If Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell follows through on his threat, the jobs of more than 1,000 state employees are riding on the timely resolution of a dispute among legislators over where a potentially lucrative casino gets built.

Legislation designed to generate new revenue by legalizing table games such as poker and blackjack at Pennsylvania's slot-machine casinos is stuck largely on that question, legislators say.

The potential sites include a suburban Reading hotel, a luxury resort in southwest Pennsylvania, a family getaway in the Pocono Mountains and a Gettysburg-area hotel.

But if the House and Senate leaders cannot put aside differences over their hometown concerns and submit a bill to Rendell by Jan. 8, the governor has warned he will set in motion plans to cut $250 million in spending, including the layoffs.

"Hopefully we can come up with some viable alternative that we can both agree to," House Gaming Oversight Committee Chairman Dante Santoni, D-Berks, said Monday. "We don't want this to drag on. At the beginning of January, I think we'll have the issues resolved."

The matter has divided legislators now for several months.

It began as a bill to legalize table games and raise new revenue for the cash-strapped state without hiking taxes. The state budget deal approved in October assumed that the bill would be passed promptly.

But the bill became mired in the disagreement over the last available "resort" casino license.

The prize is a license to operate up to 500 slot machines. (The state's larger casinos are allowed to install 5,000.) Gamblers at the smaller sites must be a resort "patrons" _ which the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board defines as someone who spends at least $10 at a resort.

In 2004, the Legislature legalized up to 14 slot-machine casinos in Pennsylvania, and set aside two licenses for upscale resorts such as Nemacolin Woodlands Resort and Seven Springs Mountain Resort.

But Nemacolin and Seven Springs withdrew their applications and different establishments stepped up.

Earlier this year, the gaming board awarded the first resort license to the Valley Forge Convention Center, a hotel and conference center in suburban Philadelphia.

For the second resort license, the owners of the Reading Crowne Plaza Hotel in Wyomissing and Fernwood Hotel & Resort in Bushkill each submitted an application. The gaming board is considering those applications and has not indicated whether it will consider additional applications.