Nine ways of looking at the racino | The slot machines have been turning in Bangor for nearly a year. We set out to learn how legalized gambling is playing in the city.

The parking lots at Hollywood Slots are almost always full. On that much, at least, everyone can agree. But as it approaches its one-year anniversary, much else about the Bangor racino is still up for debate.

Is the gambling facility good for Bangor? Is it good for Maine? Should there be casinos elsewhere in the state? Answers to those questions depend on whom you ask. It's clear, though, that many eyes are on Hollywood Slots. Gambling opponents are watching for reasons to stem the construction of future casinos, while proponents are eager to highlight its strengths — and see them duplicated elsewhere. It's almost as if Hollywood Slots is the test kitchen for gambling in Maine, the beta for potential duplicates.

Maine voters made Hollywood Slots possible, voting in 2003 to allow slot machines in the vicinity of racetracks. And Wyomissing, Penn.-based Penn National Gaming Inc. built a temporary racino, placing 450 slot machines in what had been a buffet restaurant and opening to the public last November.

Nearly one year into life with a racino, Mainebiz hit the streets of Bangor to ask people for their impressions. Who likes and visits the racino? In what ways has it impacted their lives? Is the city a better place because of Hollywood Slots? Has the racino met the high claims voiced by proponents? And what about the dark visions cited by opponents — have they been realized?

Linda Demmons
Clerk, Country Hearts

Among the shops in downtown Bangor is Country Hearts, an outlet for homey and flowery decorations. The Main Street store opened about 18 months ago, and Linda Demmons, 61, has been here since the start, arriving two days a week to help customers and look over the store.

Country Hearts first flourished in the Bangor Mall, but its owners, Ed and Patricia Doiron, opened a second location downtown because, like many in Bangor, they believe the city center is rebounding from years of struggle. "The feeling is that it's on the way up," says Demmons, a Bangor native now living in nearby Hermon. "There's a good feeling about it."

Hollywood Slots is just a mile or so up Main Street from the city's heart, in a section where the narrow downtown roadway has morphed into an auto-centric four-lane highway. The proximity led proponents of the racino to claim it would have a positive impact on downtown, with gamblers journeying down Main Street to visit its shops and restaurants.

Demmons says the racino has helped the coffers at Country Hearts — but only slightly. "We don't have piles of people coming in saying that they've been there or they're going there," she says. "For downtown, I don't think it's hurt. I think it's helped a little."

On a personal level, Demmons is ambivalent about the racino. Prior to its opening, she didn't follow the debate over whether it would be appropriate for her city, she says, because she didn't care one way or another. And Hollywood Slots is hardly an attraction for her now. "I am so far from being a gambler," she says, though she allows that she and her husband visited the racino — once. "We were only there for an hour and it was fine," she says. "We put in a quarter at a time, just to prolong the fun of it."

Leo McHugh
Security guard, Hollywood Slots

Leo McHugh, gray-haired and uniformed, stands by the entrance to Hollywood Slots and greets customers as they arrive. "How are you doing sir?" the security guard says again and again as the day and the gamblers glide by.

Though his training and responsibility level is higher, it's tempting to compare McHugh's role at Hollywood Slots to the blue-smocked "greeters" who welcome shoppers to a certain big-box store. But in one important respect, McHugh says, there's an important distinction. "You work full-time and get benefits here," he says.

McHugh, one of about 130 employees at Hollywood Slots — including about 20 security guards — came to the racino after a career spent mostly in the shoe industry. The shoe shops closed, forcing McHugh to take work with an armored-car company. But after heart surgery, McHugh was told not to return. He applied to Hollywood Slots and is glad he did.

McHugh, 59, works each day until about 3 p.m., and mostly spends his time at work greeting patrons, checking IDs and escorting the occasional drunken or obnoxious gambler to the parking lot. The racino's patrons, especially during McHugh's daytime shift, are congenial and easy to manage, he says. He enjoys the work and says his wife has noticed that he's happier since taking the job. "When you go to work and you dread going, it affects your personal life," he says. "She's noticed a change in me. She knows I'm content."

McHugh, like many of his age in this part of the state, had grown almost accustomed to economic decline, to seeing jobs lost as factories and mills picked up and moved elsewhere. The racino, he says, is a step toward reversing the decline. "I never dreamed, being born and brought up in Bangor, Maine, that we'd ever see a place like this," he says. "It's 130 full-time jobs with benefits. You just don't see that in this area anymore."

Linda Meier
Hollywood Slots neighbor

The neighborhood behind Hollywood Slots is surprisingly quiet for an inner-city area just a short distance from Bangor's downtown. Its quiet and ample greenery make it seem almost rural. Walk along Sidney Street, for example, and you almost expect to hear the cackle of backyard chickens.

Linda Meier lives on that street, five houses up from Hollywood Slots and its parking lot. The 57-year-old, a Mormon, is no fan of gambling and opposed the racino from the beginning. "I know too many people who spend too much time down there," she says. "They're putting gambling on their credit cards."

