The 53-0 vote would outlaw coin-operated machines that emulate poker, keno and other traditional gambling games. Other games of chance and skill would remain legal.

Georgia law prohibits gambling. But critics say the roughly 20,000 machines that have flooded into Georgia since South Carolina banned them last year are routinely used for illegal cash payouts.

The bill now heads to the House of Representatives, where it faces an uncertain future. At least some leaders in that chamber have said they'd rather regulate the machines than ban them.

''We feel confident that when they fully understand ... the horrible effect of organized gambling in Georgia that they will also pass this bill,'' said Augusta Circuit District Attorney Danny Craig, a critic of the games who worked with Senate leaders to draft an anti-video poker bill.

In the Democratic-controlled General Assembly, Republicans led an unsuccessful bid to rid the state of the games during the winter's regular session.

But Gov. Roy Barnes, a Democrat, agreed to add the issue to the Legislature's current special session on redistricting. Last week, he publicly supported a ban, calling video gambling a ''cancer'' and ''scourge'' in the state.

A Georgia Bureau of Investigation report estimates that video poker is a $1 billion industry in Georgia. The report says policing the games is difficult and suggests a ban to avoid the decadeslong struggle that occurred in South Carolina.

Reach Doug Gross at (404) 589-8424 or mnews@mindspring.com.