HARRISBURG -- Regulating the state's casino industry will cost $52.6 million in the fiscal year that starts July 1, an expense that slots operators initially expected to share 14 ways.

But instead of having 14 slot machine casinos up and running, only two racetrack/casinos are now operating, with a third to open later this month south of Philadelphia and a fourth, at a new racetrack in Erie, expected to open next month. That means a bigger share of the financial burden for each of the casinos that are in operation, unless the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board takes action.

Gaming board officials said yesterday they're considering ways to mitigate costs for the first casinos to open so they don't bear certain startup costs that their competitors, who will open later, wouldn't have to pay.

Act 71 of 2004, the law that legalized slot machines in Pennsylvania, requires casinos to reimburse the gaming board, the Department of Revenue and state police for the costs of regulating the industry.

"When the law was written, it was under the premise that all these casinos would be up and running within a short time of each other. It didn't happen that way," said Doug Harbach, spokesman for the gaming board.

"Now we need to devise a fair and equitable manner ... to fund oversight of this gaming industry at no cost to taxpayers," Mr. Harbach said. "Our goal is to make sure we have a solvent and profitable gaming industry that produces revenue to [lower] property taxes."

Currently, each casino that begins operation must deposit $5 million in a separate account. So far, that includes Mohegan Sun near Wilkes-Barre, Philadelphia Park in Bucks County and the soon-to-open Chester Downs in Chester, Delaware County. State regulators draw from those accounts in equal amounts regardless of a casino's revenue to pay regulatory expenses. Casino operators also are required to replenish those accounts to maintain a $5 million balance.

Once all 14 casinos open and establish their own $5 million accounts, which could happen by late 2008, the withdrawals will no longer be in equal amounts, but based on gross terminal revenue at each facility, Mr. Harbach said. Casinos with more slot machines would likely generate more revenue and therefore would contribute more to the regulatory fund.

Gaming board officials want to give a break to the three casinos already paying into the fund.

One way to do that would be to take out a commercial loan to fund regulatory expenses and repay it over five years, with all casinos contributing to the repayment once they open, gaming board Chairman Tad Decker wrote in a letter to casino operators Thursday.

Another option is to assess each of the three existing casinos 4.3 percent of their revenue now and charge them a lesser percentage than their competitors later, when more casinos open.

When all licensed casinos open, the regulatory assessment would be between 1.5 percent and 1.8 percent of revenue, but early openers would temporarily pay less, Mr. Harbach said.

For Chester Downs, for example, the fee would initially be about $12.5 million annually and less than $5 million later, based on revenue projections.

The gaming board hasn't yet decided which assessment option it will institute.

The regulatory assessment would be in addition to a 55 percent tax imposed on casinos and the onetime $50 million licensing fee that each casino must pay.

The gaming law requires the 55 percent tax be broken down as follows: 34 percent of a casino's gross terminal revenue to go to offset property taxes; 12 percent to go to help the horse racing industry; 4 percent to be split between the counties and towns where casinos are located; and 5 percent to go to a fund for economic development.