HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Table games like poker and blackjack will soon be legal in Pennsylvania.

Gov. Ed Rendell is expected to sign legislation as early as Thursday legalizing table games at Pennsylvania's slot machine casinos.

The state House approved the measure 103-89 on Thursday, a day after the state Senate approved the compromise bill.

Officials said the state needs the revenue generated by expanded gambling to fill a budget hole. Rendell had threatened the layoff of nearly 1,000 state workers if a bill wasn't passed this week.

The legislation lets larger casinos install 250 tables for games including craps and roulette, while the smaller resorts casinos can have 50. Regulators said it will be at least six months before table games are up and running.

Not all lawmakers are onboard with the expanded gambling plant, including 30th District state Sen. John Eichelberger, who questioned how much of a difference it will make. "Atlantic City, Las Vegas -- those areas they're not going well. We're going to be in the same boat. We can't base our budget on a … line that fluctuates as much as gambling does. That's just bad policy," Eichelberger said.

House Republicans aren't pleased with the bill either. Minority leader Sam Smith of Jefferson County said his party was excluded from crafting the bill and said the approval process ignored many of the problems in the state's existing gambling law.

Smith said, "The gaming expansion bill has been crafted and hidden from public view just as the original, flawed bill. It's not how the people's business should be done."

Smith further said that five years after the original slots law, property taxes still haven't decreased in Pennsylvania as promised.