BANGOR (AP) – Gambling opponents who hoped to outlaw slot machines failed to gather enough signatures before Tuesday’s deadline to force a referendum on the issue next year.

But the group No Slots for ME! submitted a new application to the secretary of state’s office for a second referendum drive the day before the deadline.

The decision by opponents to abandon the current petition drive invalidates the signatures already collected and requires the group to start from scratch, according to Julie Flynn, deputy secretary of state in charge of elections.

The group needed to submit 50,519 signatures – 10 percent of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial election – by 5 p.m. Tuesday to qualify for the 2006 ballot.

George Rodrigues of No Slots for ME!, estimated the group had only 35,000 to 40,000 signatures. “We didn’t get the big flood,” he said.

Once the new referendum question is approved, petitioners will have another year to collect signatures. They still could get the question on the November 2006 ballot by submitting a fresh 50,000-plus signatures to state elections officials by Jan. 30, 2006, Flynn said.

Rodrigues said the new group would meet Monday to decide whether to try for the 2006 ballot or wait until 2007.

“There’s still determination, but we just need to figure out how to do it successfully,” Rodrigues said.

Voters in 2003 approved the original legislation allowing slots in the state. The Legislature then amended the bill to include stricter controls over the new industry.

Under current law, Bangor – which has the needed state and local approvals in hand – is the only city eligible to host slot machines.

Penn National Gaming plans to open Hollywood Slots in Bangor next month after completing $17 million in renovations to the former Miller’s Restaurant on Main Street. More than 200 machines have arrived at the temporary site, which will house 475 gaming machines.

The company plans a permanent facility at or near Bangor Raceway.

Rep. Pat Blanchette, a Bangor Democrat who helped shepherd the slots bill through the Legislature, cheered the anti-slots group’s current failure but bemoaned the reincarnation of the anti-slots drive with the Bangor facility poised to open its doors.

“They had plenty of time to get them, and they couldn’t do it,” Blanchette said. “They need to back off, and they’ll find out that this is not the devil incarnate moving into town.”