It’s a casino

It’s a casino only for Scarborough Downs Racetrack. It’s a gambling monopoly with a lack of oversight and accountability. It’s an empty promise of tax relief wrapped in the fleece of reviving Maine’s struggling harness racing industry.

It’s Question 3 on the November referendum ballot. It’s easily the most deceptive and cynical measure to be put before voters in recent memory. If Question 3 were about what is says it is – allowing video lottery machines at “certain” commercial race tracks with a handsome cut going to property-tax relief – Maine could enjoy a good, hearty debate on the pros and cons of using gambling to spur economic development and the social impacts of gambling. Instead, this petition-initiated referendum is about how willing Maine is to be hoodwinked.

The 15-page legislation (written not by legislators, but by backers of the proposal) behind the question is a masterpiece of chicanery. To be a “certain” racetrack, the track must offer 100 race dates a year. Only Scarborough Downs does that – the only other commercial track, Bangor Raceway, has just 26. Just in case Bangor manages to quadruple activity, Scarborough still is protected from competition. The legislation prohibits two of these video palaces within a 150-mile radius. Bangor, by sheer coincidence no doubt, lies 137 miles from Scarborough. Of course, other, more distant communities in need of an economic boost could build one.

They’ll first have to build a racetrack and stage 100 or more races a year for two years. At a time when even weeklong country fairs are having difficulty attracting enough horses and fans to make it worthwhile, the problem is obvious.

About the money. Backers say the 1,500 video terminals planned (feel free to call them slot machines) will offer a payback at the industry standard of more than 90 percent. Why, then, does the legislation say 75 percent? They say they are driven by a desire to boost purses at other tracks and to ease the burden on property taxpayers. Why, then, will nearly half of the estimated $100-million take stay with the owners and operators of the track and the machines?

Property tax relief? Don’t count on it. The 40 percent earmarked for that purpose will go into the state’s Local Government Fund (commonly called revenue sharing), which is set by law at 5.1 percent of state revenue. The size of the Local Government Fund will not necessarily increase – the money could just come out of a different pocket. And if the numerous studies on the social impact of gambling are right, it will be the pocket of those least able to afford it.

The legislation also makes keeping everything on the level the responsibility of the state police. A study of this proposal by the state police finds that the weak oversight and accountability provisions – Scarborough Downs would essentially be on the honor system – would give Maine the distinction of being the “only state in the nation to allow gambling of this scope with such an inadequate regulatory mechanism and so open to corruption.”

The legislation allows Scarborough Down to call this facility anything it wants, just so it doesn’t call it a casino. The voters of Maine are under no such restriction. It’s a casino.