PORTLAND -- A Las Vegas casino developer has acquired control of the Maine company that has been working to change state law to allow a casino to be build in Oxford County.

The company will be taking over the political campaign to convince voters this November to approve Question 2 on the sate ballot.

The ballot question allows a casino with an unlimited number of slot machines to be built in Oxford County while imposing a 10-year moratorium on building casinos elsewhere in the state.

The Olympia Group, a large investor in real estate and casino resorts in Nevada, announced today that it has acquired control of Evergreen Mountain Enterprises LLC, the company the ballot question stipulates will own the casino.

Olympia acquired the controlling shares of the company from Seth Carey, the Rumford attorney who led the initiative drive to put the issue on the Nov. 4 ballot.

The Board of Overseers of the Bar last month directed its counsel to begin disciplinary action against Carey for misconduct. The board found that Carey had inappropriately unauthorized contact with two people he knew or should have known were represented by their own counsel.

Also today, Pat LaMarche, who had quit Evergreen's referendum campaign last month because of Carey's legal problems, announced that she has returned to Evergreen and will be serving as the campaign's spokesperson.

Dennis Bailey, who heads Casinos No!, an group opposed to the casino, accused the organizers of deceiving voters about the true intent of the referendum.

"This is just another layer of deception in an already deceptive casino scheme," Bailey said in a statement. "The Oxford County casino proposal was sold to Maine voters and the petition signers as a Maine owned-and operated casino."