Governor Spitzer’s recommendation that the New York Racing Association preserve its control over the state’s three premier racetracks still leaves unresolved the most lucrative aspect of a bidding war that has involved several major casino developers.

With a deadline for awarding the franchises less than four months away, state lawmakers, who have final say over selecting the racing and gambling operators, have indicated that they would likely leave the Saratoga, Belmont Park, and Aqueduct race tracks in the hands of NYRA, a nonprofit group with a long history of financial trouble that has run the tracks since 1955.

Left wide open is the competition to control gaming at Aqueduct, a far more profitable business than the declining thoroughbred racing industry.

Mr. Spitzer said his administration would submit a plan within two months for the awarding of a separate franchise to operate thousands of video lottery terminals at the Jamaica, Queens, track.

The winner stands to collect nearly $200 million in annual gambling revenue from the $600 million the terminals are expected to gross.

Among the bidders expected to throw hats into the ring are Las Vegas casino mogul Steve Wynn, the Mohegan Sun, and Delaware North — all of which are connected to private entities vying for control of the tracks — as well as newcomers that have not been involved in the bidding process.

The governor’s decision to side with NYRA was regarded by many in the racing industry as the path of least resistance. Throughout the many stages of the bidding process, the association has claimed it owned the land under the tracks, on which it has paid almost $500 million property taxes over the last 52 years; NYRA has threatened to seek a court injunction to shut down racing if the state took away its franchise.

“This whole thing was just a charade. It was all over before it began,” a former president of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, Richard Bomze, said. “It was written in the wind because the whole land issue was what determined the awarding of the franchise.”

Competing bidders questioned why Mr. Spitzer would favor a group that loses $20 million a year, only recently dealt with a money-laundering and tax evasion scandal, and has been sharply criticized for the conditions of its facilities.

Senate Republicans have complained that the Spitzer administration did not consult with them and that the governor unilaterally tossed aside a lengthy and costly bidding process that began under the Pataki administration.

“Unfortunately, Governor Spitzer bypassed that process and, with just four months until the current franchise expires, his announcement today still leaves more questions than answers,” the Senate Majority Leader, Joseph Bruno, said in a statement. Republicans have scheduled a hearing for next Wednesday to discuss their plans.

Mr. Spitzers’s decision also comes with a heavy cost to the state. In exchange for relinquishing ownership rights of the tracks, NYRA has been forgiven of $130 million in pension and other liabilities to the state, and will receive a $75-million bailout package to get it out of bankruptcy, according to the terms of the proposed deal. The state, however, expects to recover the payments through revenue from video lottery terminals at Aqueduct.

A senior Spitzer administration official told The New York Sun that private bidders downscaled their promises of capital investments as it became increasingly likely that the Legislature would allow the installation of video lottery terminals only at Aqueduct. Mr. Spitzer, as state attorney general, led an investigation into NYRA that resulted in the convictions of almost two-dozen employees. In 2003, NYRA faced federal charges of tax evasion that were deferred after the group agreed to be monitored by a court-appointed law firm, Getnick & Getnick, which in 2005 issued a report praising the association for changing its leadership and adopting new safeguards against corruption

NYRA recently awarded the Manhattan firm a $125,000-a month no-bid contract to advise the association on integrity issues over five years.

“The only thing that remains of NYRA today that was there when I began to investigate is the name. Everything else has changed,” Mr. Spitzer said.

A year ago, Mr. Spitzer, as a candidate for governor, took a much tougher stance toward the racing association.

“We own the land,” Spitzer told reporters last September. “They’re not going to use that as leverage. They are a state entity, created by the state. They’re a pawn of the state.”