Battle to resume for Bangor off-track betting license

A ruling by Justice Donald Alexander this week in Augusta concerning off-track betting in the Bangor area is producing a giant industry-wide ripple effect and raises serious questions about the stability and future expansion of harness racing in eastern Maine.

In a suit filed in Kennebec County Superior Court by Larry Mahaney of Bangor and his two partners, James and Charles Day of Lewiston, Alexander ruled that the Miller’s Restaurant OTB application had several problems and violated due process of law to the other applicants.

Mahaney and the Days of The Inside Track were applicants for a Bangor OTB license.

Alexander ruled that Miller’s OTB license was granted unfairly by the Maine State Harness Racing Commission and he ordered the MSHRC to begin the Bangor OTB application process again and grant a permanent license within 120 days.

“The process is flawed,” Mahaney said Thursday. “Justice Alexander found those flaws and is now telling all OTB applicants that we will all play by the same rules on an equal playing field.”

Under Maine’s two-year-old law which legalizes OTB wagering in the state, Bangor was the first municipality to have multiple applicants for what the MSHRC determined would be a single OTB license. Early in the selection process, because multiple license applications were entirely new, the MSHRC sought language and legislative guidance, but ended up explaining the problems of multiple applicants before the Maine Legislature’s Agriculture Committee.

Even during the current year-long OTB moratorium, no language has yet been formulated to deal with multiple OTB applications. Without directives, the potential for the same problem as Bangor now is experiencing could surface again in the Rockland-Camden area when the moratorium is lifted.

MSHRC chairman Phil Tarr said Thursday that the commission intends to comply with Alexander’s court order. Tarr said he was not sure if “an appeal” is an option the commission is being advised to consider.

“We will re-hear Bangor applications, with some stipulations,” Tarr said. “We will open up a process whereby anyone who submits a license application will be considered.”

Tarr said discussion of the issue was on the commission’s Feb. 1 meeting in Augusta, but the hearing would begin the first week of March in Bangor.

Also, there is another new application for a Bangor OTB that has never been heard before the commission, according to Tarr. “It will also be considered if it passes the other two steps to get to the commission level,” Tarr said.

Any Bangor OTB appplication must receive approval from both the commercial racetrack and the City Council. The council has adopted the attitude that it would approve its OTB policy and any applicant (barring any criminal record) and let the racing commission determine the best applicant.

The Bangor commercial track, now under the license of Fred Nichols and his financial group, have the right, by statute, to veto any Bangor application. Nichols said this week he would veto any new Bangor appicant and let the commission make a decision after reviewing the five original OTB applicants.

Nichols said Alexander’s decision could devastate the live racing program at Bangor Raceway. Last season, Nichols and his investors negotiated an agreement with Miller’s Restaurant. In the contract, Miller’s agreed to actively promote live harness racing in Bangor and also pay Nichols’ track group one percent on the total OTB handle generated at his OTB. Using current projections, that amount could reach the $100,000 range this year.

“Without that OTB money,” Nichols said “we have very serious concerns as to whether Bangor could survive as a racetrack.”

The city of Bangor also stands to lose its $50,000 rental fee for the summer race meet and also an on-going maintenance program at Bass Park that amounted to more than $60,000 last season if a new OTB operator is selected. Except for Pardners Western Food and Fun, no other applicant offered to help support live Bangor racing with a percentage of OTB money, according to Nichols.

Marshall Stern, attorney for Miller’s OTB, said Thursday he had not seen Alexander’s decision.

“When I see it, I will write an appeal,” Stern said.

Although the Bangor situation is an agenda item for the Feb. 1 commission meeting in Augusta, Tarr said the OTB hearing process would begin in early March in Bangor.

PACING BITS – Scarborough Downs will race a live program each Sunday, beginning Jan. 29, through the end of February, according to Downs officials. The live program will also be simulcast throughout the state’s OTB system. Post time every Sunday is 12:30 p.m.