A heavily negotiated bill that would deliver poker, craps and other table games to Pennsylvania's casinos is also now the latest method for state lawmakers to deliver on their pet projects.

Under the bill's latest version, the casinos will send 14 percent of their table games take to the state treasury and another 2 percent to fund civic and infrastructure projects in the communities surrounding the casinos.

Some of the local money would fatten municipal and county budgets.

Some is earmarked for a handful of specific institutions: Commonwealth Medical College in Scranton, the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, the Convention and Visitors Bureau of Greater Monroeville and Lower Bucks Hospital in suburban Philadelphia.

Such earmarking in the table games bill is reminiscent to critics of the secretive process in which lawmakers have been able to direct grants _ known colloquially as "WAMs," for walking-around money _ toward their favored causes.

Only this time, these grants would be fueled by gambling money year after year, seemingly without end.

"It seems that people are trying to take this beyond local impact to how much can we grab," said Rep. Curt Schroder, R-Chester, a critic of the bill and the ranking GOP member on the House Gaming Oversight Committee.

Proponents of the local set-aside say the idea has popular support among rank-and-file lawmakers, as well as mayors, county commissioners and other community figures.

A vote on the bill is expected in the coming days.

The table games proposal became a key piece of the $27.8 billion budget deal struck by legislative leaders and Rendell in October. It is designed to provide $320 million over two years to the cash-strapped state treasury.

Initial versions of the bills did not include the local share. But the idea had a predecessor in the 2004 law that legalized slot machines at up to 14 casinos and set aside money specifically for Philadelphia's convention center and Pittsburgh's airport and convention center.

In October, a local share amendment to a table games bill introduced on the House floor drew a majority vote. The closed-door talks that followed yielded a 2 percent local cut in later versions of the table games legislation.

Lawmakers with casinos in their districts _ including Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware, and Senate Minority Leader Robert Mellow, D-Lackawanna _ were instrumental in divvying up the local money.

Estimates vary by casino, but a 2 percent share of a casino's take from table games could mean $2 million a year.