Pennsylvania’s haphazard venture into legalized gambling has hit its first major scandal in almost the amount of time it takes a senior citizen to blow through a couple rolls of quarters on a slots machine.

The indictment Wednesday of Mount Airy Casino Resort owner Louis A. DeNaples on charges that he lied to state Gaming Control Board investigators about mob ties and other shady associates came a little more than a year after the state licensed its first casino.

The charges are an embarrassing black eye but hardly a surprise given the rush to get the casinos rolling.

It was bad enough that the flawed 2004 gambling law didn’t bar DeNaples from getting a license, given his 1978 federal felony fraud conviction. But the control board didn’t have to pick the powerful Scranton businessman either.

Is it too much to ask that the people given a gambling license have a clean record?