Stephen Hilbert, the flamboyant former chief executive of Conseco Inc. and would-be part-owner of a racetrack casino in Lawrence County, is asking Pennsylvania's casino regulatory panel if he can withdraw his application for a casino license, a move that would minimize the need for state investigators to dig into his personal and financial history.

Mr. Hilbert and his Indiana-based MH Equity investment group still would be able to extend a line of credit to Centaur Inc., the racing company that is building Valley View Downs in Lawrence County. But Mr. Hilbert is backing out of an option that would give him "the contractual right to acquire an equity interest in Centaur."

"Petitioners respectfully state that they do not now, and will not in the future, hold any equity interest in Centaur or Valley View," the petition says.

In other words, he would no longer stand to be part-owner of the casino and racetrack.

Had he acquired an equity interest, Mr. Hilbert would have profited more directly from the casino, and might have had a say in the operation of the casino and harness racing track. As a creditor, his relationship to Centaur would be like that between a bank and a borrower, profiting from interest paid on the loan.

The gaming board meets on Thursday in Lawrence County to hear public testimony on Valley View Downs project; Mr. Hilbert's attorneys filed the withdrawal petition in April.

Last year, Centaur closed on a $1 billion financing package that will pay for the $428 million racetrack casino west of New Castle, as well as projects in Colorado and Indiana state. M.H. Equity supplied $200 million of that $1 billion package.

Mr. Hilbert formed M.H. Equity five years ago with billionaire friend John Menard, who founded the self-named Midwestern home-improvement store chain.

Ed Feigenbaum, publisher of the Indiana Gaming Insight newsletter, and other industry observers said the duo became skittish at the prospect of state investigators rummaging through their pasts, especially now that the gaming board figures to be extra vigilant following the indictment of casino owner Louis DeNaples, to whom the board awarded casino rights in December of 2006.

"These people are notoriously private about their affairs," Mr. Feigenbaum said. "They feel uncomfortable [having] anybody else looking into them."

Even a superficial probe into Mr. Hilbert's life and finances would have turned up his ill-fated stint as the head of insurance and investment giant Conseco Inc., which filed for bankruptcy after jettisoning its founder in 2000, as well as his 1994 marriage to former exotic dancer Tomisue Tomlinson, his sixth wife, who now heads a handbag and apparel company.

Mr. Hilbert has long been a player in Indiana's gaming community, investing in racetracks, race horses and riverboats.