Panel calls for pause in growth of gaming Bangor racino gets slots license renewal

AUGUSTA – Nine months after Hollywood Slots at Bangor began operating its Main Street facility, members of the Maine Gambling Control Board are calling for an intermission before any more casino-style gambling venues are authorized.

During a meeting in the board’s offices at the state Department of Public Safety’s headquarters in Augusta on Friday, the board adopted a nonbinding resolve calling for a moratorium on any expansion of gaming in Maine until the board has amassed enough data “to assure an accurate assessment of the effect of gaming, both tangible and intangible, on the people, the social fabric, and the business infrastructure of Maine.”

The resolve was adopted in a 3-1 vote, with board members Peter Danton, Larry Hall and Michael Peters in favor and Cushing Samp opposed. Chairman George McHale abstained.

“I support a moratorium until we know where we are going with gambling in the state of Maine,” said Danton, who is chairman of the state’s liquor and lottery commission.

At Samp’s recommendation, board members agreed to revisit the moratorium recommendation every six months or so, “for as long as it seems pertinent.”

Despite the resolve, efforts to expand gambling in Maine already are under way, including a campaign launched last month by Rumford-based Evergreen Mountain Enterprises.

The group is gathering signatures to bring about a statewide referendum it hopes will pave the way for a casino in Oxford County in western Maine.

Bangor city councilors also want to see the status quo maintained, at least for now.

In their resolve, adopted last September, Bangor officials asked state decision-makers to let Hollywood Slots run for three years before making any major changes to the laws and rules that have been put into place so far.

The idea was to allow time to study the effects of current regulations before making substantive changes that could either scuttle or expand slots operations in Maine.

Also Friday, Hollywood Slots and the supplier of some of its 475 slot machines got the green light for another year of operation.

The board’s votes to renew the Bangor racino’s slot operator license and that of International Gaming Technologies followed a public hearing and reports on separate probes by the board’s financial consultant and criminal background checks by state police, neither of which brought forth any problems.

“That was five positives and no negatives,” Chairman McHale said after the board’s unanimous votes.

Hollywood Slots, owned by Pennsylvania-based Penn National Gaming Inc., established the state’s first, and so far only, slots facility last November, when it opened a temporary racino featuring 475 slots in the former Miller’s Restaurant on Main Street.

The state slot operators license is one of two the company needs to operate its racino in Bangor. The other is a state harness racing license. The racing license, however, does not expire until the end of the year.

Penn National now is working to develop a larger, permanent gambling complex across the street from Bass Park, also on Main Street.

That facility, which will include restaurant and retail space and an attached multilevel parking garage, also will be called Hollywood Slots. It is slated to open in 2008 with 1,000 of the 1,500 slots the company is authorized to operate under state law.

Hollywood Slots and IGT paid application fees of $75,000 each, according to Bob Welch, the gambling board’s executive director. The racino’s host city will receive $25,000 of the slot operator license application fee, he said.

The fees for the second time around for both entities was substantially less than they were charged for their initial licenses last year, when the combined fee was $250,000. The higher figure reflected the greater workload associated with investigating two entities that were new to the state.

During a licensing-related public hearing that drew no opponents, McHale asked Hollywood Slots’ General Manager Jon Johnson how the temporary slots facility has been faring financially.

“We were pleasantly surprised with our numbers,” Johnson said, adding, “We believe that we’ve had a positive economic impact on the community.”

Asked whether revenues for the permanent racino would double with roughly double the number of slots, Johnson said, “Probably not.” He said he could not predict for sure, “other than to tell you they will be dramatically better.”