Bangor councilors approve Penn National OTB license

BANGOR – City councilors made swift work Monday night of Penn National Gaming Inc.’s application for a license to operate an off-track betting facility in the Bangor Raceway grandstand.

With no one speaking for or against the license application, the eight councilors on hand for Monday’s meeting approved it in a unanimous vote without debate or discussion.

The OTB license request, submitted by Penn-owned Bangor Historic Track Inc., next moves to the Maine Harness Racing Commission, which is slated to take it up during a hearing set for 11 a.m. Friday at the Augusta Civic Center. No timetable for the opening of the grandstand OTB was available Monday.

“It’s clear that the city of Bangor is continuing to be supportive of Penn National,” City Manager Edward Barrett said after Monday’s vote. “We certainly see no difficulty in relocating the OTB to the grandstand.”

Less than two years ago, the grandstand was overhauled to the tune of $575,000 by a Penn predecessor called Capital Seven LLC that hoped to install slot machines there.

The OTB is part of Penn National’s plan to open a temporary gaming facility at the former Miller’s Restaurant on Main Street. The company’s recent purchase of the former eatery for $3.8 million included the Post Time OTB that has operated out of the basement at Miller’s since mid-1994.

Penn National now is remodeling Miller’s and converting it into a temporary gaming facility that will house 475 slot machines. If all goes according to plan, that facility will be up and running by November or December.

The company eventually plans to replace the interim slots facility with a larger, permanent facility featuring 1,500 slots.

Penn executives, however, said earlier this month that they might delay the start of construction on the permanent facility until they are able to determine if gambling foes in Maine are able to gather the signatures they need to bring about a statewide vote that could repeal the November 2003 vote authorizing slots at the state’s commercial harness-racing tracks.