By Kathryn Skelton,Staff Writer

Swirly neon lights – check.

James Dean look-alike – check.

475 gleaming slot machines where a locally famous all-you-can-eat buffet once stood – check.

Maine’s first gambling parlor, Hollywood Slots in Bangor, is almost ready to go.

After two years in the works, it’ll open on Friday. Backer Penn National Gaming has invested $17 million to rehab the old Miller’s Restaurant into a space fit for Vegas-inspired glitz and gaming.

Newly hung signs point to the “Chairman’s” lounge – a nod to Frank Sinatra – and banks of machines on “Rodeo Drive” and “Lancaster Lane.” Playing up that Hollywood theme is movie memorabilia like the mallet Kathy Bates used to whack James Caan’s foot in “Misery.”

Polished, silver slot machines, still undergoing tests in the days leading up to the big reveal, have names like Dam Lumberjack Beavers, 777s, Helen of Troy and Lucky Larry’s Lobstermania.

The overriding premise of each machine: match something with something for as little as 2 cents or as much as $5 a pop.

By state projections, millions will be won and lost here, with several groups getting a cut.

And this former Main Street restaurant is just a temporary space. When the real deal eventually opens nearby with 1,500 slots, it’s been estimated as much as $824 million will pass through Hollywood Slots’ machines in one year.

“We’re anticipating the draw will be all the Northeast,” said General Manager Jon Johnson, who spent 30 years as a Las Vegas casino accountant. “It’s entertainment, just like movies, dining out, whatever.”

The rush to get ready for Friday is so overwhelming that Johnson can’t say what the biggest payout on any of the machines will be – he hasn’t had time to look at the paperwork.

No one knows how many people will come out to play, enticed by novelty or a drive that’s shorter than the one to Foxwoods or Mohegan Sun in Connecticut.

At referendum two years ago, voters turned down a resort casino in Sanford and approved slots-only gaming at either of the state’s two commercial racetracks, pending local approval.

Bangor got it, Scarborough Downs didn’t.

Months of legal wrangling ended with Penn National Gaming buying Bangor Historic Track from controversial developer Shawn Scott.

Penn, based in Pennsylvania, owns or operates nine gaming facilities. The company saw gaming revenues of $516 million for the fiscal year that ended in June, according to a corporate filing.

In Maine, the company had to keep its new racetrack-based casino – racino – within 2,000 feet of the Bangor track.

The old Miller’s location is a few blocks away. Work transforming that property began in July.

Out came the buffet, carpet, booths and chairs. In went walls to cover the windows, bright red, blue and green carpeting, new bathrooms, office space and an upgraded bar in “Frank’s Hideout,” as the downstairs is now called.

Open 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. six days a week, and noon to 2 a.m. on Sundays, the noticeable lack of windows and clocks will likely make time spent indoors seamless, a common gaming technique.

There are glittery, flicking lights on the slot machines that line each wall in three large rooms and fill center aisles in metallic clusters.

Half the slots have computer screens, the other half offer reels that flip and spin. They’re decorated in endless themes: dolphins, witches, cherries, devils.

“It’s very much like retail when you lay out a casino floor,” Assistant General Manager Steve Lambert said. He mixed machine color, lights, denominations and traffic. Two-cent machines are near the back – he doesn’t want congestion near the front door.

Plus, would-be gamblers have to walk past plenty of other potentially alluring machines to get there.

But before gathering pennies, nickels and dimes to make the trip, beware: The operation’s near coinless. The trend, becoming more common, is nicknamed TITO: Ticket-in, ticket-out.

Gamers insert dollar bills into the first machine they play. When they leave that machine, it spits out a ticket with any winnings and leftovers from the original bet. Tickets are half the size of a Megabucks slip and can be inserted into other machines for play.

“Coins are heavy, coins are dirty. They’re inconvenient,” Johnson said.

Some machines sport coin trays, but just for looks. There’ll be plenty of noise when jackpots are hit, he said. Just no gush of clanking change.

Everyone’s a winner at least 87% of the time

Hollywood Slots has hired 130 people for the temporary operation, from cooks for the small, pub-style restaurant to security. Every employee was fingerprinted and underwent a deep background check that looked at, among other things, good character, according to Bob Welch, executive director of the Maine Gambling Control Board.

Reason for the extra precautions: “If you’re (going for a job as) a game attendant, we don’t want an organized crime person from Massachusetts.” He has only suggested a few people not be hired.

To thwart theft, the gaming floor’s been covered with 120 pan, tilt and zoom security cameras. Employees will watch for anything out of the ordinary.

“There are people who buy slots, then they tear them apart to come up with ways to cheat them,” Johnson said.

The Gambling Control Board has brought on two former law enforcement officers who’ll spend 10 hours a day, seven days a week at Hollywood Slots monitoring machines, intervening in patron disputes and checking employee licenses. (Game attendants need a license to work at a racino; cooks don’t.)

Someone will be staked at the door to check the IDs of anyone who looks under 27. You can’t be under 21, or visibly intoxicated to enter, Johnson said.

They’ve got a “responsible alcohol” policy to cut people off when they’re too drunk to gamble, he added. And while there will be roving waitresses taking orders, there won’t be any free drinks – it’s against Maine law.

Welch said the total amount bet and won will eventually become public. He hopes to post a monthly update online.

By law, the slot machines will be programmed to return a minimum of 87 percent and a maximum of 95 percent of the money bet. Welch said that’s a higher return than American Indian casinos he’s familiar with.

The chunk of money that doesn’t go back to gamblers as winnings will be split by Penn National and 10 other, mostly state, bodies. About 19 percent of the gross slot machine income will go to the horse racing industry.

“The harness community is the reason this venue is going,” said Welch. He credits them with getting the racino referendum passed and understands that right now, many in that community aren’t happy with the temporary racino being located away from the track. But, he said, “under this new venture, they will be getting a piece of every slot machine 365 days a year.”

Politicians and Batman

The location of the new, permanent facility is still up for debate.

Penn National has the right to build a bigger Hollywood Slots at Bass Park next to the horse track grandstand, but the city’s trying to discourage it.

Bangor City Manager Ed Barrett said he has concerns about parking, and about a long construction period interrupting business at nearby Bangor Auditorium. Putting the new $75 million racino there would also likely leave the Bangor State Fair looking for a new spot.

Since it’s got to be within 2,000 feet of the track, there aren’t too many options.

The city will spend its take of casino revenue on building a new auditorium, possibly at the same location. That building will cost $50 million. How fast it goes up depends on how fast the money rolls in.

Johnson said the permanent Hollywood Slots, with three times as many machines and a huge parking garage, is likely two to three years away. “We’re going to put a ton of memorabilia in” there, he said.

For now, he’s limited by ceiling height, but plans outcroppings of more props used in the movie “Misery,” plus “Back to the Future” and “Batman.”

“I’m trying to get the motorcycle from ‘Easy Rider,'” he said.

Johnson isn’t sure how much of that will be in place by the opening.

On Nov. 2, Hollywood Slots will host a VIP gala to introduce politicians and others to the temporary gaming parlor. He invited Gov. John Baldacci, a vocal opponent of gambling.

“I don’t think he ever considered going. His stance has always been clear,” said Baldacci spokesman Lee Umphrey, who’ll go in the governor’s place.

For the public opening Nov. 4 at 10 a.m., Johnson has planned a brass band, red carpet and James Dean and Marilyn Monroe look-alikes.

Machine etiquette for the uninitiated: first come, first served.

Johnson’s hoping for lines.

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