Slot proponents appeal, file petitions

The backers of a ballot initiative to legalize slot machines in the District have filed petitions with the local elections board, while simultaneously asking the D.C. Court of Appeals for a rehearing — less than a month after judges deemed the gambling bid a violation of federal law.

The appeal to the full D.C. Court of Appeals, filed Wednesday, seeks a rehearing to overturn the unanimous Nov. 22 ruling of a three-judge panel that stopped the slots measure dead in its tracks. The District, the panel ruled last month, is explicitly banned under a 1951 federal statute from manufacturing, reconditioning, repairing, selling, transporting, possessing or using any gambling device.