TALLAHASSEE -- No legislator is immune when it comes to the influence of the gambling industry in Florida.

All 160 members of the Florida Legislature have either accepted a campaign check from the industry or benefited from its contributions to their parties. In the 2006-08 election cycle alone, horse and dog tracks, jai alai frontons and the Seminole Indian Tribe gave nearly $5 million to legislators and political parties -- more than double the $2.2 million gambling interests contributed to lawmakers in the previous election.

Some legislators have worked closely with the industry or have allies who do. And in every corner of the state, ailing parimutuels are promising something lawmakers are hungry for in this perilous economy: new jobs -- if legislators give them new games.

''We have a choice,'' said Sen. Dennis Jones, a Seminole Republican who heads the Senate committee that oversees gambling regulation. ``We can either help out an industry that has been a good corporate citizen, produced jobs and paid taxes for decades and use the revenue for education, or we can raise property taxes to pay for education. I know what's going to be my vote.''

In the coming weeks, lawmakers will decide between two very different proposals to change the face of gambling at Florida's tracks, frontons and Indian casinos, a decision potentially worth millions of dollars.

The House proposal would force the Seminoles -- current kings of the gambling scene in Florida -- to scale back the gambling they won under an agreement signed in 2007 by Gov. Charlie Crist. They would have to get rid of their blackjack tables but they would be allowed to keep their slot machines.

The Senate plan, sponsored by Jones, would allow the Seminoles full casinos at seven locations, allowing them to expand their current offerings of slot machines and blackjack to include roulette, craps and unlimited poker pots. Every parimutuel in the state would be allowed to offer new forms of gambling.

Gambling opponents say lawmakers should reject all forms of gambling. They interpret any compromise between the two proposals as a sign of gambling's influence.

''The gambling lobby needs to be soundly told that our representative government is not for sale,'' said Dennis Baxley, a former state representative from Ocala who now represents the Christian Coalition of Florida.

He compared the intense lobbying and stream of campaign cash to a ''shakedown'' that tries to entice lawmakers to ''put lipstick on a pig'' by making ''predatory gambling'' look like wholesome entertainment.

His organization wants lawmakers to let the parimutuel industry die a natural death.

''We have to realize some industries change,'' Baxley said. ``There's no buggymakers any more. There may not be any parimutuels after a while.''

But the industry's deep roots in Florida make it difficult for lawmakers to turn their backs on horse and dog tracks in their communities. In many cases, they are among the oldest operating businesses in town.

From Monticello's Jefferson County Greyhound track in the Panhandle to Miami Jai Alai, ''they are part of the historic framework of the state of Florida,'' said Steve Geller, a former Hallandale Beach state senator who became an expert on gambling issues during his years in the Legislature.

The industry's reach is widespread in Florida because it has operators in every region. Also, there are more horse and dog tracks than in any other state and the only jai alai games left in the nation.