Gaming company now fully licensed Penn National gets state board’s OK

AUGUSTA – Penn National Gaming Inc. on Thursday cleared the last major regulatory hurdle remaining for Hollywood Slots at Bangor, the interim slots facility it plans to open in November.

In a series of unanimous votes, the five members of the Maine Gambling Control Board agreed to issue Penn National a slots operator license and to license three of its key executives, namely Jon Johnson, general manager of the corporation’s Bangor operations, Assistant General Manager Steve Lambert and Bruce Badger.

The board also voted 5-0 to issue a slots distributor license to International Gaming Technologies headquartered in Reno, Nev. IGT is the first of three companies that submitted applications for slots distributor licenses.

“It’s an exciting and historic day for Penn National, and we appreciate the work of the Legislature, the Gambling Control Board, the governor and all of the other people who supported us,” corporate spokesman Eric Schippers said after Thursday’s meeting at the state Department of Public Safety’s Augusta headquarters.

Gambling board Chairman George McHale of Orrington agreed.

“This was a major day in the life of the project. We set out early on to do this as fast as we could but consistently,” he said. “[Gov. John Baldacci] asked us to set the stage for this project and to do it quickly and while protecting the people of Maine.

“The work’s not done, but we can move forward [on fulfilling the wishes of voters who authorized slots in a November 2003 statewide vote],” he said.

The votes followed reports on the suitability studies done by state police assigned to the gambling control unit, who conducted criminal background checks, and Christian Smith, a certified public accountant hired to look at Penn and IGT’s financial track records.

Neither Johnson nor Schippers were prepared Thursday to set a firm date for the opening.

Work is under way to turn the former Miller’s Restaurant on Main Street into a gaming complex that will house the first 475 of the 1,500 slots Penn is authorized to operate in Maine through its subsidiary, Bangor Historic Track Inc. BHT is the company that operates harness racing at Bangor Raceway, which is owned by the city of Bangor.

“There are so many moving pieces to this, but as they come up, they are being addressed in a very businesslike manner,” Johnson said after the meeting.

Johnson, who has 28 years of experience in the gaming industry, came to the Bangor operation from Penn’s Hollywood Casino in Tunica, Miss., where he was assistant general manager.

Johnson said Lambert and Badger each had more than 20 year’s of gaming experience. Lambert had spent the last 10 years with a Caesar’s Entertainment hotel and casino in Nova Scotia and Badger most recently installed slot machine systems at U.S. Air Force bases around the world.

“Between us, we counted it and we had more than 75 years of experience” in the industry, he said.

A state gaming license was one of two permits Penn needs in order to operate a slots facility in Maine.

The gambling board had granted a conditional slots license last November. Background investigations had to be completed before the state could issue a permanent license.

The company had held the other, a permanent state harness racing license, since last December. That license also required a state background investigation.

The interim facility, which Johnson said represents a $17 million investment, will house 475 slot machines. Penn plans eventually to replace the temporary slots facility with a $75 million permanent one housing up to 1,500 machines at or near Bass Park, home of Bangor Raceway.

The company, however, is waiting to see if slots opponents are able to gather the signatures needed to put a referendum question seeking to overturn a 2003 statewide vote authorizing slots on the November 2006 election ballot.