Proponents of a third Maine casino, this one in York County, have begun collecting signatures for an initiative that would authorize a casino in York County, in Southern Maine.
The casino would combine slots with table games.
The initiative would require gathering 61,123 signatures to qualify for the 2016 ballot. The deadline to collect them is February 1.
For a dozen years Maine voters have been hit again and again with casino initiatives, mostly funded by casino industry operators. There have been eight such elections. As a result, the Pine Tree State has two casinos, the Oxford Casino and the Hollywood Casino in Bangor.
Critics of this method of approving casinos point out that the operators get to set the percentage that they pay the state, rather than the state government setting that percentage.
During this time several Maine lawmakers have tried to adopt legislation that would set state standards for casinos and take the process away from casino developers and hand it to a government agency set up for that purpose.
Several bills are being proposed this year. House Majority Leader Jeff McCabe told Maine Public Broadcasting, “Who benefits from the gaming that’s being proposed, whether it’s, you know, tribal gaming, whether it’s gaming that benefits the harness racing industry or whether it’s something new that many of us have not thought about yet.”
He noted that lawmakers are discussing regulated gaming and expanded gaming. Maine is a gaming state and I think we sort of struggle with what that means and there will be some major decisions made on gaming this session,” he said. One bill would allow tribal casinos with slots, another would allow bingo games at campgrounds.
The backer of the current proposal is Shawn Scott, who has been involved with several previous efforts, including the one that authorized Hollywood Casino. The initiative is written in such a way that only Scott would be able to meet the eligibility qualification, which includes being a 51 percent or better owner of a commercial racetrack that operates in Penobscot County, i.e. the Hollywood Slots Hotel and Raceway.
In an editorial the Portland Press-Herald characterized the effort this way: “This comes packaged as a citizen-initiated piece of legislation, but it’s really something else – an end run around the legislative process that is available to anyone who has enough money.” The measure would also increase the upper limit on slot machines per casino to 4,500.
Besides fingering Scott as the one person qualified to operate the casino, it also releases Scott from the current restriction preventing casinos from operating less than 100 miles from each other.
