Less than a minute into separate phone conversations, unprompted, Dennis and Doug Bailey jokingly refer to themselves as the “Twins of Spin.”

In February, the Boston Herald dubbed the brothers the “Casino Killers.” In gambling’s back rooms, they’ve probably been called another colorful name or two.

The Livermore Falls natives were hired in February, a package deal for $10,000 a month, to work against casino development in Massachusetts. Closer to home, Dennis Bailey unveiled a Web site this week to raise money for his CasinosNo!, which may end up being used to fight yet

another casino proposal in Maine, this one in Oxford County.

Career paths have taken both brothers from newspaper reporters to public relations, with some veering.

In recent years, Dennis has become the face for gaming opposition in Maine.

Doug at one time did PR work for casino giant Harrah’s. His twin brought him to the other side of the issue.

“I’m sure he gave me a pretty good earful when I was working on (Harrah’s),” Doug said. “We didn’t come to any blows or anything, just a healthy debate.”

The Baileys grew up in a political family. Mom Maxine is a retired Livermore Falls town clerk and town manager. Older brother Kevin is a state legislator in Texas. Dad C. Elmore, who died in 1994, was a service manager at a car dealership.

The identical twins, 54, both went to the University of Maine. They sung and played guitar three nights a week – frat houses Thursday, school gyms Friday, pubs Saturday – and mostly avoided getting regular jobs.

Doug, a former writer and editor at the Boston Globe, said he changed his major to journalism at his brother’s suggestion. He had been a philosophy major.

“(Dennis) said, ‘Look in the paper: You don’t see a want ad for wise sage,'” Doug said.

After serving as press secretary for former Gov. Angus King, Dennis opened Savvy Inc. in Portland in 2000. Doug left a Boston firm in December and hung out his own PR shingle, DBMediaStrategies.

Anti-casino advocates in Massachusetts approached Dennis first this winter. They’d seen his work on CasinosNo! in Maine, where he had already helped defeat a handful of gaming efforts.

When Dennis got the call, “I said to (Doug), instead of me driving down to Boston every other day, it would make sense to work on it together.”

Doug agreed. They had teamed up for a few clients before, but nothing so high profile.

Two months after taking on the Massachusetts work, the push for three casinos in the Bay State is dead for now, according to Doug, but the Baileys are going to stay on with Casinos Free Mass. Among their future work: fundraising. The brothers haven’t been paid yet.

Back in Maine, Dennis said the CasinosNo! board of directors hasn’t met to decide how much they’ll spend and what tactics to take in opposing a casino proposal for Oxford County that will go to voters in November.

“I’ve got to admit it’s getting a little difficult (to raise money); fatigue is setting in. It’s getting more and more difficult to get people engaged and to give money,” he said.

In a cartoon that accompanied a feature in February, the Boston Herald dubbed the brothers “Casino Killers” and dropped cut-outs of their faces onto big-hatted gunslingers.

“That was their line, I don’t know where it came from,” Dennis said, adding it was likely a reference to “bringing in the hired guns. We called the Herald the next day and asked if we could get a copy of the cartoon. (The reporter) started apologizing, ‘We were just having fun.'”

No need to apologize. The brothers liked it.

At a public hearing in Massachusetts two weeks ago, several lobbyists and lawmakers confused Dennis for Doug. Sometimes he corrected them, sometimes he didn’t.

The resemblance is definitely there, but the similarity used to be even more striking. Their mom dressed them the same until about fourth grade, when the twins were separated into different classrooms at school.

“We were pretty tough to take together,” Dennis said, then laughed. “We still are.”