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Wednesday, April 7, 2004
Legislators divided on gambling bill details
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AUGUSTA — State lawmakers are gearing up for what may be a big fight over a proposed gambling-control bill, even though both sides agree that the state needs tougher regulations before the owner of Bangor Historic Track installs slot machines at Bangor Raceway to create a racino there. The Legislature's Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee is expected to send two competing versions of the bill to the House and Senate. Both versions call for a five-member Gambling Control Board to license and regulate slot machines in Maine. The committee has split over other key provisions, including the number of slot machines allowed statewide, how the revenue from those machines should be distributed, and whether racetracks and other gambling interests should get a share. Some lawmakers are demanding that the Legislature send the whole issue back to voters because they authorized racinos in the first place. Gov. John Baldacci submitted the gambling-control bill to the Legislature after voters passed a proposal in November to let the state's two commercial harness-racing tracks install slot machines if they won local approval in 2003. Bangor voters approved slots there in June, but voters in Scarborough, Saco and Westbrook refused to let Scarborough Downs install slots in their communities. Penn National Gaming of Pennsylvania, the owner of Bangor Historic Track, has a conditional harness-racing license that may allow it to install slots in Bangor under existing law. But both versions of the legislation would force Penn National to get a separate slots license from a Gambling Control Board. That board's members would be appointed by the governor. "We went from Dodge City in the wild, wild West (under the referendum) to a pretty sophisticated, well-regulated operation" in the control bill that will soon go to the House and Senate, said Sen. Kenneth Gagnon, D-Waterville, who co-chairs the Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee. Despite the committee's unanimous agreement on that part of the bill, there are strong disagreements on other issues. That has lawmakers predicting long debates and plenty of amendments once the bill reaches the House and the Senate. "I do anticipate a big fight," said Rep. Kevin Glynn, R-South Portland, a member of the committee. The House is expected to take up the bill within the next few days, then it will go to the Senate. Most committee members would set the number of racetrack slots at 3,000 statewide, or 1,500 per track. Glynn and other gambling opponents say that allowing 3,000 machines would encourage Scarborough Downs to revive its failed bid for a racino. Scarborough Downs would like to pursue that option in two or three years if the Bangor racino is a success, said Robert Tardy, a lobbyist for Scarborough Downs. The committee also failed to agree on how to distribute slot-machine revenues. About 90 percent of that money would go back to players in the form of winnings. The fight is over what to do with the remaining 10 percent or so, including how much should go to the racino operator and how much should go to the state for various programs. Baldacci's original gambling-control bill called for the operator to get 75 percent of the after-winnings revenues and the state to get 25 percent. The committee decided that would give too much money to the operator, but committee members could not agree on an alternative. What would the state do with its share? Both versions of the bill would give some of that money to the state to cover administrative costs and set some money aside for harness-racing purses, sire stakes, agricultural fairs, health care programs and college scholarships. The competing versions of the bill differ on how much money to put into those programs. More importantly, they also differ on whether to use some of the state's share to help gambling interests. Glynn and his two allies on the committee would not, but Gagnon and most other members would give part of the racino revenues to both harness tracks and to the state's five off-track betting parlors. The amounts are significant. Under the version of the bill backed by 10 of the 13 committee members, Scarborough Downs and Bangor Raceway would split $634,000 in the next fiscal year. That would grow dramatically as the number of slot machines in Bangor increased. The amount would jump to $1.3 million the following year and $3.3 million in the year after that, with Scarborough Downs getting most of the money because it races more days per year than Bangor Raceway and the money would be distributed based on race dates. In addition, OTB parlors, which believe they will lose money once a racino opens, stand to get some racino revenue under the version of the bill backed by most of the committee, including both chairmen. Their share would start at $317,000 next year and grow to $646,000 the following year and to $1.6 million in the third year of racino operations. Some of the many special interests that have been lobbying on the bill, including Scarborough Downs, support the version that would allow 3,000 slots and earmark racino revenue for harness tracks and OTB parlors. Others, including Penn National, are reserving judgment until they see the final wording of the competing plans prepared by the committee. Staff Writer Paul Carrier can be contacted at 622-7511 or at: pcarrier@pressherald.com
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