Pittsburgh has quite a pickle on its hands, doesn't it? Credit Suisse has informed Majestic Star CEO Don Barden that he's in default on a $200 million loan. It's yet another reminder (as though we needed more) that, as the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review puts it, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board "failed horribly in vetting Barden's financial wherewithal."

A string of promised (but undelivered) capital improvements at other Majestic Star properties? Irrelevant. Only an $80 million revolving credit line for Majestic Star? No reason for concern. Three money-losing years between 2003-06 (with worse to follow)? Details, details.

Barden, for his part, finally admitted that the needed $780 million won't come together, at least not with him at the helm. Despite still having made no equity contribution, Barden gets to keep 25% of the casino, while would-be rescuer Neil Bluhm's share goes up to 75%.

Well, not exactly.

Through some legalistic sleight of hand, Walton Street Capital Fund 6, of which Bluhm is a co-founder, gets 74% and Bluhm himself holds 1%. And Barden stays on as "principal licensee" (a privilege for which he paid $50 million) despite having surrendered control of the project. Because Bluhm is the principal investor on Philadelphia's litigated-to-death SugarHouse, he can't be the principal shareholder on Majestic Star.

But this is a guy who, unlike Don Barden, has an outstanding resumé in the development of commercial real estate. So no prizes for guessing who's going to be calling the shots from this point -- you can even argue that it would be derelict of someone with Bluhm's experience not to act as boss of getting this train wreck back on track.

At least Bluhm already has some experience in the casino business, operating in Ontario and Mississippi. But he's now got footholds in Pennsylvania's two biggest markets, an oligopolistic situation that runs counter to what the state clearly intended when the licenses were doled out.

And would-be $10 million investor Ira Lubert (still being vetted) is trying to get a casino of his own, elsewhere in the state. If Lubert receives both his wishes, casino ownership in Pennsylvania will start to get quite incestuous. (Cannery Resorts could buy into Barden/Bluhm's or Lubert's casino, which could also sell a share to Foxwoods and/or Harrah's, which could ... you get the picture.)

Also, Barden's 25% ownership stake escalates if he kicks in an "unspecified amount of money." Why unspecified? And how much? A dollar? The $35 million he was supposed to raise by selling the Las Vegas Fitzgeralds? For someone without one thin dime of equity in the project, Barden is enjoying mighty deferential treatment here. If Bluhm has the $770 million-$780 million in commitments he says he has, Barden's only remaining toehold in the project, from an asset standpoint, is that $50 million license -- which the PGCB could repossess, were it so inclined.

As long as this "Who's on first?" scenario continues to play out, the PGCB has finally lost patience (as have various Pittsburgh political players) and told Barden & Co. not to come back until they've got it fully sorted out. And: "Don't waste our time."

To the credit of the Control Board, it refused to cave to emotional blackmail from Centaur, which was trying to get an expedited slot license at Valley View Downs. Pleading financial hardship, Centaur wanted the PCGB to take a shortcut around its background-investigation process and hand out a license by Tuesday. Considering the ongoing fallout from the Louis DeNaples imbroglio, regulators wisely told Centaur to wait its turn.