It's bad enough that the promised first-class jewel that the North Shore casino was supposed to be is dwarfed by an oversized hulk of a parking garage. Now the owners want to hang two jumbotrons on the sides to advertise what's going on inside the slots parlor.

The building's architect on Tuesday presented plans for two screens, each 31.25 feet wide and 17.5 feet high, one that would face Downtown and the other on the side facing the West End Bridge.

Though they would be smaller than the giant television screen inside Heinz Field and the one at PNC Park, the casino's LCD boards would be more intrusive on the riverfront because they face away from the building rather than inside toward the paying customers.

The signs would be similar to the one at Theater Square on Penn Avenue but, unlike it, the casino boards would be visible from afar.

The city's ordinance code, appropriately, takes note of the significance of the riverfront, designating a Downtown Riverfront District and imposing special rules that apply to signs, buildings or other development. The code likewise makes a distinction between advertising signs and identification signs. One distinction is that advertising signs may promote products that are not made or sold at the building bearing the sign. The casino operators say their screens qualify as identification signs.

But here is how the city code defines such a sign: It is one that is "used to identify the name of the principal entity occupying the premises; the profession of the principal occupant; the name of the building on which the sign is displayed; the name of a public destination facility, or portion thereof, including any sponsor or memorialized names assigned thereto; or the name of the major enterprise or principal product or service on the premises."

The casino operators want to use their signs to advertise events and restaurants inside the facility, perhaps to show new slot machines that are available and possibly to display live shots from concerts or other performances. We think those intentions far exceed what the city allows in an identification sign, and members of the planning commission wisely raised questions about the plans during Tuesday's presentation.

They also want to know how the screens fit into the overall debate over electronic billboards in the city, a concern that we share.

One good thing about the proposal is that the casino is not attempting to increase the amount of light it emits -- an issue because of its proximity to the Carnegie Science Center observatory next door. But that is not enough.

The casino already has been given enough leeway in varying from the sleek, glass-and-steel structure that was presented in early architectural plans. Adding two giant televisions on the side of its garage is going too far.