The Third Time Around
Thursday, January 25, 2007
If at first you don’t succeed, just keep coming back. That would seem to be the game plan for the Passamaquoddy tribe and others promoting a harness racing track and accompanying racino in Washintgton County. Last week, Secretary of State Matt Dunlap said racino backers have submitted enough valid signatures to bring the proposal before the 123rd Legislature.
Dunlap said petitioners submitted almost 69,000 signatures, but nearly 18,000 or them were rejected on various grounds, leaving a “wafer-thin” 577-signature cushion over the required 50,519. But the secretary said he was confident that the remaining signatures would withstand any challenge.
The question stated in the proposed legislation asks: “Do you want to allow a Maine tribe to run a harness racing track with slot machines and high-stakes beano games in Washington County?” The truth of the matter is that racino backers couldn’t care less about Maine’s harness racing industry, but they need the race track in order to justify the slot machine parlor.
Each time it surfaces, the racino plan is touted as having the potential to lift both the Passamaquoddies and Washington County out of their economic doldrums. Yet even casual examination suggests otherwise. A significant body of evidence shows that the vast majority of even full-fledged casinos across the country attract most of their support — 80 percent or more — from within a 35- to 50-mile radius. Hollywood Slots already is operating in Bangor and major casino resorts, including Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, offer a host of amenities to the gambling public. It is just plain silly to suggest that hordes of gamblers will travel long distances bringing an infusion of new money to Washington County. To the extent that a racino there might succeed, it will do so on money that comes right out of the pockets of folks who already live and work right here in eastern Maine. And as we have said before, that is money that won’t be spent on the real goods and services provided by Maine businesses.
It is too soon to determine the kind of social cost that may result from Hollywood Slots in Bangor. But expansion of that operation, from the present 475 slot machines to as many as 1,500, is now under way. There exists plenty of conclusive evidence that casinos (and a racino is just that, on a more modest scale) bring an inevitable increase in gambling addiction, divorces, bankruptcies and crime to the areas in which they are located. There’s no reason to believe Maine is immune.
The Legislature approved a similar measure back in 2004, but Gov. John Baldacci showed courage and good sense in vetoing the proposal and the Legislature was unable to muster the votes necessary to override his veto. The tribal track coalition then tried to get the proposal on the state referendum ballot for 2006, only to see more than 20 percent of the 61,000 signatures disqualified.
Some backers of the racino plan have a habit of characterizing those who oppose it as being racists or anti-Washington County. Fred Moore, a former Passamaquoddy state representative, did just that last week when he said, “Whether or not the Governor decides to veto it depends upon how the Governor feels about Washington County.” That is nonsense and Moore knows it. Moore also looked into his crystal ball and asserted that “the people of Maine are not opposed” to a Washington County racino. That is yet to be determined. There are tens of thousands of Mainers who share the view of this newspaper that casinos and racinos usually are not the economic engines they are represented to be.
We hope that, when this latest racino proposal reaches the floor of the Maine House and Senate, legislators will have the good sense to reject it. If they do not, we expect that Governor Baldacci will stand by his principles and again apply the veto pen. Then, when the measure ends up on a statewide referendum, we trust that a majority of Mainers will see through the false promises of those who have climbed aboard the racino bandwagon and give the measure the resounding “no” vote it deserves.
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January 2007 Reports
Last updated on January 27, 2007