CHAMPION, Pa. -- A $5.4 million slots parlor planned for Seven Springs Mountain Resort would be operated by Delaware North Cos., a New York hospitality and food service firm that specializes in managing sports venues and racetrack casinos.

Seven Springs President Scott Bender announced the tentative partnership yesterday at a public hearing convened by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.

Delaware North already has its foot in the Pittsburgh market -- it owns and operates the Wheeling Island greyhound racetrack in West Virginia. Mr. Bender said Delaware North and Seven Springs would negotiate terms of the management deal if and when Seven Springs is awarded a casino license, which could happen by December.

Seven Springs and Delaware North have been in talks for more than half a year, Mr. Bender said.

The $2 billion company, based in Buffalo, runs the concession areas at more than 50 sports venues, as well as those at the NASA visitors' complex in Florida and Yosemite and Yellowstone national parks.

Delaware North's foray into Pennsylvania gambling comes as it tries to reshuffle its entertainment portfolio. Last month, the company announced it would sell its luxury riverboat fleet, called Delta Steamboat Co., to Ambassadors International. And earlier in the year, Delaware North said it would bid for a New York Racing Association franchise, which would come with the rights to operate the Belmont, Saratoga and Aqueduct racetracks.

The addition of a casino, under Delaware North's management expertise, would make Seven Springs "truly a four-season resort," said Bill Bissett, a vice president with Delaware North.

At the hearing, Mr. Bender reiterated that the octagon-shaped casino would be neon-free, meant to blend with the stone-and-timber construction common to other buildings at the resort. The 26,900-square-foot casino would have the maximum number of 500 slot machines.

"We're not Las Vegas," he said, "and we don't want to be Las Vegas."

Community support for a casino at the Seven Springs complex is widespread, if yesterday's testimony is a fair indication. Business leaders, Somerset County tourism officials, long-time skiers and more than a few current and former resort employees spoke in favor of the casino, assuring gambling regulators that Seven Springs and slots gambling is a "natural fit."

Only a handful of the 45 people who signed up to testify yesterday were opposed to the casino -- a township supervisor said he was morally opposed to gambling, a dairy farmer said he feared that the casino would alter the county's rural nature, and one county resident said she thought the casino would tarnish the "America's County" legacy of the United Airlines Flight 93 heroes and the nine Quecreek miners.