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Study: Maine Could Support More Casinos

Susan Sharon
/
MPBN

AUGUSTA, Maine - Maine could support additional casinos in the southern and northern parts of the state, according to a study prepared for the Legislature. Lawmakers on the Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee will be briefed on the report next week by it's author, White Sands Gaming. Opponents of gambling expansion question whether the report, drafted by a casino management firm, can really be a sound starting point for a debate about the future of gaming in Maine.

Lawmakers passed a bill last spring calling for a study that looks at whether the state's economy can support additional casinos. The contract went to White Sands. State Sen. Garrett Mason, a Lisbon Republican, serves on the Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee.

"Listen, for the past - well, over a decade now - the Legislature has waffled on its approach to gaming," Mason says. "That's how we ended up in the place we were: with casinos in two parts of the state that were won by citizen referendum."

The White Sands study argues that Maine can handle another large casino, in addition to the ones in Bangor and Oxford. But a new facility, the report notes, would need to be based in southern Maine - not far from Interstate 95 and close to summer tourist destinations - to have the best chance of succeeding financially.

The study also says the state could potentially support a smaller casino in either Washington or Aroostook county, near the Canadian border. White Sands officials are scheduled to brief Mason and other members of the Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee next Wednesday.

"It's an exciting prospect that we have something that we can rely on, as Republicans and Democrats, to really make sound policy with," Mason says.

Opponents of gambling expansion, though, say paying a company like White Sands $110,000 for a study that opens the door to additional casinos in Maine isn't a good starting point for fair conversation about the future of gaming in the state.

"To say that this is an unbiased report is ludicrous," says Suzanne Foley-Ferguson, who fought efforts to open a casino in Scarborough, as head of the group No Again!

"You know, for them to say, 'Oh, this is focused on what's best for Maine,' well, no. That's what's focused best for them," she says. "The more casinos they open, the more money that they make. And that's just a fact. Because that's what they specialize in: opening and managing casinos."

Officials at White Sands did not return a call for comment by air time. Mason says White Sands had the expertise required to produce the kind of study lawmakers were looking for - though he notes that reports like this one should always be scrutinized and questioned carefully.