Topeka ? House Speaker Mike O’Neal said Friday that he doesn’t want his chamber debating whether to change the state’s gambling law, saying lawmakers have more important things to consider.

A bill from Rep. Julie Menghini, a Pittsburg Democrat, would change the gambling law to encourage more companies to bid on a contract for a casino in southeast Kansas. It would reduce the investment required for the Cherokee County gambling zone from $225 million to $50 million and cut the privilege fee from $25 million to $5.5. million — matching the amounts set for the casino under construction in Dodge City.

The bill was assigned to the Economic Development and Tourism Committee, and O’Neal said he hopes Chairwoman Lana Gordon, a Topeka Republican, will let it die there.

“I didn’t give her specific instructions other than I’m not particularly interested in having another gaming debate, so I suspect she will not have hearings,” O’Neal, a Hutchinson Republican, said.

The Legislature enacted the gambling law in 2007, authorizing one casino in each of four areas around the state and slot machines at horse and dog tracks and calling for minimum investments for each zone.

Penn National Gaming Inc. won the state contract for the southeast Kansas casino, but walked away from it in September, it couldn’t compete with the Quapaw tribal casino nearby in Oklahoma.

Casinos in Wyandotte County and Summer County also fell through, and the Kansas Lottery has reopened bidding in all three of those zones.

O’Neal, who voted against the 2007 gambling bill, said lawmakers need to focus on the state’s budge crisis. The Legislature is working on closing an expected $199 million deficit in the current state budget and must deal with the budget for the next fiscal year, which starts July 1.

“I don’t want to get the debate bogged down again over gaming, and I would remind folks that the gaming bill that passed and the courts upheld was exactly the way the industry wrote it,” O’Neal said.

Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt also said he wasn’t interested in a gambling debate.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea. There are plenty of other issues in play and we don’t need to reopen that,” the Independence Republican.