A citizens’ referendum to allow a third casino in Maine, in York County, will be considered by the legislature during the current session.
The law allows citizens to gather signatures to bring an issue before the legislature, which may then choose to adopt the measure outright, put it on the ballot or put it on the ballot along with a counterproposal ballot measure. Last year a similar campaign was disallowed when the Secretary of State ruled that more than half of the signatures submitted were invalid.
The effort was funded by Lisa Scott, the sister of Shawn Scott, who brought casino gaming to Maine when he successfully sponsored an initiative that authorized what is now the Bangor Hollywood Casino and Raceway. He sold the rights to that casino for $51 million. Lisa Scott spent $4 million on the effort last year.
Scott had nothing to do with the second casino approved for the state, in Oxford. Sponsors sold the rights to that casino for $150 million.
Maine lawmaker Louie Luchini, House chairman of the Joint Standing Committee on Veterans and Legal Affairs finds it “frustrating,” that casinos are approved in this fashion, without the state getting any of the money. “Our hands are pretty tied,” he told the Ellsworth American.
The initiative this session is written so that only Shawn Scott would be able to take advantage of it, since it spells out in detail what land would qualify. Only someone who owned more than half of a commercial horserace track in 2003 would be able to apply for the license. He would be able to operate a casino with no more than 1,500 slots.
The initiative would increase the number of slots allowed in the state from 3,000 to 4,500.
