BANGOR – For the second time since the city’s new racino opened, a small group of protesters picketed Friday afternoon outside Hollywood Slots on Main Street, carrying signs that equated gambling with damnation.

Nine members of the local King James Bible Baptist Church spent about an hour and a half under a bright sky before the brisk fall temperatures sent them on their way. Members of the same church also protested last Friday when the racino opened.

“You can’t talk about God in school anymore, but as far as I know, you can still stand on the street,” said the church’s pastor, who declined to give his name.

“My name is not important; the word of God is what’s important,” he said, wearing a jacket that read: “… how can you escape the damnation of hell?”

The Bangor chapter of the King James Bible Baptist Church meets every Sunday at the Hampton Inn in Bangor, and its pastor’s name is Reg Williams, according to a hotel employee. The church opened in 1998.

On Friday, the protesters stood on the sidewalk of Main Street, pointing their signs in the direction of passing cars.

Most of the signs bore Bible passages such as: “He that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house,” and “Woe unto them, which justify the wicked reward.” Some protesters shouted at patrons and cars going by.

Racino representatives said the protesters have every right to be there, and they didn’t anticipate any problems regarding patrons.

“We have received an overwhelming positive response to the opening of our gaming facility,” Amy Kenney, manager of marketing and public relations for Hollywood Slots, said Friday afternoon by telephone. “We recognize that there may be some folks that may be morally or religiously opposed to gaming, and they’re entitled to their point of view.”

The group from the church mostly handed out pamphlets to passers-by and stayed away from the entrance to the racino. The protesters, however, were rather close to the traffic whizzing along Main Street.

“We are aware of it,” Bangor police Lt. Mark Hathaway said Friday. “As long as they’re not in the road, as long as they don’t do anything to impede the flow of traffic, they’re OK.

“So far, [protesting] has not been a big issue,” he added.

Kenney agreed.

“[The protests] may continue, and I think because we all have a right to our opinions, we’ll treat them with the same respect we would expect them to show us,” she said.