They accused gambling supporters of turning their backs on the elderly and the poor — the very people, they say, who are most susceptible to a slot machine’s seductive pull.

“Gambling is exploitation — and it’s often exploitation of the poor,” said U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts, speaking at the Lancaster County Courthouse this morning.

Gambling hurts those who can least afford to lose: “low-income gamblers and those with limited resources hoping for a big score at the slot machines,” he said. “Sadly, it’s those with the least to lose who lose the most.”

The rally, attended by 10 elected officials and another dozen staffers and longtime party workers, served as a precursor to what will be a contentious debate over gambling in Harrisburg this week.

Slots proponents say they have the votes to approve a massive plan to legalize 61,000 slot machines at 14 venues including racetracks and resorts. Approval could come as soon as tonight, lawmakers believe.

If the plan does pass, opponents say, it will have happened because the plan provided enough pork to sway individual legislators and a relatively painless way to raise $1 billion a year to lower property taxes.

“If we had a proposal before us in the state Legislature that would cause undesirable addictions, that would harm families, especially little children, that would increase the cost of social programs, that would increase personal bankruptcies and business bankruptcies — who would vote for it?” asked state Sen. Noah Wenger of Stevens, the majority caucus chairman.

“If you presented the bill packaged in such a way, you would never get it out of committee. You would never get any support for it,” Wenger said. “And yet this is precisely what could and would happen if we go down the road of legalized almost unlimited slot machines and perhaps other forms of gambling.”

One state lawmaker, Rep. Gordon Denlinger of Narvon, offered perhaps the most pointed remarks when he accused, by name, some ranking House Democrats of abandoning their longheld principles of working on behalf of society’s weak.

“Traditionally, it was the party of Roosevelt and Kennedy and Clinton that held claim on the causes of the poor and the downtrodden,” said Denlinger. “And so today I ask, Where are you, my Democratic friends?

“Where are you, Minority Leader (Bill) DeWeese and Representative (Mike) Sturla? Why have you sold your souls to the gambling industry for 30 pieces of silver? How much did it take to make you abandon the working poor, who will end up homeless and hopeless? And if you no longer fight for the poor, what cause beyond greed can you claim?”

Denlinger added that “the banner of those less fortunate has been picked up by the party of Lincoln and Reagan and Bush.”

Reached for comment afterward, Sturla suggested that if county Republicans are so morally opposed to legalizing slot machines, they could urge their school districts to refuse to accept any of the revenue for property tax reductions.

“Allow it for my constituents, if they want to have it,” said Sturla, who represents Lancaster City.

As for Denlinger’s remark about abandoning the poor, Sturla said: “If he wants to come help out in one of my homeless shelters — which exist only in Lancaster — I’d be glad to welcome any of their help any day.

“Any day they want to open a homeless shelter in their district to help, or if they want to provide the kind of services we do to the downtrodden in this county, I’d also welcome their help with any of that,” Sturla added.

Also speaking against the gambling plan were state Rep. Scott Boyd and commissioners Pete Shaub and Dick Shellenberger.