As the Senate prepares to tackle the state budget, officials in Salem have their fingers crossed that this will the year that expanded gambling comes to the Rockingham Park Racetrack.

“It’s been going on for years. I remember them talking about this in the ’90s. We need it,” said Patrick Hargreaves, a selectman and a lifelong resident of Salem. “I remember the Rock in its heyday. It was packed. The parking lot was filled from one end to the other. It was fantastic.”

Hargreaves, along with other town officials believes this might be the best, and last chance, to bring video slot machines to Rockingham Park along with the expected added tax revenue and new jobs to the community. On the eve of the senate debate over the budget – which includes $185 million in expected revenue from expanded gambling across the state – Arthur Barnes, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, hand delivered letters to each of the state senators, urging them to carefully consider bringing video slot machines to Rockingham Park.

According to Selectman Elizabeth Roth, residents have historically come out in support of expanded gambling in their community, passing three nonbinding referendums in favor of the proposition in recent memory.

In April, residents again voiced support for bringing video slots to Salem during a forum held by Millennium Gaming, which owns an option to purchase the racetrack if expanded gambling passes in New Hampshire, at Rockingham Park.

“I don’t think it is a panacea for all of our taxes, but the Rock has been traditionally helpful to community. In that respect alone, I have always been a strong proponent of expanded gambling so the racetrack could survive in our town,” she said. “We are on the losing end if this does not pass the legislature. I’ve got my fingers crossed to hope that it will.”

Were lawmakers to approve expanded gambling, Millennium Gaming plans to build a $450 million permanent facility at Rockingham Park and have a temporary casino operating within seven months.

Advocates of expanded gambling say the construction would bring jobs and revenue to the community as it has with Washington County, Pa., where another Millennium Gaming owned combination racetrack and casino brought in over $230 million in the first year of operation and along with it, continued economic growth.

Selectman Everett McBride described the present situation in New Hampshire as at a “breaking point.” The racetrack needs the revenue that expanded gambling is expected to bring in just as both the state and the town are searching for new revenue streams of their own, he said.

“For us, it’s a positive thing. Overwhelmingly, we’ve supported it at the ballot box. The community is behind it for sure,” McBride said.

McBride also pointed to the ongoing Texas Hold’em tournaments, bingo nights and craps games held at the racetrack already as a bright spot for local charities and nonprofit organizations who benefit from gaming proceeds as well as proof that expanded gambling would not impact the quality of life in the community.

“If you went to the racetrack on a Sunday, you would see there is plenty of gambling going on ... They can say we don’t have it, but they’re just kidding themselves,” he said. “Texas Hold’em is gambling. The state can say we don’t have gambling, but we do. In Salem (gambling) is not a problem.”

According to Ed Callahan, Rockingham Park’s general manager, the racetrack has pursued bringing in video slots since the early ’90s when the Lincoln Park greyhound track in Rhode Island successfully incorporated the machines into their operation. Since then, more than a dozen states have allowed for expanded gambling, something Callahan would like to see happen in New Hampshire.

Callahan is hoping the latest push for expanded gambling will come to fruition this time around, but said he would hesitate to put money on it.

“I’m in the gambling business, and it is a very rare occurrence that I can pick the the winning horse. Generally, I don’t pick ’em,” he said. “I hope the Legislature will look very closely at expanded gambling.”