AUGUSTA – Penn National Gaming Inc. is expected to announce today it will purchase the company seeking to bring slot machines to Bangor Raceway.

Today’s anticipated announcement would conclude months of behind-the-scenes negotiations between Penn National and Las Vegas-based Capital Seven LLC. The two companies had been feuding publicly over the development of a competing racetrack casino in southern Maine for months.

“We have been in negotiations over the ownership of Bangor Historic Track, but we have no announcement regarding those negotiations at this time,” Steven Snyder, a vice president with Penn National, told members of the Legislature’s Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee on Wednesday. He later added that such an announcement was expected this morning.

Outside the committee chambers, Capital Seven owner Shawn Scott said he was precluded from saying anything about a potential sale, but confirmed an announcement would take place today.

This morning also marks the start of a second round of licensing hearings for Scott before the Maine Harness Racing Commission. Under law approved by voters in November, the racing commission can grant licenses to operate slots at the state’s two harness racing tracks.

A background check conducted as part of the licensing process had raised questions about Scott’s business dealings and associates.

When asked by members of the Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee whether Scott or Penn National was expected to resume the hearings as an applicant before the racing commission, Snyder said that Scott would – at least initially.

“If we do make the announcement, we will be the successor as 100 percent owners of Bangor Historic Track,” he said.

The Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee’s chairman, Sen. Ken Gagnon, D-Waterville, said a change in ownership undoubtedly would slow the licensing process.

“They better slow down,” Gagnon said of the harness racing commission. “[The commission] looks to the Legislature for direction and clearly that direction is to be slow and cautious.”

Although rumors of a sale had circulated throughout the State House on Wednesday, Snyder’s disclosure during the committee’s public hearing on a gambling regulatory bill caused a minor furor among members.

“It confounds us,” Gagnon said, noting the apparent bad blood between the two companies.

Most recently Penn National sued a political action committee financed by Capital Seven for what Penn deemed a false and deceptive newspaper advertisement regarding crime around its Louisiana casinos.

The advertisement came as part of Capital Seven’s efforts to oppose a racetrack casino at Scarborough Downs, which had partnered with Penn National for the project after negotiations fell through with a Capital Seven affiliate.

Capital Seven attorney Stephen Langsdorf, while not confirming a sale, said any such deal likely would hinge on a new owner securing the needed racing and gaming licenses.

The Baldacci administration is trying to tighten rules around licensing of slots operators in the state by creating a gambling regulatory board and imposing strict restrictions on any slots parlor.

The governor’s spokesman said Wednesday that any potential change in ownership of the Bangor operation would do nothing to stall the state’s efforts.

“It doesn’t change the direction the state’s going in,” said Lee Umphrey, Baldacci’s communications director. “Strong regulations will be put in place regardless of what company is running it [the Bangor track].”

Penn National Gaming is a publicly traded company that owns several horse racing tracks and casinos in the United States and Canada. Among its holdings are Penn National Race Course and Pocono Downs in Pennsylvania. It also owns four casinos in Colorado, Louisiana and Mississippi.

When rumors of a sale first surfaced last month, Capital Seven denied it was seeking a buyer.