March 29, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Video gaming fans trying for veto vote

PORTLAND — Supporters of electronic video gambling tournaments in Maine face a July Fourth deadline to collect enough signatures to force a rare “people’s veto” vote on a new state law barring the games.

If they fail to gather at least 51,131 valid signatures in the next two months, electronic poker games are sure to remain outlawed.

The group of York County businesspeople is led by chairman William Mitchell, a novice lobbyist for the video gambling industry who acknowledges the coalition is not especially politically savvy.

The group has no campaign money, no field organization, no solid strategy and no general election to draw out large numbers of voters. It doesn’t even have a name.

But it is hoping to gather support from members of nonprofit social clubs that rely on gambling to help raise money. It also has a potential ally in the company that wants to test-market the games in Maine.

And supporters have a potential seasoned organizer in John Michael, a former legislator who led the congressional term-limits drive.

William Danton, a video machine businessman from Old Orchard Beach who wants to introduce the video gambling games in Maine, is working with Mitchell to design the campaign to collect the petition signatures.

Danton and Mitchell agree the potential locations for the games are also the best places to collect signatures. Instead of working the polls at the June 11 state primary elections, volunteers may show up looking for support in veterans’ and fraternal groups’ halls.

Danton got fired up for the campaign after the Legislature in effect overruled a Superior Court decision and passed Gov. Angus King’s bill to make video tournament gambling illegal.

If Danton can collect the signatures he needs by July 4, the law will be stayed until the November vote on whether to “veto” the law. It has been at least 20 years since a “people’s veto” has overturned a state law, Secretary of State Bill Diamond said.

A successful voter-signature drive would allow Danton to run the tournament games throughout the summer tourist season. And technically, the games are now legal because state laws do not take effect until 90 days after they pass. One game has been set up in a Biddeford convenience store.

Maine gambling laws draw distinctions between legal “games of skill” and illegal “games of chance.”

Until last December, those lines seemed clear: Golf, pool and bowling tournaments offering cash prizes to winners were considered games of skill, while electronic video games that offered cash prizes were not.

Professional Video Association of Canada developed computer software that allows poker players to compete against each other electronically over the duration of a “tournament.”


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