On Nov. 8, Maine voters will decide two citizen initiatives to expand gambling in Maine.
Question 2 authorizes Scarborough Downs to open a new slot machine facility in Biddeford, subject to a local approval. Biddeford voters approved such a facility at a past referendum and are expected to vote in its favor again.
Question 2 also approves an Indian casino in Washington County.
Question 3 would allow a casino with table games and slot machines to open in Lewiston. The casino would be located in a shuttered mill currently owned by the city.
When voters approved slot machines at the Bangor Raceway and created Hollywood Slots, they also authorized Scarborough Downs to establish slot machines at their current facility or within five miles of the racetrack. However, voters in Scarborough and all the communities within a five-mile radius of the track voted against the slot machine facility. Question 2 would expand the radius to 25 miles, thus allowing a slot machine facility in Biddeford.
The Scarborough Downs track is the only track that meets the criteria of Question 2 other than Hollywood Slots, which already has slot machines, according to the Attorney General’s Office.
The other half of Question 2 allows a casino operated by a federally recognized Indian tribe. The locations that meet the criteria of the question are “predominantly in Washington County,” according to the Attorney General’s Office.
Question 3 would allow a casino with table games and slot machines in Lewiston. Voters in Lewiston approved the sale of the city-owned Bates Mill; this is the only facility in the state that would meet the criteria for this question.
Currently, slot machines and table games are allowed in Maine. Only Hollywood Slots and a voter-approved casino in Oxford are allowed to house them. If both of these questions pass, slot machines and table games in Maine will – pending local approval – expand from two allowed facilities to five allowed facilities.
Under current law and the two gambling questions, a percentage of funds from casinos and slot machine facilities go to the state.
From the two facilities in Question 2, an estimated $54 million per year would go to various state programs, with about $34.3 million of that going into the state’s general fund; the facilities are estimated to cost the state about $1.9 million per year in public safety expenses, according to the Office of Fiscal Program Review.
From the facility in Question 3, an estimated $27.6 million per year would go to various state programs, with about $6.7 million of that going into the general fund; the facility is estimated to cost the state about $1.1 million in public safety expenses, according to the Office of Fiscal Program Review.
Supporters of the gambling questions say they will create more than 1000 permanent jobs at the facilities, several thousand construction jobs to build them, and the Biddeford facility alone will preserve 1500 jobs in harness racing. Many in the harness racing community believe that slot machines are the answer to declining revenues in their industry.
Supporters of slot machines at harness racing tracks point to successful race tracks in Pennsylvania and elsewhere that have seen dramatic increases to the sport since states allowed slot machines at the tracks.
Opponents of casinos argue that a variety of crime and other social ills typically increase in communities surrounding casinos. Crime rates have increased dramatically in communities surrounding the Mohegan Sun casino, and in Bangor crime increased 40 percent between 2005 when Hollywood Slots opened and 2009 – even as crime fell during that period in several of Maine’s other large cities, including Lewiston and Portland.
There have been several highly publicized examples of individuals stealing large amounts of money and spending it at Hollywood slots.
Supporters argue that the facilities will bring in a significant amount of out-of-state and Canadian money. Maine residents spend an estimated 95 percent of the money spent at Hollywood Slots.
The Office of Fiscal Program Review estimates that a combined $1.96 billion will be spent at the three facilities allowed in these questions. Opponents argue that casinos represent a de facto tax on individuals with less education and lower incomes, because individuals in these categories are statistically much more likely to spend money at casinos.
Opponents of the casinos point out that in Bangor, from 2005 when Hollywood Slots opened until 2009, consumer retail spending in the area fell at a faster rate than many other areas of the state.