Facing a certain veto from the governor’s office, the sponsor of a measure to allow slot machines at the state’s five off-track betting parlors withdrew the bill Thursday.

“Having a veto fight over this isn’t productive,” said sponsor Sen. Ken Gagnon, D-Waterville, who instead hoped to add parts of the bill to the governor’s emergency legislation designed to tighten regulations on the state’s fledgling slots industry.

“There’s a lot of confusion already,” Gagnon said. “I really am trying to slow things down and give people confidence that we’re going to go about this in an expeditious but thoughtful way.”

Gov. John Baldacci has been unwilling to expand gambling especially since voters approved slot machines at the state’s harness racing tracks. As a result, he has long promised to veto the OTB bill passed by lawmakers last session.

The bill enjoyed easy victories in both houses at the time – more than enough to override Baldacci’s threatened veto. The governor, however, delayed action on the bill until after the November referendum, and lawmakers’ support wavered after voters allowed slots at the state’s horse tracks.

Backers of the OTB bill began to see the writing on the wall.

“I think that’s a dead issue,” Gagnon said.

The senator also saw little support for what he called an “unwieldy” provision in the Baldacci bill that would allow OTB owners the chance to share in slots revenue by collecting “impact fees” each year if they can demonstrate an economic hardship caused by the tracks.

John Miller, owner of Miller’s Restaurant in Bangor, said while the concept of impact fees may have been well intended, it was not feasible for his restaurant’s off-track betting facility.

“It’s too little, too late,” Miller said. “By the time you hire accountants and prepare some record of what you’ve lost, you’ve buried yourself much deeper in debt.”

Miller said he instead would support an amendment to Baldacci’s bill that would dedicate 2 percent of the slots revenue from the state’s two potential racetrack casinos to OTBs, which have subsidized racetrack operations for about a decade. If only one racetrack operates slots, the OTB’s share would increase to 3 percent, Miller said.

Another provision in the amendment, still in draft form, would give an additional 1 percent of the slot revenue to an OTB located within 10 miles of a racetrack, he said.

Miller’s 10-year-old OTB is less than a half-mile away from a proposed casino at Bangor Raceway, the only site thus far to gain the needed local approval for slots. Scarborough Downs missed a Dec. 31, 2003, deadline to find a host community.

“We’ve been helping harness racing tracks out all these years; it’s time to help us out,” Miller said of the state’s OTBs, which he estimated have contributed about $70 million to the racing industry over the years. “I just sit here with my fingers crossed that everything is going to work out fine.”

Baldacci spokesman Lee Umphrey indicated that there might be room for compromise on the best way to ensure the financial future of the state’s OTBs.

“This is why there’s a legislative process,” Umphrey said. “It will be sorted through.”