The ventilation system wasn't quite right yet, but the signs telling gambling addicts where to call for help were on the walls. So were the signs explaining how to place a bet.

All this week, workers scurried around inside Virginia's newest off-track betting parlor, on Vinyard Road in Vinton. They climbed above ceiling tiles, wormed around stacks of boxes and pored over blueprints. Today, the Vinton site hosts a by-invitation-only event. On Monday, Colonial Downs, Virginia's only pari-mutuel horse racing track, will open its sixth off-track betting parlor to the gambling public.

The 14,600-square-foot facility sits across the street from the LancerLot, and a parking lot away from the state-owned liquor store. It can accommodate nearly 500 people, offering food, drink and an opportunity to wager on races from up to 23 tracks. Monday's crowd will have 20 races to choose from.

Any opening is bound to have some problems, but Colonial Downs representatives seem confident that Vinton's OTB parlor will do just fine.

"We kind of have an idea of how they work because we own so many of them," said Rob Coyle, Colonial Downs' director of food and beverage.

The Vinton facility features more than 150 televisions spread over smoking and nonsmoking sections, a VIP dining room and smaller rooms filled with private betting carrels. Darrell Wood, Colonial Downs' marketing director, said that's the place to go "if you're serious about this and want to delve a little deeper." Diana Eisel, the site director, said the rooms will also be available for private parties.

Last November, Vinton voters approved off-track betting by a 20-vote margin - just 1.1 percent of the 1,696 votes cast.

Opponents argued that the OTB parlor would damage the community, but that was a hard sell in a place where a bingo parlor is a major benefactor of school booster clubs. Vinton is third in the state in per capita bingo spending and 23rd in per capita lottery ticket sales.

Nevertheless, local ministers organized opposition to the OTB. One of the town's two polling places was inside Vinton Baptist, the town's biggest church. The referendum fell five votes short there. But that wasn't enough to stop its passage.

When the votes had been counted, Rob Colwell, minister of Thrasher Memorial United Methodist Church - the town's second largest - said he and his fellow ministers would prepare to serve the "victims of gambling and poverty" they expect the betting parlor to generate.

Vinton resident Lula Hypes mounted a recount campaign but abandoned it when she found the process too expensive.

"That's a thorn in my side," she said Thursday. "I'm not really happy about it but there's nothing I can do."

During the Vinton campaign, proponents said the in-house restaurant would likely be run by a local entrepreneur. That didn't work out. Two companies that were in the running went out of business. No one else who applied met Colonial Downs' standards, Coyle said.

"Truth be told, I wish we would have found somebody," he said. "It's not easy managing these places from so far away."

Town councilmen Billy Obenchain and Tom Rotenberry campaigned hard for Vinton's referendum, saying the betting parlor would bring up to 50 jobs to the community and put about $190,000 in the town's coffers each year. When the doors open Monday, 54 local people will be working there. More than 20 of those are full time, according to Eisel, the site manager. The rest can become full time, depending on their desire and the OTB's need, but tellers often prefer part-time status, Eisel said.

"We let them go as things slow down during the night," she said. "Believe me, they want to go home when it gets to be 10 or 11 o'clock at night."

Eisel came from Colonial Downs' Chesapeake betting parlor. Trisha Deaton, the assistant manager, came from the Hampton site. They're still taking applications for tellers.

"To this point, the folks from Colonial Downs have been straight up with me. They're doing everything we asked them to do," Obenchain said last week. "Since the town has not one single dime invested in this, it can't be anything but a winning situation for the town financially."

"As far as I know, things are pretty much as they said it was going to be," Rotenberry said last week. "I think it'll work out well for Vinton."

The OTB staff has been training for four weeks - two classes each day, six days each week.

"It's pretty intense," Eisel said. "It's a lot of information."

The new crew will have one last pre-opening run-through Sunday afternoon. Two experienced tellers and the tellers' trainer will be in town to help during the OTB's first week.

"Basically, you can't get a real feel for it until you're out there doing it live," Eisel said. "We're not going to let anyone fall on their face."

The staff is prepared to help people through the wagering process, even though many staffers are new to that process themselves, Wood said. Someone has to know the difference between an exacta and a trifecta and what happens when you box them.

"It's a whole different lingo," Wood said. "It's not like punching numbers into a cash register at a Kroger grocery store."