After hitting the jackpot with its grand opening last month, the big money isn't rolling into Pittsburgh's Rivers casino, but that's not the financial gambling news that is cause for worry right now.

It's too soon to draw any conclusion from the North Shore casino's gross terminal revenue for its third week which, at $4.26 million, is almost $1 million less than the seven-day take during its opening week. Three weeks of operation is not enough time to predict whether the Rivers will meet expectations and become the state's top money-maker slots casino.

The real trouble is 300 miles away in Philadelphia, where the two planned casinos approved three years ago are barely off the drawing board.

Construction is just getting started on the SugarHouse casino along the Delaware River, and plans for the Foxwoods casino are little more than question marks. Significant local opposition delayed both projects and caused Foxwoods to give up on its waterfront site; it then decided to put a casino in a former department store in the city's center.

The state Gaming Control Board said no to that idea last week because Foxwoods' original proposed location was a key factor in the regulators' decision to award it the slots license in the first place. Now it says Foxwoods must have a casino running on that property by May 2011 or lose the license.

Ruling otherwise would have been unfair to the applicants who competed against Foxwoods for one of the state's 14 slots casino licenses, but it could mean even more delays. Foxwoods wants to start with a temporary facility and phase in a permanent casino that will be far less elaborate than its original proposal, but financing isn't certain.

These delays in Philadelphia are hurting all Pennsylvanians. The seven parlors that operated last year generated enough state revenue to fund tax cuts of $193 per homeowner everywhere but Philadelphia, and the figure would have been higher had more casinos been open. Nine are open now.

All of which makes questions about revenue levels at Pittsburgh's casino seem like small change.