The House slots subcommittee continued its deliberative consideration of relatively minor amendments to the governor's gambling legislation today, following up on a similarly slow-paced session last night. They've waded through some dozens of amendments dealing with the procurement process for the computer system to run slots, the precise split of local development funds generated by a hypothetical Laurel site, how slots parlors would handle payouts on progressive machines and other relatively technical details. The big decisions -- like, say, whether there should be a location in Frederick and how many machines should be allowed in the state -- haven't come up.

Del. Frank S. Turner, the subcommittee's chairman, said the panel will meet again sometime this afternoon and should then get to the major issues. After that, he said, the legislation should go to the full committee for consideration tonight.

One interesting wrinkle so far is that the City of Baltimore is not doing well in its efforts to amend the bill. Mayor Sheila Dixon's administration wanted the legislation to specify that 95 percent of the city's take would go to reducing property taxes or renovating schools, and to further restrict the possible location of a Baltimore site to city-owned land in a non-residential area between I-95 and Route 295. The subcommittee declined to adopt either of them. A third amendment, naming the Pimlico Community Development Authority as the entity designated to administer funds for that neighborhood, was adopted.

City lobbyist Demaune Millard argued that the location restriction was "the best way we could make sure we minimize the impact in terms of residents," but the delegates didn't budge.

Turner said the amendment about the use of city funds "should be a local issue," and that the one further restricting the location would eliminate any hope of competitive bidding for the sites.