A group that earlier in the year failed to get the votes to put an initiative on the ballot for a casino in southern Maine is going to try again.
Earlier in the year the Secretary of State invalidated over 55,000 petitions for the group, which wants to put a casino in York County. Now the group, Horseracing Jobs Fairness is collecting money for a war chest and gearing up to try again next year.
Lisa Scott, sister of casino developer Shawn Scott, recently donated $300,000 to the group. She has donated a total of $3.5 million to the campaign, which says it has already gathered 35,000 signatures, more than half the number needed to make it onto the November 2017 ballot.
Craigslist has carried ads seeking workers to gather signatures on petitions in Maine. There are several such efforts going on, but the ad follows immediately upon the contribution by Scott.
Maine currently has two casinos, one in Bangor and the other in Oxford.
The petition that was circulated earlier this year was closely written so that the only place a casino would have been allowed was York County. Scott was the man who originally promoted the casino that would become Hollywood Casino, in Bangor, although he sold the rights to another developer.
