To more specifically outlaw selling food or other items of value to allow "free" bingo or poker with it, Valentine said some legislators are looking at language to ban "giving to another anything of value for the right or opportunity to participate in an event or to enhance the likelihood of winning an event" where cash or other items of value are awarded.

House Speaker Curtis says he sees the likelihood of gambling law reforms passing as good — if police and prosecutors push them and suggest what clarifying language is needed.

"If the prosecutors and attorney general say laws are inadequate, I see the Legislature responding," he said.

Battles in Congress

Utahns, not surprisingly, have helped lead fights in Congress against moves they worry could trump state law and allow some forms of gambling into their state.

For example, Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, led the unsuccessful opposition in the House to the 2003 bill that could have allowed online gambling from anywhere in the nation on horse and dog racing, lotteries and jai alai in states where that is legal.

Ironically, that bill was designed to help stop online, off-shore casinos but contained exemptions for other sorts of online gambling. The Justice Department said it could have legalized those exempted forms in Utah, despite the state's ban on all gambling.

"It is my determination to protect Utah from the invasion of gambling from the outside, particularly from the Internet," Cannon told the House Judiciary Committee. It then stripped the offending provisions from the bill. But the full House later restored them and then passed the bill.

When the measure reached the Senate, Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, led a successful effort to strip those loophole provisions in the Senate Banking Committee.

Sen. Jon Corzine, D-N.J., whose state allows casinos in Atlantic City, had considered attempting to amend the bill in that committee to restore the loopholes. "But we clearly had the votes in committee to defeat it, so he didn't offer it," Bennett said.

International tug-of-war

Utahns are also entering some international fights that could legalize — and perhaps already have legalized— gambling in their state despite local bans.

For example, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff spearheaded a letter signed by 28 other state attorneys general this month to U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman seeking a greater voice for states in trade talks. That comes after trade negotiators may have made deals that could require Utah to allow online gambling.