Topeka ? Senators rejected a bill Friday night to expand gambling, despite facing a Kansas Supreme Court order to increase spending on public schools and looming financial problems.

The vote was 22-17 against a bill authorizing casinos in Wyandotte County and southeast Kansas and up to 5,500 slot machines total at five dog and horse racing tracks. The action killed the measure.

Other gambling proposals could surface later. However, Senate leaders who’d backed the bill immediately announced that the Ways and Means Committee would begin Saturday to consider trimming spending from the $11.4 billion state budget legislators already have approved for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

“I don’t think any cuts are going to pass, so that’s going to put the monkey on these people’s backs as to where they’re going to get the money,” said chairman Dwayne Umbarger, R-Thayer, who supported the gambling bill.

But Sen. Phil Journey, R-Haysville, an opponent, promised to start drafting ideas for cuts.

“I think we can find some money,” he said. “I think maybe we can find $50 million – easily.”

Legislators were in the third day of a special session called by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius because of the court’s mandate to provide an additional $143 million to schools by July 1.

The state can rely on existing revenues to finance new spending on public schools through June 2006, but after that, it would face budget shortfalls.

“Certainly, we’re going to be available to talk to all the legislators about this issue,” said Doug Lawrence, a gambling industry lobbyist. “Ultimately, their options are limited.”

Critics argued again Friday that existing businesses would lose money to casinos and their out-of-state owners. They also argued that expanded gambling would result in more gambling addicts and more broken families.

“It’s just a terrible mistake,” said Sen. Jim Barnett, R-Emporia.

Supporters had hoped the promise of new revenue for education and to forestall budget problems would reverse years of frustration. They also argued the measure would allow the state to attract tourists and recapture revenue from Kansans who already travel to Missouri or Oklahoma to gamble.

“People want to participate in gaming,” said Sen. Jim Barone, D-Frontenac. “They vote with their pocketbooks. They vote with their gas tanks.”

Sebelius supports expanded gambling. But since the early 1990s, no gambling bill has survived a swirling vortex of doom created by gambling promoters’ competing interests, desire of various groups and communities to claim a slice of the pie, Indian tribes protecting their own casinos and opposition to gambling on moral grounds.

“I will pay attention to my moral adviser – and that was my mother,” said Sen. Roger Reitz, R-Manhattan. “There’s nothing the matter with values.”

The measure, known as “Little Casino,” guaranteed the state at least 24 percent of the gross revenues from the new gambling, and the amount could be as much as 39 percent, depending on developers’ expenses. Developers could have started work on casinos in Wyandotte County and in Crawford or Cherokee county once they had a contract with the Kansas Lottery. Casinos would have been permitted in Dodge City, Junction City and Wichita if local voters, then the Legislature, approved.

Another proposal, dubbed “Big Casino,” would allow casinos in those three communities without further legislative authorization. Voters would have to approve every casino, but in Wyandotte and Crawford counties, they’ve already passed advisory questions.

Other issues complicated the debate. Veterans and fraternal organizations want permission to have slot machines in their halls, and the Kickapoo and Sac and Fox tribes are pursuing compacts with Sebelius for casinos in Wyandotte County and southeast Kansas.

Gambling promoters have to expand any proposal to get some legislators’ votes, but that causes them to lose votes from lawmakers who are uneasy about gambling but still willing to accept limited growth.