HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Citing a Team 4 investigative report, Pennsylvania lawmakers are criticizing the state Gaming Control Board and demanding to know why employees were sent on expensive overseas trips after Gov. Ed Rendell put a ban on state travel.

Sen. Jane Orie, R-McCandless, was among a group of two other senators and a dozen House members who are questioning the extravagant expenses uncovered by Team 4 investigator Paul Van Osdol earlier this month.

"Once again with the most recent travel expose by Channel 4 in Pittsburgh WTAE, the gaming board has demonstrated a blatant disregard for the interests of all Pennsylvania taxpayers," Orie said Wednesday.

Five top officials from the gaming board flew to Rome in September for an international gaming conference and stayed at a hotel costing $434 per night. They got $365 a day for meals, which, under state rules, they did not have to account for. But some of it was spent at the pool bar, according to receipts obtained by Team 4.

Rep. Mike Vereb, R-Montgomery County, and other lawmakers said the gaming board would not fulfill their request for information. Vereb and Orie asked state Treasurer Rob McCord to provide all travel expenses of the board and staff.

"I guess I found out why, when Team 4 issued their report," Vereb said.

The board has said the conference in Italy was important and was planned well in advance of Rendell's travel ban, but Orie said cancellation fees would have been cheaper than the actual costs of the trip.

In November, two gaming board employees went to Chicago, then to Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong and Macau. They were doing a background investigation on the new owners of the Meadows casino. While in Sydney, Australia, they stayed at the Swiss Grand Resort and Spa, a four-star beachfront hotel.

The Team 4 investigation found David Kwait went to a conference in Las Vegas after he had announced his resignation as the gaming board's enforcement director and just weeks before he left the board.

Vereb said Kwait or his new employer -- which does work for casinos -- should pay taxpayers back. But a gaming board spokesman said Kwait was still on the payroll at the time so it will not seek reimbursement.

"This gaming board is operating like a sovereign nation, answering to no one. Absolutely no one do they answer to, and the management style of this chairperson reminds me of AIG management tactics 101," Vereb said.

Team 4 found that Europe was a popular spot for employees of the Department of Community and Economic Development. In late September, a top DCED official went to Bilbao, Spain, then on to Bordeaux, Lyon and Paris, France, and finished up in Dusseldorf, Germany.

One of the purposes of his trip was to prepare for Rendell's trade mission to Europe -- a trip the governor canceled.

"The number and scope of junkets significantly alarmed me so much that it shows they plainly violated the spirit and the intent of the governor's ban on travel," Orie said.

The Republican legislators said they will file bills requiring that all state travel expenses be posted on the Internet. They also want the auditor general to do regular audits of the gaming board, and they want gaming board chair Mary Colins to resign.

Pennsylvania Auditor General Jack Wagner said his office will conduct an audit and take a closer look at state travel expenses because of Team 4's investigation.