It was the largest check that House Minority Leader Bill DeWeese (D., Greene) had received in five years. It came from the political action committee of Joseph Hardy and Maggie Magerko, the powerful father-daughter duo who run 84 Lumber Inc. - and who DeWeese once said had been bugging him for years to do something about legalizing slots.

In all, the Hardy-Magerko PAC contributed more than $400,000 statewide over the last two years, including $3,970 to host a DeWeese fund-raiser last fall at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Fayette County - part of the family's empire that is now up for a slots license.

Over the last two years, as gambling matured from concept to state law, individuals and companies now applying for one of the state's 14 coveted slots licenses have contributed at least $1.1 million to state candidates and political action committees, an Inquirer analysis of campaign donations shows.

About half of those donations went to key political players - some of whom also have appointees on the state board that will eventually award the licenses.

Gov. Rendell, architect of the 2004 gambling law and the state's leading fund-raiser, received at least $175,160 in 2004 and 2005. He was the biggest beneficiary of gambling money, drawing checks from seven groups that are now up for a slots license.

Alex Knott, the political editor at the Center for Public Integrity, a Washington-based independent watchdog group, said that through such donations, applicants are "buying access - and that access can get you where you want to go."

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Pennsylvania's gambling law bars executives and employees of gambling companies from making donations to any candidates for public office. It also bans contributions from applicants for a slots license with the state's Gaming Control Board.

Even though the law was passed in July 2004, most of those applications weren't filed until late December of last year, leaving the door wide open for applicants to write fat checks beforehand.

And write checks they did.

DeWeese received at least $68,971 in the last two years. House Speaker John M. Perzel (R., Phila.) raked in $56,500, and Senate President Pro Tempore Robert C. Jubelirer (R., Blair), who was opposed to gambling, received $10,300.

Even Republican gubernatorial candidate and former Pittsburgh Steeler Lynn Swann, who along the campaign trail has criticized gambling, received a $100,000 check last year from Magerko.

Rendell, Jubelirer, Perzel and DeWeese do not have a vote on who gets a license. But they all have appointments to the gaming board, which will make the final decision. The first conditional approvals for racetracks will come this summer.

Jubelirer did not respond to requests for an interview. Asked about gambling contributions last week in the Capitol, Perzel walked away without responding.

Through his campaign manager, Tricia Enright, Rendell said he has long-standing friendships with his donors that predate gambling. Some of those relationships, Enright said, go back decades.

"We have fully complied with the law at each and every stage," Enright said, adding that Rendell has made it his policy not to accept donations from people once they have publicly announced their interest in gambling, and that this goes beyond what the law requires.

Rendell, campaign records show, did return two contributions totaling $15,000 from the Hardy-Magerko PAC. However, the governor kept a $25,000 donation that came from the PAC in June 2004, less than a month before slots were legalized. At the time, the media had reported on the family's interest in slots. Enright said Rendell did not return the $25,000 because it was before the gambling law passed.

Phone calls requesting an interview with Magerko - who with her husband, Peter, have applied for a slots license at Nemacolin - were not returned. Hardy, who by law cannot hold a financial stake in a slots venue because he is a Fayette County commissioner, is not a partner in the proposed casino.

Gary Tuma, spokesman for State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo (D., Phila.), said lawmakers cannot prohibit people from donating before applying for a license for constitutional reasons. Still, he said, it was Fumo's office that pushed for the provision banning contributions once applications had been filed.

And Fumo, who has received at least $82,000 in the last two years from gambling applicants, is now inserting a notice in all of his fund-raising invitations that explains the law.

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In early 2004, as top legislative aides were feverishly fine-tuning the proposed gambling legislation, Mike Manzo got a brainstorm over a plate of buffalo wings at the Midtown Tavern in Harrisburg.

DeWeese's chief of staff scribbled an idea on a napkin: Expand the area in Western Pennsylvania that would be eligible for slots licenses from merely the city of Pittsburgh to the entire Pittsburgh region.

His idea eventually allowed for more licenses, including two new ones solely for resorts - opening the casino doors to the Nemacolin resort.

Over the last two years, the Hardy-Magerko PAC has given DeWeese's campaign about $45,000. That includes $3,970 it spent on a fund-raiser for DeWeese at the Nemacolin resort in November, about a month before it applied for a license.

Manzo acknowledged that his idea could help Nemacolin. But, he said, it was necessary because without expanding the number of licenses, Pennsylvania never could produce the $1 billion in revenue from slots that lawmakers say they want to fund statewide property tax reductions.

"Contributions are what they are - part of the political process. To say that these guys can be purchased for a campaign contribution is just ridiculous," said Manzo.

Donations, Manzo said, "have absolutely nothing to do with the way Bill advocates for public policy." DeWeese has supported gambling for decades, he added.

Several donors with license applications before the state say their giving has nothing to do with slots.

Some said they have been longtime contributors to candidates across Pennsylvania, and that the money they have donated is for ideological reasons - not to further their chances of obtaining a license.

"We give to people we believe can make a difference," said Brian Ratner, senior vice president of Forest City Enterprises Inc., part of the Station Square Gaming group, which is seeking a license in Pittsburgh. "We don't give to get a leg-up."

Since January 2004, Ratner and other members of his family have contributed at least $79,504 to candidates, including Perzel, Jubelirer and DeWeese.

Jack Kalins, president of Mountain Laurel Resort & Spa and Split Rock Resort, isn't convinced that money and politics can be divorced from the decision making.

His group had planned to apply for one of the two resort licenses available in the state, but decided against it just days before the application was due.

Kalins said he believed his venues in the Poconos didn't have a chance against politically connected applicants from the southwestern part of the state.

"Everyone we talked to said: 'Jack, don't waste your money. Give it to the church,' " he recalled. "Many of these guys are big, big players. Writing big campaign checks is a necessity these days."

He added: "In my opinion, it's what you have to do to get things done." - reprint from Philadelphia Inquirer