AUGUSTA – After receiving an extreme makeover, a confidentiality bill sought by slots operators was endorsed Monday by legislators, moving the startup of Bangor’s racino a step closer.

The bill, which would limit public access to some information the state gathers about applicants for slots licenses, was voted unanimously out of committee and is headed to the Legislature, where it is expected to go before the Senate and House of Representatives within the next few weeks.

If the bill wins the support of at least two-thirds of the Legislature, it will be enacted as emergency legislation, which would make it effective immediately upon the signature of Gov. John Baldacci.

The bill was reported out of the Legislature’s Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee on Monday after a final review and the adoption of some of the suggestions the Judiciary Committee made during a separate review.

“Quick, get it out,” quipped Sen. Kenneth Gagnon, D-Waterville, legal affairs committee co-chairman.

The panel has jurisdiction over legislation connected to the $75 million racetrack casino that Penn National Gaming Inc. plans to develop near Bangor Raceway. Construction is slated to begin in late spring or early summer.

Last year, the committee devoted many hours to hammering out the state’s first slots law. LD 90 was submitted at the Maine Gambling Control Board’s request to resolve an oversight involving the state’s handling of personal and corporate information deemed confidential in other gambling states. The original version of the bill was sweeping, covering everything from trade secrets and business plans to the birth dates, Social Security numbers, home addresses and telephone numbers of key executives.

But it also would have covered some records already in the public domain, including criminal and civil litigation histories and information filed with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission, which proved controversial.

Penn National has been granted a conditional slots operator license, but without assurance that sensitive information will be protected in Maine, company executives have said they could not submit the rest of the information state gaming regulators need to complete the licensing process.

Though Penn National executive Steve Snyder recently told the Gambling Control Board that Penn hoped to open a temporary slots facility once the confidentiality issue was resolved, he said Monday that changes made to the bill could mean a delay.

“We need to wait and see how the [gambling control board] is going to handle this,” he said.

LD 90 gives the board the ability to issue summary reports of decisions based on confidential information. At issue is how specific the reports will be.

Snyder said the board could begin tackling that as early as its next regular meeting, set for 12:30 p.m. Thursday at the Department of Public Safety’s Augusta headquarters.

A change made last year to the state’s Freedom of Access law requires that any new exceptions to the right-to-know law undergo a review to determine if they are warranted and in the public’s best interest.

LD 90 was the first bill to fall under the new provision, according to Gagnon.

When first introduced more than two months ago, the bill proved unpopular with media and antigambling organizations.

Everyone agreed such information as Social Security numbers and birth dates should remain under wraps.

Critics, including the Maine Press Association and CasinosNo!, expressed concern that LD 90 went too far in extending confidentiality to such areas as criminal and civil litigation histories, and because some definitions of what would be protected were overly broad and vague.

“We worked it hard and put it to bed wet,” Gagnon said.

The bill was streamlined during a series of work sessions. Its most controversial aspects were scrapped. Publicly available information will remain public.