The Gaming Control Board has unanimously agreed that hand-held gaming machines are secure and can be kept out of the hands of minors, reports the Associated Press. The board is expected to give final approval to regulations governing the machines at its March meeting.

The machines will be signed out to patrons in casinos who can then use them in public areas of the hotel as well as the casino floor. That long wait on the buffet line could be broken up with numerous hands of video poker. The regulations preclude the machines being used in hotel rooms and other non-public areas of the hotel.

The plan was pushed through the 2004 Legislature by lobbyists hired by Cantor Gaming. The details of Cantor's plans were outlined last year in the Business Press.

Cantor is the only applicant who's filed for a license and the actual implementation could take a few more months. Still, this is more of the computerization that is taking over the gaming floor. And, with hand-helds you can get so many more machines onto the gaming floor than the old stand-beside-each-other-in-a-row kind of devices.