HARRISBURG, Pa. —  Pennsylvania gambling regulators on Wednesday cleared the way for Philadelphia to become the nation's largest city with a casino, while rejecting Donald Trump's bid for a slot-machine parlor and plans for another near the historic Gettysburg battlefield.

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board chose from among 13 groups of casino giants, politically connected investors, celebrities and nationally known developers when it awarded five licenses for standalone slot parlors.

Winners include groups led by billionaire Chicago-based developer Neil G. Bluhm and the Connecticut-based Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, each of which plan to build on Philadelphia's riverfront. Detroit-based casino developer Don H. Barden won the single license up for grabs in Pittsburgh, where he plans to build in the city's stadium district.

"We're thrilled and delighted, we're very excited and we're going to build a great project," Bluhm said. "We want to do something really special here."

The gaming board rejected an application by Trump's Atlantic City, N.J.-based casino company for a casino in northwest Philadelphia. And it rejected a proposal by St. Louis-based casino operator Isle of Capri Casinos Inc. to build a casino next to Pittsburgh's aging Mellon Arena and pay for a new $290 million arena for the Pittsburgh Penguins without using taxpayer money. Also rejected was a hotly contested proposal by a group led by Connecticut-based Silver Point Capital LP for a casino near the Gettysburg battlefield.

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The board awarded 11 permanent slots licenses, each allowing as many as 5,000 machines. Six licenses are earmarked for the state's horse-racing tracks.

The board would not discuss the reasons behind its choices, saying those would be made clear in a document to be issued in the coming days. The board's chairman, Tad Decker, said the members needed several hours Tuesday night to reach unanimous decisions after months of analyzing the projects.

In a conference call with reporters, Gov. Ed Rendell said Decker told him that Barden, among other things, did the best job explaining his project and had the best traffic access to his site.

So far, two racetracks _ Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs and Philadelphia Park _ already have opened slots parlors under conditional licenses, while racetracks in Chester and near Erie are expected to open slots parlors in the next two months.

Rendell rejuvenated a 25-year drive to legalize casino-style gambling in Pennsylvania by promising that slots revenue would help reduce property taxes and revive the state's declining horse-racing industry. The law passed in 2004 authorized up to 61,000 slot machines at 14 sites.

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