House members voted 158-12 to rid the state of machines critics say are routinely used for illegal gambling. The bill now goes back to the state Senate, which has already unanimously supported it, for approval of minor changes.

Gov. Roy Barnes, the effort's main backer since joining the effort two weeks ago, would then be expected to sign it into law.

During about an hour and a half of debate, Rep. Charlie Smith, Mr. Barnes' floor leader in the House, argued that merely tightening laws on the games, as some had proposed, would not be enough to stop operators bent on using them illegally.

''If you leave a little crack in the door, the resourceful folks are going to find a way to get in,'' said Mr. Smith, D-St. Marys. ''In order to eliminate the bad, you've got to eliminate it all. There's just no middle ground.''

Mr. Smith told House members of his own visit to a video poker parlor, where several laws appeared to have been violated, and repeated stories of Georgians who have poured thousands of dollars into games a Georgia Bureau of Investigation report calls ''the crack cocaine of gambling.''

But Rep. David Lucas, D-Macon, the General Assembly's most vocal video poker defender, argued that such horror stories are attributable to gambling addiction, not problems with the games.

''If an alcoholic gets drunk, do you put the liquor store out of business?'' said Mr. Lucas, who said he has friends in the video poker industry.

''If an obese person eats too much food at the restaurant, or goes to the grocery store ... when they know they need to be on a diet, do you put the grocery store out of business?''

He also took a swipe at Augusta Circuit District Attorney Danny Craig, who has been active in helping draft legislation banning the games.

''I don't know whether the district attorney down in Augusta is trying to run for governor or another job, (but) he's been doing a good job,'' Mr. Lucas said. ''He's been all over the television, the newspapers, the Internet.''

Mr. Lucas single-handedly killed an effort to ban video poker during the General Assembly's regular session, shouting down opponents in a speech that lasted until midnight on the session's final day, preventing a vote.

After that Republican-led attempt to ban the games fizzled, GOP leaders asked Mr. Barnes, a Democrat, to add the issue to the list of items they may consider during this summer's special session to redraw political lines.

After reading the GBI report, which said video poker has become a $1 billion industry that routinely breaks state law, Mr. Barnes agreed.

He called the games a ''cancer'' and a ''scourge'' and held five news conferences in two weeks, calling for a ban. Some House leaders, who wanted more regulations for the machines, said Mr. Barnes' interest led them to back away from the debate.

Members of the amusement games industry, who had proposed compromises including limiting the number of machines per location, were predictably disappointed after the vote.

''The legal operators today are asking the same question they asked when the legislation was first proposed - what could we have done differently?'' said Jim Tudor, president of the Georgia Association of Convenience Stores. ''It's very unfortunate that we were not able to find something that was short of a total ban.''

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