A common refrain around Bangor is that more people would visit Hollywood Slots Hotel and Raceway if it were transformed into a full-fledged casino, offering games such as poker and blackjack.
"To make this a full-service property, we really need to have table games," says Jon Johnson, General Manager at Hollywood Slots. "Right now people that are traveling to Connecticut to play table games, and people who are traveling to New Hampshire to play poker, they would much rather travel here than take their money out of state. We're actually losing revenue and the state of Maine is losing tax revenue that they sorely need."
Johnson says Hollywood Slots, which is owned by Penn National Gaming, is talking with legislators about a possible table game bill to be introduced in the coming session. And the city of Bangor has begun preparing for the possibility of table games at Hollywood Slots.
The city has yet to take a position on the issue. "The city's not making any efforts to get table games; we are making an effort ot learn about table games," says Bangor city attorney Norman Heitmann.
Heitmann says that under the city's agreement with Hollywood Slots, there's a provision that if the state law changes to allow any form of gaming other than slot machines, then the city will negotiate the percentage of the revenue the city receives.
"We receive three percent of the net revenue from slots, so we would be having a similar discussion if other games were allowed in the state of Maine," Heitmann says. "We've gotten from the slot revenue about $6.7 million, along with property taxes, along with the rent they pay for the use of Bass Park,"
The city has been setting aside that $6.7 million for the construction of a new auditorium and civic center. But Heitmann says the city could always use more money if the slot machine and harness racing facility should add table games.
For that reason, Heitmann and another city worker soon will travel to a National Gaming Convention in Las Vegas to learn how table games affect slot machine revenues and how other states tax the games.
"Another group is looking at starting up this Oxford County Casino again, and I think that was the impetus to have a serious public discussion with the council on what they wanted to do," Heitmann says. "Clearly the issue is not going away. Whether it's ever successful, who knows? But if it does happen, we'll understand the workings and ins and outs of table games."
For Hollywood Slots, or any other place in Maine, to offer table games, legislative approval is required. "The committee of jurisdiction on any gambling is the Legal and Veteran's Affairs Committee," says Bob Welch, Chair of the Maine Gambling Control Board, which oversees operations at Hollywood Slots. "The first stop would be there, of course, for public comment and work session, and then it would be up to the legislature after that."
Welch anticipates that the group which calls itself Black Bear Entertainment will put forth a ballot referendum in 2010 for a casino with slots and table games in Oxford County.
Dennis Bailey, spokesman for the group Casinos No!, says voters should have a say on whether table games come to Maine - whether it be in Oxford County or in Bangor.
"Table games would remove any doubt that Hollywood Slots is anything but a full-fledged casino and we have to remember that that's not what voters were told that they were voting for back in 2003," Bailey says. "We were told - this is their words - that it was going to be a 'racino' with a limited number of slot machines at the racetrack, where gambling already occurred."
Bailey also says table games could draw revenue away from harness racing and the state lottery. But the odds of blackjack, poker, craps, and roulette coming to Maine may still be slim, since Gov. John Baldacci remains opposed to any expansion of the gambling industry.