Opinion

Opinion: It's time to let tribes join in on the casino game in Maine

Friday, November 12, 2010

"If the new Republican majority in Augusta is looking to leave its mark, it would do well to figure out what Maine should do about casino gambling.

The situation, after the apparent approval of Maine’s first full-fledged casino in Oxford County by a mere 5,300 votes, is a mess, to put it kindly. And it’ll get more confusing once the Legislature begins debating enabling legislation reflecting the voters’ latest decision.

The ballots will be recounted, at the behest of the local Casinos No! chapter, but the margin — half of Gov.-elect Paul LePage’s narrow win over Eliot Cutler — is unlikely to be reversed. Towns and cities count votes well.

Yet the voters’ tilt away from previous decisions, in which they turned down three separate casino questions, creates a conundrum. What do Mainers really think about organized gambling, and state-provided licenses for a favored few? If casinos are now OK, how many are enough? And what about the Indian tribes, who under federal law have a better claim to operate casinos than anyone else?

The history is tangled. The Legislature has traditionally been averse to casinos, turning down a 1991 plan for a casino in Calais operated by the Passamaquoddy tribe, which had never exercised its rights, under the Indian Land Claims Settlement of 1980, to a betting operation. The Penobscot tribe has a high-stakes bingo operation on its Indian Island reservation near Bangor."

Get the Story:
Re: Maine by Douglas Rooks: Next steps on casino gambling? (The Brunswick Times-Record 11/11)

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