AUGUSTA, Maine — The Legislature’s appetite for an expansion of gambling in Maine revealed itself to be nonexistent Tuesday with the rejection of a second pro-casino bill in as many days.
Though there were still more votes scheduled that could resurrect the bill late Tuesday night, it didn’t appear to be likely.
LD 1280 sought to create a commission to solicit bids for the construction and operation of a casino in Cumberland County or York County. The operator of the casino would have been liable for a $5 million initial license fee and a tax of 46 percent on net slot machine income and 16 percent on table game income.
The bill passed in the House on Tuesday morning with an 83-62 vote, but two versions of it failed in the Senate later in the day in back-to-back 20-15 and 18-17 votes. On Monday, the Senate voted against a second gaming bill, LD 1446, that would have allowed for a competitive bid process for a tribal-run casino in Aroostook County or Washington County.
Among the concerns voiced by opponents of both bills was that either of them would erode business for Maine’s two existing casinos in Bangor and Oxford.
“Some estimates are that the Oxford Casino would lose 50 percent of its revenue,” Rep. Lloyd Herrick, R-Paris, said during debate of the southern Maine casino bill. “The Oxford casino is the southern Maine casino. Please vote no.”
There was hope among casino proponents this year that one of these bills would pass, based on a White Sands market study released last year that found Maine could support two more casinos: one in southern Maine and one in northern Maine.
That study was discounted by some because it was conducted by a gaming company.
Proponents argued a new casino could create crucial Maine jobs and funnel revenue to places ranging from municipalities to the Indian tribes.
“I believe that probably everybody in this room talked about creating jobs [during last year’s campaigns],” Rep. Wayne Parry, R-Arundel, said. “These are all good-paying jobs.”
Rep. Louis Luchini, D-Ellsworth, who chairs the Legislature’s Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee, which has jurisdiction over casinos, opposed the southern Maine bill because it strayed too far from the White Sands report on issues such as the tax rates proposed for the casino. He said the high taxes would reduce the amount of money a casino developer would be willing to invest.
“I believe this report as written shortchanges potential investment for gaming in southern Maine,” Luchini said.
The expansion of casinos has been under debate for years but consistently has been turned back by the Legislature, mostly because of arguments that Maine has no overall casino gaming policy that identifies what casinos should pay and where that revenue should go. Maine’s existing casinos were approved by referendum.