Some initially thought the law approved by voters, originally touted as a way to boost the harness racing industry, allowed slot machine gaming only at racetracks. But as written, the measure allows racinos within a 2,000-foot radius of the track. (Voters in the towns around Scarborough Downs, the only other racetrack in the state, defeated racino proposals, leaving Hollywood Slots with the only game in the state.)

Meier says it was a shock to learn Hollywood Slots would be sited, at least temporarily, along her street, in a building that had long been a popular buffet-style restaurant and is away from the track in the city's Bass Park. "I was absolutely furious," she says, sitting among three cats in the living room of her cedar-shingled, four-bedroom home. "Nobody realized it was going to be this close."

Yet Meier says the racino has not impacted Sidney Street. "I have to say," she says, "that they've been good neighbors."

The neighborhood, she says almost grudgingly, is as safe and quiet today as it was before Hollywood Slots opened. And Meier, a New Jersey native who moved to Maine 25 years ago, cherishes the serenity. "It's a beautiful city," she says of Bangor. "And if you want to take a walk around the block at 10 at night, you can do it."

Still, Meier worries that potential homebuyers won't know the racino is a good neighbor. She worries that families with children, in particular, will avoid living on her street and that property values will decline. "We've put a lot of money into [this house]," she says. "You want to make sure you're going to be able to sell it at a profit."

Christina Simpson
Student, University of Maine

A junior art history major at the University of Maine in Orono, Christina Simpson has never been to Hollywood Slots. In fact, Simpson drew a blank when asked about the racino. "I've never even heard of it," she says from behind the front desk at the University of Maine Museum of Art, a renovated mill building on the Kenduskeag Stream in Bangor where she took a work-study job this fall.

Of course, at 20 years old, Simpson wouldn't be allowed in the doors thanks to Maine law barring the under-21 set from playing the slots. But Simpson, who lives in an off-campus apartment, has plenty of 21-year-old friends at UMaine — friends that would seem a target demographic for a business like Hollywood Slots, which bills itself as "thrilling" and an "entertainment experience."

Yet the younger demographic is one that's lacking among the Hollywood Slots clientele. According to Amy Kenney, the marketing and public relations manager at Hollywood Slots, a full 93% of the racino's visitors are 36 or older, with nearly two-thirds between ages 36 and 65.

Simpson's UMaine friends haven't been lured to the racino, perhaps partly because they're finding ways to gamble on their own. She says most of the wagering done by her peers is through online poker rooms and other Internet gambling sites. (According to the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, the number of college-aged men gambling online quadrupled during the four years through 2005.) "They're getting into trouble, spending a lot of money," says Simpson of some of her friends who play online poker.

Still, Simpson says it's not that UMaine students wouldn't be interested in the racino, or that the prevalence of online gambling is keeping them from the slot machines. Instead, it's simply that Bangor isn't a draw for most students she knows. "No one really comes to Bangor unless they work there or they're going down to the mall," she says.

David Creswell
Clerk, Maritime International

Gambling opponents say the practice has pernicious social effects. They say casinos too often attract those who can least afford to lose money, people who play and play often because they are so desperate to win.

David Creswell, an employee of Maritime International, a dealer of coins and used jewelry, says he has witnessed the downside of gambling firsthand. "I have seen people who have come in here to sell stuff so they can go gambling, and that upsets me," he says. "These are not wealthy people, obviously. These are people who shouldn't be spending money gambling."

Creswell, 60, lives in Newport, about 25 minutes to the west, and works at the downtown coin shop two days a week. Other days, he says, he "turns a wrench for a living." Yet Creswell believes the racino has been good for the city center, because some of its visitors, he says, venture downtown to eat and shop.

Still, he wonders whether Hollywood Slots truly is a net gain for the region. Creswell says he knows people who go to the racino — but doesn't know any winners. "I know people who go in and lose $500," he says. "It's stupid. What's the matter with people?"

Creswell hasn't ventured to Hollywood Slots. He doesn't intend to either, he says, because he's sure he'd leave with a lighter wallet. "I've never won anything in my life, except my wife," Creswell says. "And I've been paying for that ever since."
Anita Priesing
Slot attendant, Hollywood Slots

She was brought up in Oklahoma, but Anita Priesing likes to say she was raised on Route 66. That's because Priesing, 45, has spent much of her life on the road as a working musician. A life on the highway, however, gave way to the lure of Maine in 1996, when she decided to settle in Bangor with her band, the Moon Puppies.

But like most working musicians in Maine, Priesing needed a day job to make ends meet. She left her gig selling cars last year to take a job as a slot attendant at Hollywood Slots. The job means that anytime a slot machine's buzzers and bells start ringing, Priesing is on the move to verify the jackpot. She checks the machine and the customer's identification, then helps the customer collect the winnings — either in a lump sum or minus taxes. "When I was selling cars, I was taking people's money. Here, I'm giving them money," she says. "Next to playing music, this is the most fun job I've ever had."

Priesing works regular hours at Hollywood Slots — 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday. The hours let her keep a reliable schedule with her band, which she describes as offering an "all you can eat" range of styles, from swing to big band music. (When they're busy, the Moon Puppies will book as many as four gigs a weekend.)

