In the weeks since state lawmakers agreed to legalize video gambling in bars and other local establishments to help fund a $31 billion public works program, local governments across the suburbs have debated whether to allow the machines or ban them.

Many have enacted local prohibitions forbidding the machines. Others have taken a wait-and-see approach or are studying the issue.

Kildeer, Buffalo Grove and Mettawa are among the towns that have enacted bans. So has the DuPage County Board.

Now it's the Lake County Board's turn.

This Wednesday, the board's finance committee will take up the issue. At stake is whether the machines will be allowed to be installed in bars, restaurants and clubs in unincorporated areas within the county.

The meeting is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. at the county government center in downtown Waukegan.

"That's the first discussion," County Administrator Barry Burton said. "I don't know what's going to come from that. There are a number of ways they could go."

Many commissioners already have come out favoring a ban. Vernon Hills Republican Aaron Lawlor, who joined the panel this summer, thinks funding government projects with gambling revenue is a mistake.

But the program has supporters, too. Chief among them is Corky Anderson, a Beach Park bar owner and president of the Lake County Tavern Owners Association who believes local bars could lose customers to other communities if a ban is enacted.