization of table games.

It wasn't immediately clear last night when the two chambers might be able to resolve their differences. The House is in session today and could spend its time reviewing the Senate version of the bill. But the Senate now is not scheduled to return to Harrisburg until Jan. 5.

In an interview last night, Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware, showed little interest in recalling GOP senators to the Capitol unless or until there was a deal.

Added bonus: The House is not in session next week, making a (wait for it) New Year's Resolution for the slots impasse all the more likely.

Lame pun? Yes. But no lamer than what was going on around here last night. As always, the rest of the best in today's headlines start after the jump.