BANGOR – Members of the Governor’s Gambling Control Advisory Council have set an ambitious schedule for issuing a gambling license, a key element of the effort to develop Maine’s first racetrack casino.

The tone at Thursday’s meeting, the third so far, was much more optimistic than at the group’s last meeting in late May, when various state officials said it was unlikely there would be slots at Bangor Raceway until next spring.

According to the group’s 90-day Gambling Milestones Plan, the goal is to complete the necessary research, regulatory and background work over the summer. If all goes according to plan, the process would culminate Sept. 30 with the issuing of a gambling license.

In other words, officials from Maine will attempt to do in 90 days what the state of Delaware took a year to accomplish.

“If you get it going this year, I salute you. It’s a very daunting task,” Donald Johnson, deputy director of the Delaware Lottery, said during the meeting.

Johnson was brought to Maine to share some of the knowledge and experience he has accumulated in his past 91/2 years with the Delaware Lottery, which is in charge of regulating the roughly 6,400 slot machines located at three racetracks there. The three tracks comprise a more than half-billion-dollar racino industry, overseen and regulated by a staff of three.

“It is the interest, the mood of this particular group, that we get this on a fast track,” George McHale of Orrington, chairman of the five-member advisory panel, said.

Though the state has yet to hire a staff for overseeing the state’s fledgling racino industry, the Maine State Police and the Maine Attorney General’s Office both are dedicating staff members to the effort.

Among the decisions the panel faces is how slot machines in Bangor would be overseen.

State law calls for a central control system, according to Assistant Attorney General Laura Yusak Smith, the advisory council’s legal adviser.

While more costly than a monitoring system that tracks financial information and data about individual gamblers, a control system offers more features that Johnson believes are required by state regulators.

During Thursday’s meeting, Johnson provided an overview of Delaware’s central control system, which provides “real-time” data from individual slot machines and allows them to disable machines remotely if tampering is suspected.

“We have the authority and ability at any time to disable a machine on the floor,” Johnson said.

As the Delaware official sees it, Maine should set high standards for the oversight and regulation of slots, as well as security. Above all, there must be a public perception that gaming is being run “honestly.”

“Without that, the customers would not come,” he said.

The only apparent potential applicant is Penn National Gaming, the Pennsylvania-based gaming and racing company that holds the development rights for Bangor Raceway. The city-owned dirt track is the only location eligible for slot machines, which require both statewide and local voter approval. The law allows Penn to install up to 1,500 of the machines.

During the meeting, Steven Snyder, Penn’s senior vice president for corporate development, encouraged the advisory group to look at monitorial and control systems used in other jurisdictions.

The racino issue is being watched closely in 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.

For that reason, panel member Jean Deighan of Bangor made a case for keeping the group’s meetings in Bangor or rotating between Bangor and Augusta. In July, the meetings are expected to move to Augusta.

“This racino is going to be in Bangor, Maine,” she said, adding that several Bangor city councilors, the city manager and the city solicitor attended.

“These are resources to us,” she said, adding, “It takes a village to build a racino. Think about it.”

Other members, such as Saco’s Peter Danton, said that the group could meet earlier and get more work done by meeting in a more central location, namely Augusta.

Bangor Council Chairman Dan Tremble later said the group could “meet on the moon” if that facilitates the arrival of slots and the revenue they are expected to generate.

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.

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