Higher-than-anticipated revenue collections have virtually guaranteed that there will be no prolonged state budget impasse past Saturday's end of the current fiscal year.

But the state's new slots parlors have added another layer of insurance against an extended impasse, that several times in decades past forced a state government shutdown, and delayed paydays for state workers.

Deep within an article in Wednesday's Butler Eagle dealing with the current state budget deliberations was the message that "should the budget be held up for weeks past July 1, the state will furlough about 26,000 employees, and shut down some nonessential operations, such as manning state parks, issuing permits and driver's licenses, approving grants and processing slot-machine invoices — meaning casinos would have to shut down."

If lawmakers intend to maximize the property tax reductions for homeowners resulting from new slot machine gambling, it would seem that the last thing they'd want to do is shut off that revenue flow due to politics and legislative inaction.

On a lesser note, some lawmakers might not want to wager on how a prolonged slots shutdown might be received by the thousands of state residents who enjoy playing the slots.

For example, senior citizens are a major voting bloc, and many senior citizens play the slots.

In addition, the shutdown of the slots parlors would have an adverse impact well beyond the slots parlors' walls. It would hurt bus companies, restaurants, hotels and motels, gasoline stations and numerous other entities that serve slots players.

Some of that lost revenue would probably cross the borders into such states as West Virginia and New York, which had been the recipients of plenty of slots-gambling money from Pennsylvania residents prior to the start of the Keystone State's dance with the one-armed bandits.

If West Virginia voters approve table games in balloting scheduled for Saturday, there will already be an added draw for some members of this state's gambling public to travel the extra miles to have more gaming options. Pennsylvania doesn't need a budget impasse to exacerbate the potential for loss.

Depending on the fate of table games in West Virginia, that escalation of gambling options could become an issue in Pennsylvania in the not-too-distant future.

As long as the slots parlors have the potential to be adversely impacted by failure to approve a state budget on time, it would seem that lawmakers will be inclined to travel the extra mile to reach an on-time budget accord, or at least very close to being on time.

Even opponents of slots gambling can view that as a slots bonus — without feeding any money into a slot machine.