HARRISBURG -- Hours after Poconos casino owner Louis A. DeNaples was charged with four counts of perjury yesterday, the state Gaming Control Board indefinitely suspended his slots license and ordered him not to set foot on his property, the Mount Airy Casino Resort in Monroe County.

Board Executive Director Anne Neeb said Mr. DeNaples cannot be present at the casino, which opened in October, and cannot profit monetarily until the charges filed against him by Dauphin County District Attorney Edward Marsico have been resolved in court.

Mr. DeNaples, a wealthy, prominent businessman in northeast Pennsylvania who owns the $400 million resort, is charged with lying to state gambling regulators during a prelicense background investigation about his relationship with four organized crime figures. He will voluntarily surrender for a preliminary arraignment by the end of the week, said Mr. Marsico.

Prosecutors alleged that Mr. DeNaples didn't tell the truth to the Gaming Control Board when he talked about his relationship with William D'Elia, reputed head of a Scranton-area organized crime family; the late Russell Bufalino, an organized crime boss; Ron White, a deceased Philadelphia businessman once accused of trying to trade government contracts for political donations; and Shamsud-din Ali, who is serving a seven-year prison term for using his political connections in Philadelphia to obtain dubious loans, donations and city contracts.

The charges came barely a year after the state allowed the first slot-machine casino to open in Pennsylvania.

Mrs. Neeb said that all of the monetary profit that Mr. DeNaples would have received from the casino in the coming weeks will be placed in an escrow account, and either returned to him if he is cleared or kept by the state if he is convicted. The state receives 55 percent of the gross gaming revenue from each casino in the state and the owner receives 45 percent.

Gaming board officials will travel to Mount Airy today to meet with its officials to outline how the casino will be run for the next few weeks or months, until the charges are adjudicated.

"Mr. DeNaples cannot enter the Mount Airy property and cannot exercise any control over the casino" until the charges are resolved, Ms. Neeb said.

She said the gaming board staff will oversee the running of the casino. She said it will stay open so that gamblers can continue to play the slots and the state will continue to receive $1.4 million in weekly revenue, which will be used for property tax reduction.

The gaming board will hold a special meeting Tuesday if Mr. DeNaples wants to appeal the suspension of his license.

Gaming board spokesman Doug Harbach refused to speculate on what would happen to Mr. DeNaples' license if he is convicted of perjury.

Mr. DeNaples' attorney, Richard Sprague of Philadelphia, assailed Mr. Marsico, who filed perjury charges based on a recommendation from a grand jury, which has spent the last seven months investigating whether Mr. DeNaples lied so he could get a lucrative state slots license.

The perjury charges were filed in Dauphin County because the board held its background hearings on slots applicants in Harrisburg.

"This presentment is an outrageous attempt on the part of this prosecutor to pursue a political agenda that is aimed at embarrassing the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board," said Mr. Sprague. "Louis DeNaples is an innocent victim who is caught in the middle of that dispute."

He said Mr. DeNaples "is a good and decent man, and these charges amount to nothing more than a shameful witch hunt by the prosecutor ... I have no hesitation in saying as loudly as possible that Mr. DeNaples is absolutely innocent of these charges."

Through a spokesman, Kevin Feeley, Mr. DeNaples has repeatedly maintained in recent weeks that he has no ties to organized crime.

There has been criticism of the gaming board, and its Bureau of Investigations and Enforcement, for not being more diligent in its investigation of Mr. DeNaples before the board awarded him the slots license on Dec. 20, 2006.

He won the license despite pleading no contest in 1978 in a scheme to defraud the federal government and the appearance of his name in various state and federal intelligence reports on organized crime over the years.

Mrs. Neeb defended the agency, saying it completed all the required background investigations and found no proof of the allegations before Mr. DeNaples got the license.