Centaur Inc., the company that wants to build a harness racetrack and casino in Beaver County, has spent at least $300,000 lobbying the state Senate over the past three years. Maybe.

Forest City Enterprises, which wants to build a casino in Station Square, has spent $76,000. Approximately. Its business partner, Harrah's Entertainment, has kicked in another $16,000. Possibly.

And Boyd Gaming, which wants to build a casino near Philadelphia, has spent a whopping $5.5 million. Give or take, oh, $5 million.

This week, the Senate made public a new batch of lobbying data and put the information online for the first time. In January, it released total spending by industry that suggested that gambling interests had paid $10.7 million for lobbying between January 2003 and June 2005.

The new reports detail how much specific organizations and individual lobbyists spent. But the figures aren't particularly reliable because the Senate permits, but does not require, lobbyists to report money they've spent to influence the House or the governor's office, neither of which has its own disclosure procedures. Some do. Some don't.

Senate reporting rules are also unclear, so some firms have over-reported their spending, listing total expenditures multiple times with the names of individual lobbyists, for example.

"Almost $100 million was reported by lobbyists [in the first three quarters of 2005], but we don't have a clue if that's how much was spent, even if people weren't double-reporting, because everybody is doing estimates," said Drew Crompton, counsel to Senate President Pro Tem Robert Jubelirer, R-Altoona.

"If there's duplication, then there's duplication. That's what they reported. ... Maybe over time the rule needs a little more clarification."

The only thing that's clear is that the gaming industry spent scads and scads of money, probably millions, trying to influence senators as they crafted the law that vastly expanded gambling in the state. But who knows?

That said, the Post-Gazette did check some key figures and found that while many of the Senate reports were tallied correctly, several were not. Those that were not gave the impression that companies spent millions more than they actually did.

Boyd, for example, probably spent less than $300,000 on lobbying -- for personnel, meals and lodging, gifts and communication fees -- over the last three years.

"My client didn't spend five-and-a-half million dollars," said Roy Wells, president of Triad Strategies.

When Triad reported its spending, it listed total spending figures for each of its 20 staff lobbyists. The Senate just added them all up, making Boyd appear to be one of the biggest spenders in Harrisburg.

Mr. Crompton nevertheless defended the methodology.

"You say our numbers aren't any good," he said. "Well, nobody else puts them out."

That's true. So are numbers that are sometimes wildly misleading better than no numbers at all?

"Information that you can't trust is not very helpful," said Tim Potts, co-founder of Democracy Rising and self-appointed critic of the state's lack of a lobbying disclosure law.

"It's pretty conspicuous that you can't trust much of what the Legislature says," Mr. Potts said.

The figures do provide a general road map of the Harrisburg influence infrastructure, however, showing the relationships among lobbyists and senators and providing some idea of who's pushing casino and racetrack industry viewpoints in Harrisburg.

WolfBlock Government Relations LP is one of the busiest. With a stable of lobbyists including chief executive officer Dick Gmerek, who also works for Philadelphia Park and Pocono Downs racetracks, WolfBlock represents Alliance Bally Gaming, 84 Lumber Co., Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority, Isle of Capri Casinos and, sometimes, the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Nemacolin, the Fayette County resort founded by 84 Lumber head Joe Hardy, is considered a shoo-in to win a casino license. The Penguins and Isle of Capri want to build a casino in Pittsburgh and use a share of the profits to fund a new hockey arena, but they are competing for a single Pittsburgh license against Forest City's Station Square proposal and developer Don Barden, who wants to build a casino on the North Shore.

Isle of Capri reported spending $36,000 and the Penguins nearly $13,000.

"Our lobbyists are talking about a new arena, and the development around the new arena," said David Morehouse, a consultant for the Penguins. The Penguins are represented primarily by Malady & Wooten, a Harrisburg public affairs firm.

Forest City, meanwhile, lobbies through GSP Consulting Corp., which has an office in Station Square's Landmark Building. That lobbying group also happens to represent Duquesne University, which two weeks ago publicly opposed the Isle of Capri/Penguins plan. (Incidentally, GSP also represents the Mario Lemieux Foundation.)

John Dick, of GSP, confirmed Forest City's $76,000 figure.

Mr. Barden didn't appear to have a lobbying organization registered with the Senate. But MAXT Associates, which owns the 17-acre site where Mr. Barden wants to build his North Shore casino, spent $164,000.

Much of the gambling industry money detailed in the Senate report was spent in the run up to summer 2004, as the industry and its lobbyists tried to shape the gaming law then being pondered by Pennsylvania's Legislature. The law that eventually was approved allowed slot machine casinos at 14 sites, including one in Pittsburgh.

Here are some other figures from the Senate report:

International Game Technology, the world's largest supplier of slot machines, spent about $400,000. Robert Robb, who represents IGT as well as MAXT Associates, confirmed that amount.

Mr. Robb also represents Penn National Gaming, which owns a racetrack near Harrisburg. Penn National spent close to $1 million from January 2003 through mid-year 2005.

Nemacolin spent $17,000, with 84 Lumber adding $8,700.

Centaur Inc., which wants to build the Beaver County track, spent $300,000, while Valley View Downs LP, the group that would run the racetrack, spent $17,000. Centaur's lobbyist, Robert Reber of Harrisburg, confirmed those figures.

Bedford Downs Management, which is competing against Centaur to build a harness racing track in Lawrence County, spent about $288,000, according to Senate records. Kline Associates Ltd., Bedford's lobbyist, said that number is accurate.

MEC Pennsylvania Racing, which owns The Meadows in Washington County and probably will win a slots license, spent about $600,000, according to Senate records. Mike Jeannot, Meadows vice president and himself a registered lobbyist, said MEC's in-house figures show MEC spent about $463,000.

MTR Gaming, the owner of Mountaineer Race Track and Gaming Resort in West Virginia, is working on an Erie casino and at one time wanted to build a North Shore casino in Pittsburgh. MTR spent $11,700, according to Senate records.