Donald J. Trump and his associates have agreed to pay $250,000 in fines and to issue a public apology because they failed to disclose to the state lobbying commission that he had secretly financed newspaper advertisements opposing casino gambling in the Catskills.

The settlement is expected to be ratified at the Nov. 13 meeting of the New York Temporary State Commission on Lobbying, unless investigators unearth new information about Mr. Trump's lobbying activities in New York. It would be the largest civil penalty ever imposed by the commission.

Although there would be no admission of wrongdoing on Mr. Trump's part, he has agreed to spend $50,000 on advertising acknowledging that he had paid for seven ads that appeared last spring under the name of the Institute for Law and Society, an anti-gambling group in Rome, N.Y.

According to several people who have seen the terms of the tentative settlement, Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts would pay $50,000; Mr. Trump's lobbyist, Roger Stone, would pay $100,000; and the institute would pay $100,000.