Walking the racino floor for hour after hour has given Priesing a good read on the patrons of Hollywood Slots. "There's every mix of people coming in the door," she says, adding that the racino regularly attracts out-of-state visitors from across the northeast.

In addition to rewarding successful gamblers — the largest jackpot she's verified was $50,650 on a one-dollar machine — she acts as a sort of customer service representative on the floor of the racino. "I'll ask them if they need instructions or change or another drink," she says. "It's just so people know you care about them."

Carolyn and Wayne Oxner
Hollywood Slots patrons from Massachusetts

Carolyn and Wayne Oxner recently embarked on a two-week vacation in a rented RV. The Massachusetts couple took in Acadia National Park, and planned to travel Route 2 across Maine and into New Hampshire and Vermont.

But as they traveled away from Acadia, they steered their RV into Bangor. Their destination? Hollywood Slots. Would they have stopped in Bangor otherwise? "Probably not," Carolyn Oxner says. "We would have gone around it."

Couples like the Oxners are what local officials hoped for when they welcomed a racino to Bangor, as they wanted the city to capture a portion of the tourist money being spent elsewhere in Maine. And there's no doubt the racino has made Bangor a destination of sorts: Hollywood Slots says it had 700,000 people walk through its doors by the end of August, and the vast majority are not from Bangor. Roughly 35% of casino visitors are from out of state, says Kenney, the company spokeswoman.

But the windowless racino doesn't seem to push Bangor as a destination. The temporary location has its own restaurant, and the planned location across Main Street is expected to have a 350-seat buffet restaurant, a 125-seat specialty restaurant, two private dining rooms, a small café, a full-service bar with entertainment and dancing, a small café, and a large hotel.

The racino doesn't offer much in the way of retail. But the Oxners doubted they would drop money in the pockets of Bangor shopkeepers. "Chances are, we're not going to do any shopping," Wayne Oxner says. "We stopped at L.L. Bean on the way up, so we're all shopped out."

An anonymous employee
Holiday Inn on Main Street

The strip of Main Street around Hollywood Slots is changing, and it's changing fast. Already underway is the transformation of an eight-and-a-half-acre patchwork of commercial lots across the street from the current racino into the $90 million permanent home of Hollywood Slots. Penn National expects the work to be complete in 2008.

But while many have applauded the jobs and dollars that the permanent racino will bring to the area, some aren't altogether happy with those plans. Take, for example, the employees at the Holiday Inn on Main Street, which is scheduled to be razed later this year to make room for the 116,000-square-foot Hollywood Slots facility and its new multilevel parking garage. "They're tearing this down, so we're not that happy," says a Holiday Inn employee who requested anonymity because of concerns that the hotel's owner would be displeased by her remarks. "We're all losing our jobs."

She and the other 50 or so employees at the Holiday Inn have known for some time that the hotel was in jeopardy of being replaced by the racino. And while the new racino means finding a new job for the Holiday Inn's employees, the employee says she has mixed feelings about Hollywood Slots. On one hand, she says, the racino has meant more than a few empty wallets. "I've heard a lot of people say they've lost a lot of money," she says. "Some have won, but nothing major."

But on the other hand, she believes the racino has been a welcome economic injection into the Bangor area. She says, for example, that business travelers often extend their stay at her hotel to spend time at Hollywood Slots, and that jobs at Hollywood Slots have been well received by locals. "It's helped bring local businesses some revenue," she says.

Tim Reid
Lieutenant, Bangor Police Department

There was a lot of hand wringing from gambling foes about the bad element Hollywood Slots supposedly would attract, but it hasn't quite worked out that way. "We're not seeing increases like that," says Lieutenant Tim Reid of the Bangor Police Department. "There really hasn't been any impact on our end."

Fact is, Reid, a 27-year veteran of the Bangor force, says the racino has caused "very few" problems for police. The number of patrols hasn't increased, OUI arrests haven't spiked and the police are most often called to Hollywood Slots only for minor traffic issues, according to Reid. The Bangor Mall still demands the lion's share of police attention, whether from traffic accidents or petty thefts, Reid says.

So what's helped prove the naysayers wrong? Reid credits the security staff at Hollywood Slots, which he says has done a good job keeping out the less-desirable element. "We've gotten minor calls about intoxicated people trying to come into the premises, but they're usually dealt with at the door," he says. "The call log has been minimal."

Still, Reid admits that it's still too early to say case closed, and that cracks in the racino's seemingly sound foundation may not show up for a few years. A 2004 study by Baylor University economics professor Earl L. Grinols and David B. Mustard, a professor in the University of Georgia's Terry College of Business, found that crime levels in counties where casinos operate increased several years after the opening of gambling facilities.

Whether that will happen in Bangor is anybody's guess, however. After all, a relatively low-stakes slot-machine facility in Bangor is a wholly different animal than a full-fledged casino with high-stakes card games and other attractions. That said, Reid, for one, doesn't expect to see big challenges for the local police force from Hollywood Slots. "It's already become part of the city," says Reid. "With anything new, it will take some time to work some things out."