HARRISBURG -- State gaming regulators must have known that a Poconos casino applicant was the subject of a state perjury probe before they awarded him a slot machine license, the state's top law enforcement officer said yesterday.

Col. Jeffrey B. Miller, the state police commissioner, rebutted statements by present and former members of the state Gaming Control Board that state police, in late 2006, withheld information from the board about an ongoing perjury investigation of slots applicant Louis DeNaples, a wealthy northeast Pennsylvania businessman.

The gaming board awarded Mr. DeNaples a slots license on Dec. 20, 2006, along with four other slots applicants, including Don Barden, who is building a Majestic Star casino in Pittsburgh.

Col. Miller was upset by a letter that former gaming board Chairman Tad Decker wrote to The Philadelphia Inquirer on Feb. 14. In it, Mr. Decker said there was "no evidence that would have permitted the board to find DeNaples unsuitable [for a slots license] other than that withheld by the state police."

Col. Miller, testifying before state House and Senate committees yesterday, said the gaming board had plenty of reason to at least delay action on the DeNaples license, if not deny it completely.

He said the gaming board's own investigators -- from the Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement -- had "suspected DeNaples had been untruthful in his sworn depositions."

Mr. DeNaples testified under oath before board investigators on Aug. 16, 2006, and Sept. 28, 2006. Col. Miller said board investigators, because they suspected Mr. DeNaples had lied about possible ties to organized crime figures, "asked the state police to investigate and provided the state police with transcripts of the depositions."

Mr. Decker, a Philadelphia lawyer, and current board Chairwoman Mary D. Colins, a former Philadelphia judge, have criticized state police for allowing the board to issue the slots license to Mr. DeNaples without telling it about the perjury investigation of Mr. DeNaples.

Col. Miller said board members should have known about the investigation, since their own investigators had turned over the transcripts to state police.

Gaming board spokesman Doug Harbach yesterday had no comment on Col. Miller's statements.

Col. Miller said there is another reason board members could have delayed action or denied Mr. DeNaples the license.

He said Mr. DeNaples had obtained "a large volume of documents [about himself] from the FBI" by using a Freedom of Information request. A gaming board investigator "repeatedly asked" Mr. DeNaples' lawyer for the FBI documents "but they were never provided."

Col. Miller said, "According to the board's regulations, failure to provide relevant information is, in and of itself, grounds to deny a license."

In early 2007, the state police turned the perjury investigation over to a Dauphin County grand jury, which later recommended that Dauphin County District Attorney Edward Marsico file perjury charges against Mr. DeNaples.

He did so in January. Mr. DeNaples' lawyer, Richard Sprague, has denied Mr. DeNaples did anything wrong.

The perjury charges against Mr. DeNaples have embarrassed the gaming board for giving him a license, and caused a bureaucratic feud between the board and state police. The casino remains open, but Mr. DeNaples has been suspended and is not allowed on the site or to benefit financially from its operation.