AUGUSTA, Maine — As a planned casino in Oxford moves toward hiring dealers and a Bangor casino expands its offerings to include table games, Maine lawmakers took a small step Monday toward a statewide gambling regulation policy.
A subcommittee of the Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee recommended that the full committee consider a casino policy that could include nonrefundable application fees of $500,000 as well as other provisions, said chairwoman Sen. Debra Plowman, R-Hampden. The committee also is being asked to develop legislation regulating state lottery sales over the Internet, Plowman said.
Some lawmakers are concerned that because Maine has no statewide policy on casinos, developers can put forth statewide ballot questions that can lead to uncontrolled, hodgepodge growth of those facilities in the state. Others say the state does not require large enough application fees.
The committee is to develop a proposed casino-regulation policy built upon legislation introduced last year by Rep. Linda Valentino, D-Saco, who says the Legislature should have issued ground rules for the industry years ago. In the meantime, a number of proposals for casinos or horse racetracks with slot machines — known as racinos — have gone before lawmakers and voters, with most rejected.
The Oxford Casino, which is under construction and is scheduled to open this summer, will hold a job fair Saturday. It is seeking applicants to fill more than 50 open positions as table games dealers. Additional job fairs will be held for prospective staff in the restaurant, security, administration and other positions.
Last week, the Gambling Control Board approved Maine’s first full-fledged casino. Hollywood Slots will become Hollywood Casino Bangor and will open March 16.
Glad that people will have jobs
Actually wolly hopefully this is the beginning not only of more Casinos and Horsetrack Casinos in Maine but other forms of Gambling too only we can hope. Augusta get it done stop dragging your feet. Do the right thing end the regional monopolies and let the tribes have one as well. We need the jobs and revenue. Build baby build and they will come.
yes thats true i would like to see were you could bet on sports
Delaware has sports betting on Pro and College Sports , local sports (High School) you can’t bet on. Delaware has had it for about 2+ years and they have had no issues with it. It is very popular at Dover Downs, Harrington. I would like to see Maine have more choices to gamble. Poker Halls, Keno, Sports Betting, Dice Games, Video Poker machines, Dice Game Halls, Crazy Ball, Color Games etc. like you see at the fairs. We get all of these new Multi-State Lottery games like Powerball, Mega Millions, Hot Lotto and the New Lucky for Life game that starts on March 11. But no other options besides that. It’s ok for the state to go gonzo over expanding the Lottery. But I want more Casinos and other choices to gamble on.
All we can do is call or write our reps in Augusta to get them