AUGUSTA – The Maine Gambling Control Board’s first executive director has set honesty and integrity among his top priorities for the racetrack casino headed for Bass Park.

“The bottom line is that we don’t want people associated with the racino if they’re not honest,” Robert Welch said last week in an interview.

Nearly four months after he was picked from a field of more than 30 candidates, the lifelong Bangor resident has immersed himself in the day-to-day tasks connected with getting the state’s first racino off the ground.

“We’re not pro-gambling any more than we’re anti-gambling,” Welch said.

Rather, as Welch sees it, his role – and that of the state’s five-member Gambling Control Board – is to regulate the racino and administer the state slots law authorized by Maine voters in November 2003.

Welch, 48, took the helm of the state gambling board on Nov. 8, three weeks before planned, because of the unit’s growing workload.

George McHale of Orrington, chairman of the gambling board and the Maine Harness Racing Commission, said Welch is the right man for the job.

“He fit the criteria exceptionally well, both in terms of experience and personality,” McHale said Thursday. “I expect that he will be very successful as we gear up.”

Before taking the helm of the board, Welch completed a 25-year career in law enforcement, retiring in July 2002 as deputy chief of the Bangor Police Department.

Welch also served on the Bangor Federal Credit Union and the Greater Bangor Area Chapter of Credit Unions boards and has worked in the funeral business.

His background as a Bangor police officer has given him a working knowledge of Bass Park, home to Bangor Raceway, where pari-mutuel wagering has taken place for decades. At one time, Welch was assigned to the facility, where his duties included providing security during the annual harness racing season.

Police work also has taught him how to read and interpret laws and allowed him to develop a statewide list of contacts, people with whom he now works in his new capacity, he said.

His involvement with credit unions has given him insight into budgeting and financial forecasting, he said.

“You’ve got to know where to get the figures from,” he said.

As was the case with police work, Welch said, his background in the funeral business helped hone his people skills.

Though Welch knew he would be drawing heavily on his backgrounds in law enforcement and finance when he accepted the post, which pays $60,652 plus benefits, he said that the job has involved much more than he expected.

“I think it’s even more wide-ranging than I originally thought,” he said.

If all goes according to plan, Penn National Gaming Inc. will break ground this spring on a $75 million racetrack casino in Bangor, the only community in the state that received the needed state and local approval.

“With [gaming] licenses, the first thing we want to make sure of is that there is no infiltration of organized crime,” Welch said.

While the gambling czar said he had no such concerns about Penn National, which passed an extensive background check by state police detectives and a certified fraud examiner, he noted that the concern has been raised by people opposed to slots on moral grounds.

The road to the racino has been filled with twists, the most recent being an oversight in state law that prevents regulators from keeping confidential some of the personal and proprietary information Penn National must submit before its conditional slots operator license is made permanent.

With more than a year to go before the racino’s planned 2006 opening, Welch’s work so far has involved getting familiar with gaming rules for Maine and other states, attending racino-related meetings, hearings and work sessions, and compiling background information for the gambling board.

Because the slots industry is new to Maine, Welch said processes and procedures need to be fleshed out.

While state law stipulates what must be done, it doesn’t always specify how, he noted.

But that’s just for starters.

As it stands, the state’s gambling control unit has a staff of four. Once the racino opens and begins generating a revenue stream, the unit’s staff will grow to 10. Yet to be brought on board are inspectors, an auditor, and someone to handle fingerprinting and background checks for the racino’s projected work force of 400 to 500.

Once the racino opens, Welch’s focus will shift to enforcing gambling laws, handling license applications and issues, overseeing background checks, reviewing transactions requiring gambling board approval, referring alleged violations to the Attorney General’s Office for prosecution, and collecting racino fees and taxes, to name a few.

The gambling unit’s role could expand even more in the future, if the state ultimately decides to consolidate other kinds of gambling, including the state lottery, under its umbrella.

“This is a road we’re starting down,” Welch said. “We’re making good use of expertise within the state and out of state.”