In a letter sent quietly to legislative leaders in Albany two weeks ago, Governor George Pataki apparently changed his position on legalized gambling in New York State, and is asking lawmakers to support the legalization of non-Native American casinos here.

"With each passing year, our state forfeits millions of vacationers and billions of dollars to casino resort areas in Connecticut, Atlantic City, Quebec, Las Vegas, and now, Niagara Falls, Ontario," the governor wrote in the letter, which was sent to Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver on May 14.

"Whatever our personal feelings about gambling, we can no longer deny that New York State sends more gamblers to these resorts than any other state... I believe that the people of this state deserve the right to decide for themselves whether legalized casino gambling is an industry they want to permit in New York."

The casino measure Pataki favors is reportedly similar to the measure rejected by the Republican-controlled State Senate in 1997.

Had it been adopted, that plan would have permitted, with state-wide and local voter approval, the opening of casinos almost immediately in several communities across the state.

The guidelines called for one casino each to be allowed in the communities of Buffalo, Niagara Falls, and Saratoga, and unlimited casinos in the Catskill Region.

Though the law did not then permit casino gambling in New York City, in the long run, many observers said, it could open the door to the installation of slot machines at Belmont Park in Elmont, which straddles the Queens and Nassau County borders.

Some form of expanded gambling opportunity is always on the table in Albany, where horse racing and wagering legislation is amended each year as part of the overall state budget agreement.

Last year, for instance, a three-way deal was on the table which, if it had been adopted, would have been one of the most sweeping racing deals made in New York State in years.

Under the proposal ¬ aimed at bolstering the sagging thoroughbred industry ¬ video lottery terminals would have been allowed to be placed at racetracks.

In return, off-track-betting corporations would have been allowed unlimited simulcasting rights for in and out-of-state race tracks. And in return for agreeing to the granting of those rights, the NYRA would be granted a seven-year extension to its franchise here and at the two other thoroughbred race tracks it runs.

The principle behind installing the video lottery machines is a simple one: while the machines would represent another gambling interest being introduced at the track, cutting into wagering profits, a percentage of the money the machines would take in would be reinvested in the track, thereby helping to shore up a struggling industry.

Even before the principals sat down to talk about it, however, such a plan already had its critics. Among them was Phil Johnson, a hall of fame trainer who works out of Belmont Park.

"There's been a lot of talk over the years about video lottery machines being installed at the track, but where it has been tried in the past, the Louisiana Downs, for instance, it really hasn't had a big impact," he said in an interview with this newspaper a year ago.

Rather than video lottery, Mr. Johnson believed the real answer to racing's woes is in slot machines.

To see that Mr. Johnson had a point though, one need only look ar Delaware's eponymously named Delaware Park, where nearly $35 million flows through the slots in the track's renovated second floor grandstand each week.

"Before the slots came, that track had fallen on hard times and almost closed completely," Mr. Johnson said. "Now, thanks to the revenue the slots generate, purses at that track are up 60 to 70 percent and are some of the best in the United States, enhancing competition there and the sport in Delaware in general."

True? Well on just a single day this year, July 13, the track awarded $730,000 in purses to horsemen. That's a far cry from even just two years ago, when daily purses barely reached $60,000.

The irony is, the installation of the slot machines didn't do anything to significantly boost the amount of money wagered at the track, but the casino in the grandstand was mobbed with patrons, and that made all the difference.

The governor has requested that both legislative leaders hold a vote in their respective bodies to determine whether to put a constitutional amendment to legalized casinos on the November, 1999 ballot.

Given the often Byzantine ways of the state capital, it is unclear what effect Pataki's letter will have on the prospects for legalizing casino gambling ¬ aside from once again placing the issue on the bargaining table as the legislature moves toward summer adjournment.

The move represents something of a sea change for the governor, who came under criticism for doing little to see that the measure passed in the senate in 1997.

Nor surprisingly, some see this as just another example of election year politics.

"It doesn't surprise me that suddenly in an election year for him, the governor is trying to give the impression that he's very supportive of it," Assembly Speaker Silver said after the letter became public.

"If Pataki had pressed senate Republicans last year, he could have had second passage [in the assembly] and the item would have already been on the ballot. His silence was deafening last year," Silver continued.

The speaker said that the assembly would likely approve a new casino resolution, just as it did in 1995.

Because a proposed constitutional amendment must pass in two separate sessions of the legislature in order to be put up for a state-wide referendum, no assembly vote was held last year after the senate rejected the measure.

Shortly after receiving the letter from the governor, Senator Bruno issued a statement saying that it's up to someone else to initiate a referendum proposal, since the senate has already rejected the proposition.

Currently, the Native-American-run Turning Stone casino, operating in Rome, New York, is the only legal casino operating in New York State.