CHESTER, W.Va. – As more states consider allowing slot machines at racetracks and other venues, the operators of established “racinos” will have to be more inventive, customer-oriented and determined to keep their clients, industry executives said Tuesday.

“The day you get the legislation through is the day your work begins,” said Ted Arneault, CEO of MTR Gaming Group, which owns Mountaineer Race Track & Gaming Resort in Chester. “Your work is not done. You’re just getting started.”

Arneault is hosting Racino 2003, a two-day conference for industry executives, public officials and others. A successful operation is a constant challenge, he said, because it involves regular lobbying of legislators for flexibility in accommodating gamblers’ changing needs.

It also means regularly upgrading amenities so gamblers will stay and play longer.

MTR has spent $190 million on Mountaineer in the past 21/2 years, $170 million of that on nongambling features such as a hotel, restaurants, a convention center and a spa. Together, those amenities account for only 5 percent of the track’s revenue, but Arneault called it a “very, very important 5 percent.”

Dennis McGlynn, chairman of Dover Downs Entertainment, said his Delaware property has spent about $100 million in recent years, with about $60 million of that going toward a four-star hotel and other projects.

Wheeling Island Race Track & Gaming Center, meanwhile, has invested $68 million in amenities. Its parent, Delaware North Cos., is expanding in other states, said Jim Rafferty, vice president of marketing for the track.

Next year, Delaware North will install 1,000 slots at racetracks in Buffalo and Saratoga, N.Y., and about 1,200 at a track in Finger Lakes, N.Y., near Rochester, N.Y., Rafferty said.

Racetrack casinos can’t afford to offer gamblers the high-priced perks they get in Las Vegas and Atlantic City N.J., but to thrive, they must offer a similar caliber of service, Rafferty said. They also need to emphasize convenience.

He urged operators to focus on handle-to-handle time – the distance a gambler must travel from the door handle of his car to the handle on the slot machine.

“Find ways to be warm,” he advised. “It’s not enough to just be there.”

Racetrack casinos are still in their infancy nationwide, Arneault said.

“When we started off, there was no such word as ‘racino,”‘ he said. “That term was invented by Wall Street because they didn’t know what to call us.”

West Virginia passed a law allowing slots at racetracks in 1994, largely to help save a dying horse industry. Today, neighboring Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Kentucky are looking at racinos as a solution to budget problems.

In Pennsylvania, both chambers of the legislature have passed bills with different revenue distribution formulas, Arneault said. Ohio is in what Arneault called a critical 30-day period. He believes that state will ultimately stage a statewide referendum on slots.

But in every state, success depends on teamwork among horsemen, slot operators and others, Arneault said.

MTR owns the Speedway Casino in Las Vegas and the Scioto Downs harness racing facility in Columbus, Ohio. The company is also licensed to build the Presque Isle Downs thoroughbred track near Erie, Pa., and it has been lobbying for slot machine legislation in both Ohio and Pennsylvania.