Let's assume two people on average occupy each vehicle that parks in the 10-story garage at the soon-to-be-built Majestic Star Casino.

Mathematically, with 3,800 parking spaces available, a potential 7,600 gamblers would be patronizing the place at one time.

Add people arriving on charter buses, on Port Authority buses, on trolleys via the new light-rail extension from Downtown and on foot from nearby venues and other parking lots.

Then as many as 10,000 people could be jammed into the North Shore building at one time to feed 5,000 slot machines, an unlikely, but nevertheless, possible scenario.

What are the odds of every single money-hungry machine being in play at one time while another 5,000 people stand in line waiting to try their luck?

Astronomical.

What are the odds of finding all of the casino parking spots occupied and the "Sorry -- Garage Filled" sign lighted, except on Steelers game days?

Almost astronomical.

It's hard to believe that Majestic Star owner Don Barden would want to build the biggest parking garage in Western Pennsylvania, one nearly twice the height of the casino.

Wouldn't 2,500 spaces be enough? Mr. Barden could eliminate the top four floors of parking, lower the height of the garage and keep it from overshadowing an otherwise good-looking riverfront building.

But a 10-story, 3,800-space parking garage?

Unbelievable.

Consider that the Pittsburgh Stadium Authority opened an imposing 10-story, 1,255 space parking garage in June 2006, a facility snuggled up against Interstate 279 between Heinz Field and PNC Park. Only a few hundred cars a day regularly park there.

By comparison, the Majestic Star Casino parking garage will be a concrete monster that's three times bigger.

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, County Chief Executive Dan Onorato and others have appropriately raised concerns that the garage will impact views of the city skyline adversely.

Lisa Schroeder, executive director of the Riverlife Task Force, said while the casino's design includes a 90-foot-tall glass atrium with a water feature that will add to the riverfront, the garage will overwhelm it.

The City Planning Commission will hold a public hearing Dec. 11 about a revised parking garage design. Currently, there are no plans to downsize the building or mask it with perforated metal screening.

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board said it has not imposed any magic number on developers about parking. Rather, the recommendation for the Majestic Star came from out-of-town consultants hired by Mr. Barden and said to have experience designing casinos.

A board spokesman said Mr. Barden could petition it if he wanted to substantially decrease the size of the garage.

Maybe Mr. Barden's experts overlooked the fact that more than 6,000 surface and parking garage spaces are available already on the North Shore in proximity to the casino site, not counting the Allegheny Center, which has 3,000 parking spaces.

Except for Steelers games, some Pirates games and a few special events, there's plenty of room for more cars almost 24/7. Mr. Barden could make arrangements with neighboring lot owners to validate parking tickets and provide shuttles in the unlikely event that a smaller casino garage filled to capacity.

Casino employees will park in a 400-space, off-site lot and be bused to and from their jobs.

According to Doug Harbach, the spokesman for the Gaming Control Board, Mr. Barden's consultants originally proposed a 4,100-space parking garage, thinking several floors could be built underground. When they discovered a water table not far below the surface, they opted to scale back to 3,800 spaces and go skyward 119 feet -- 1 foot below the maximum permissible zoning height on the North Shore.

Elsewhere in Pennsylvania, Harrah's Chester Casino and Racetrack has a 2,600-space parking garage. The Hollywood Casino scheduled to open in the near future at Penn National Race Course near Harrisburg will have a five-story, 2,500-space parking garage.

Even Atlantic City casinos provide comparatively less parking than the Majestic Star, and they include hotel rooms and suites, spas, multiple restaurants and bars, table games, swimming pools and other amenities as well as slots. Examples: Trump Plaza has a 2,658-space garage, Atlantic City Hilton, 2,658 spaces, and Resorts, 1,170 spaces.

Self-parking usually costs about $5 or $6 a day in Atlantic City, including a $3 minimum imposed by the state's Casino Control Act. The $3 goes to a Casino Revenue Fund for social services for senior and disabled residents and a Casino Reinvestment Development Authority for rebuilding blighted neighborhoods and community projects. Hmmmm!

Be thankful that the Pittsburgh Stadium Authority, the Pirates and Steelers didn't consult Mr. Barden's people when they built PNC Park and Heinz Field.

We might have ended up with a 50-story, 25,000-space parking garage.