State officials not betting on slots for 2004 Regulatory process delays opening of Bangor racino

BANGOR – Given the mountain of research and regulatory work that lies ahead, the prospects for seeing slot machines at Bangor Raceway this year are a long shot, state officials concluded Thursday during a meeting of the Governor’s Gambling Control Advisory Council.

“We’re writing the book from the beginning,” said George McHale, chairman of the gambling panel. The proposed racetrack casino that is the focus of the council’s work is a new concept for Maine. As McHale and other state officials see it, slots probably won’t arrive in Bangor until next spring.

The gambling panel’s to-do list includes everything from surveying the gambling-licensing laws, rules, and regulations of 14 other states and the Canadian province of Ontario, and developing them specifically for Maine to writing job descriptions for yet-to-be-hired staff, developing application forms and conducting a suitability investigation.

The rules-making aspect alone, which will include a 30-day public comment period and possibly a second comment period if any major revisions result, could span several months, said Assistant Attorney General Laura Yustak Smith, the gambling panel’s legal counsel.

For Bangor city councilors and staff – invited to the meeting to share views, concerns and expectations – the wait already has been frustratingly long. They have been working to bring the so-called racino project to fruition for almost two years.

Voters in a November statewide referendum approved slot machines at the state’s harness racing tracks if voters in a local community approved. Bangor was the only community that garnered local approval.

The racino issue is vital to Bangor because of the revenue it would bring to the struggling harness racing industry, the $2 million to $3 million a year it would contribute to the city’s coffers and the hundreds of jobs the facility would generate, both on-site and in the region, council Chairman Dan Tremble said. To underscore the project’s importance, the entire council, as well as several key administrators, attended the gathering.

“We would like to see this done quickly but not so quickly that it’s not done correctly,” City Manager Edward Barrett told the council.

McHale agreed.

“Do it wrong and you get a wild, wild West,” he said, adding, “No one wants to see Dodge City in Bangor.”

Tremble said he is asked daily when the racino will open.

The confusion over the opening date apparently stems from earlier actions on the part of original racino developer Shawn Scott, who late last year invested nearly $600,000 in renovations and improvements to Bangor Raceway’s grandstand in anticipation of opening a temporary slots parlor on Jan. 3. The facility would have housed the first 250 of the 1,500 machines he planned to install.

Representatives of the current developer, Penn National Gaming, attended the meeting but did not comment.

The grand opening was postponed Feb. 23 after a dispute arose with the Baldacci administration over when the racino legislation Mainers adopted last November became effective. The slots legislation underwent a major overhaul and was not signed into law until this month and does not take effect until late July.

To help jump-start the process, Gov. John Baldacci this month signed an executive order aimed at speeding the arrival of slot machines by creating an interim panel to start crafting needed rules.

The panel, which has yet to receive a budget with which to work, consists of McHale, a sports broadcaster from Orrington; Jean Deighan, a Bangor lawyer; Mike Peters, a small business owner from Dixfield; Larry Hall, a retired state trooper from Dedham; and Peter Danton, a former state lawmaker from Saco.

Without Baldacci’s order, work on the new rules likely would have been delayed for several months, until the Senate could confirm the governor’s five nominees – expected to be the same five individuals – to the permanent gambling board.

After the meeting, McHale said last week’s launch of a southern Maine-based petition drive aimed at reversing the slots law would not affect the panel’s work.

“The people of the state of Maine have spoken. The people of the city of Bangor have spoken,” McHale said, noting that the advisory group’s charge from the governor was to develop the necessary legal framework for slots.

“That is our job and that’s what we are going to do,” he said.