Maine Casino Scarily Successful with New Site
July brought the opening of a new casino to Bangor, Maine, the area of the country made famous in his books by Stephen King, and even King would have to agree the initial returns were so good it's scary.
Hollywood Slots at Bangor opened a new permanent location, replacing a temporary site that had been running since November 2005. The new building hosted over 9000 patrons on the first day, and approximately doubled the old revenue record, set at the temporary venue during the 2006 high school basketball playoffs (does this remind anyone of the movie "Pleasantville"?)
Penn National Gaming, the owner of the casino, erected a facility hosting 1000 machines, two restaurants, a lounge, a gift shop, and a hotel scheduled to open by September. The temporary casino had 475 machines operating out of an abandoned restaurant.
Going by figures from the Maine Gambling Control Board, the opening may be a much-needed shot in the arm for the casino, as numbers for the first five months of the year showed a decline of almost 10% over the previous year.
Hopefully, business will continue to respond to the improvements; as summer turns to fall, and Halloween nears, the last thing Penn National wants is for Hollywood Casino to become... the Dead Zone.
