BANGOR – People from at least as far north as Millinocket and south as far as Waterville have been heading to Bangor for a crack at one of the roughly 130 positions that need to be filled before the November opening of Hollywood Slots at Bangor.

“The turnout’s been good,” Jon Johnson, general manager for Penn National’s Bangor operations, said Wednesday, the first day of the company’s three-day job fair at the Bangor Career Center on Oak Street. The job fair hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.

“Over the next couple of days, we’re going to be interviewing about 560 people, and we’re still getting walk-ins,” Johnson said.

Millinocket resident Rick Casey-Lax, 20, was among those who turned out during the first day of the job fair.

Casey-Lax said he is eyeing a job as a security guard or maintenance worker.

“Right now I’m just free-lancing,” he said, doing painting and other odd jobs.

“My father is a contractor in Millinocket,” he said. “I grew up in the business.”

With gas prices in the $3-a-gallon range, Casey-Lax said that if he lands one of the positions, he’ll likely stay with friends already living in the Bangor area and “couch surf” until he gets situated in a place of his own.

“It’s not like I have to be home every night,” he said. “I’m young and free and that’s good.”

Wayne Dionne of Old Town also is applying for a security job. Retired from a 35-year sales career with Jordan Foods, Dionne said the job would provide some excitement and supplemental income.

“I think it would be kind of interesting,” he said. “I go to Foxwoods and I’ve been to Mohegan Sun, so I think it would be fun. I’m used to dealing with the public anyway.”

During the fair, which wraps up Friday, applicants are being interviewed in batches of 17 at a time in half-hour intervals. The interviewers are managers and supervisors that Penn already has hired, including Scott Welch, human resources manager and one of the company’s first local hires. (Welch is not related to Bob Welch, executive director of the Maine Gambling Control Board, which is overseeing the states’ fledgling slots industry.)

The process begins with filling out job applications, if that hasn’t been done, and then giving applicants job descriptions and information about hourly pay or salaries for specific positions, which range from cleaning, coat check and maintenance to security, surveillance and slot attendants and technicians.

With the exception of wait staff positions, which include tips, the slots jobs pay from about $6.50 to $14.42 an hour, depending on the position. Supervisory and management salaries are in the $30,000 to $35,000 range, according to information that Penn National provided to the career center.

Benefits include health, dental and life insurance, as well as paid vacation time.

Though appointments are encouraged, Johnson said that walk-ins are welcome. He said Penn will provide training, so lack of experience in the gaming industry, which is new to Maine, should not be a deterrent.

“We’re looking for people who enjoy serving other people,” Johnson said. “Customer service, that’s everything. It’s all about customer service and building relationships. You’ve got to like working with people.”

The pool of applicants for jobs at Hollywood Slots consists of a mix of people who are employed, are underemployed and unemployed, Johnson said.

“With unemployment [in Greater Bangor] at about 3 percent, most of the applicants already have a job,” he said, adding, “From what I read in the paper, a lot of hiring is going on in the area,” citing L.L. Bean and some of the new businesses in the Bangor Parkade shopping center off Stillwater Avenue as among the other companies competing for employees.

Johnson said that applicants should receive word about jobs within a couple of weeks.