Standing in the massive bingo hall filled with long rows of tables and chairs, Miles Francis knows what gambling can mean to an Indian tribe. The cavernous building on Indian Island was the birthplace of tribal gaming in 1973.

Today, dozens of busloads of bingo players from New England and Canada flock to the island off Old Town seven times a year for the chance to win thousands of dollars in prize money.

The bingo players contribute $200,000 a year to the tribe’s annual budget – the single largest infusion of money from tribal sources.

But while the Penobscot Nation first may have used bingo as a source of income three decades ago, it has had to stand by and watch other tribes take more sophisticated forms of gambling to new heights, opening casinos that have brought in millions of dollars.

Now Maine’s two largest Indian tribes, the Penobscot Nation and the Passamaquoddy Tribe, which has two reservations in economically depressed Washington County, want a share of the potentially lucrative gambling pie.

After 29 years of managing Penobscot High Stakes Bingo and consulting for successful casinos in Connecticut, Francis believes the time has come for his reservation to reap some of the benefits too.

“I have seen what casinos have done for the tribes in Connecticut,” Francis said this week, standing in the hangarlike bingo hall. “We should have the same opportunity as the other tribes.

“We could be self-sufficient,” the lifelong resident of Indian Island added.

As he sees it, a tribal casino would bring in much-needed revenue, promote business development and help curb chronically high unemployment rates.

His fellow tribal members appear to agree.

“I’m very much in favor of it,” said Ruth Jewell, a Penobscot tribal elder who recently moved back to the island after living in the Augusta area. “I’m encouraged by the possibilities that might be forthcoming from the proceeds.”

Casino revenue should be spent on education, elder services and housing, she said.

“Any source of income to provide for the needs of tribal members is good,” Jewell added.

Sentiment in favor of a casino, or possibly two, is also running high on the Passamaquoddy reservations located at Indian Township near Princeton and Pleasant Point near Eastport.

A casino would provide the tribe with the economic independence it long has sought, said Indian Township Gov. Richard Stevens.

“The ultimate sovereignty is taking care of ourselves,” he said.

Looking south

A tribal casino in Maine is not a new idea. In 1992, the Passamaquoddy Tribe proposed building a gambling hall in Calais. Although the idea was supported by town residents 2-to-1, the project was killed by the Legislature in 1994.

At the same time, the Penobscot Nation considered building its own casino on Indian Island, but the tribal council nixed the idea out of fear it would cause social problems and hinder efforts to preserve native culture.

Several years later the Passamaquoddy Tribe tried to build a bingo parlor on land it owned in Albany Township in western Maine. That project failed on a technicality when the Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the land in question was not officially designated as “Indian Territory,” and the Legislature killed the project. Local residents opposed the plan for fear bingo would lead to full-fledged gambling with slot machines, blackjack tables and a host of more sophisticated games of chance.

Maine’s tribes have had a rougher go of getting a casino off the ground because their status differs from that of federally recognized tribes in other states. Under the provisions of the 1980 Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act, the tribes need legislative approval to acquire land they intend to use for gambling purposes.

In other states, tribal lands are not subject to state regulation and casinos can be built more easily. Maine is one of only five states with federally recognized Indian tribes which has not entered into agreements with those tribes to allow gambling.

The most recent casino proposal surfaced this spring when Tom Tureen, the high-powered lawyer who played a key role in negotiating the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act and creating the Foxwoods casino in Connecticut, began lobbying lawmakers on the merits of a gambling facility in southern Maine. The proposal was put on hold as the legislative session wound down, but tribal officials vowed it would be back before lawmakers – and a new governor – next year. Gov. Angus King opposes the idea.

Estimates of how much money will be spent to build the facility and how much money it will generate vary. But the figures most often cited are that it will cost $400 million to build, will employ 4,000 people and will bring in $25 million annually for each tribe. The hotel-casino complex would contribute $100 million to the state’s general fund each year.

Passamaquoddy officials are also pushing for a smaller “satellite” casino in Calais that would cost $80 million to build and would employ 700 people.

The focus has shifted to the south, far from tribal reservations, simply because that is where the people are.

A casino a little more than an hour away from Boston would draw on a base of millions of people and therefore would have the best chance of financial success, tribal members agree. While the town of Kittery has said it doesn’t want such a facility, other nearby communities such as Saco and Wells have not ruled out the possibility.

Although the facility would be far from their homes, they would still benefit greatly from a southern Maine casino, tribal members said.

“If the tribe makes a substantial amount of money from the casino, the tribal members would spend it in Washington County,” said Roger Ritter of Indian Township. He said he does not subscribe to gambling, but recognizes that no other economic development options are available to Washington County.

One drawback to the southern Maine proposal, Ritter said, would be the lack of employment for young tribal members. “That’s a long way to relocate,” he said.

But 25-year-old Jevin Dore of Indian Township said that although he would not move to southern Maine, he believes other young tribal members would, “just to get out of Washington County. It would give them a chance to possibly move ahead,” he said.

Nick Dow, the economic development director for the Penobscot Nation, said the prospect of a decent-paying job likely would entice some tribal members to relocate. Most tribal employment now is funded by federal dollars.

“This would give us more independence so we’re not as tied to federal dollars,” he said.

Proven benefits

The financial benefits of tribal casinos, while varying widely, are largely proven, according to national studies.

“Gambling revenues have proven to be a very important source of funding for many tribal governments, providing much-needed improvements in the health, education and welfare of Native Americans on reservations across the United States,” the congressionally created National Gambling Impact Study Commission concluded in its 1999 report.

“Nevertheless, Indian gambling has not been a panacea for the many economic and social problems that Native Americans continue to face,” the group said.

It points out that the highly successful Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun casinos in Connecticut are the exceptions, not the rule. Foxwoods is the largest casino in the world and grosses more than $1 billion in annual revenue for the 550 members of the Mashantucket Pequot tribe.

Most tribal casinos are much smaller and generate far less money. Of the nearly 300 tribal gambling establishments in operation, the eight largest account for more than 40 percent of the total revenue generated.

“For the majority of tribes with gambling facilities, the revenues have been modest yet nevertheless useful,” the commission said.

With staggering unemployment rates and personal incomes well below the national average, even modest increases in revenue are welcome.

“Even small amounts of economic activity have proven a tremendous boon to many gaming tribes,” The Economics Resource Group Inc. of Cambridge, Mass., said in a 1998 report to the Gambling Impact Study Commission. “While the backlog of socio-economic deficits left by decades of deprivation remains a daunting challenge, gaming has had a profound economic development impact on many tribes that have introduced it.”

Local tribal members echo the same sentiments.

“A couple million dollars to us would be beautiful,” said Dan Nelson, the fiscal officer for the Penobscot Nation.

One member of the Pequot tribe, he pointed out, gets more money than the entire annual budget for the Penobscot Nation, which is $800,000. That money must be used to pay for services for the 1,000 people who live on Indian Island. Total tribal membership is 2,000. The services include road maintenance, land management, water treatment and economic development. The bulk of tribal services is funded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which allocates $6 million annually to the tribe.

It may be a roll of the dice, but most of the 1,400 Passamaquoddy are also betting on a casino to get the tribe and Washington County out of the economic depression it has been in for the past decade.

“We get very little assistance from the state for economic development,” said Donald Soctomah, who represents the tribe in the Legislature. “So, we have to go out on our own and look at new sources, and the number one source that I felt was viable was a casino.”

Bleak economy

The economic picture for the tribes currently is a bleak one.

Unemployment rates are several times the state average, with a staggering 42 percent of Pleasant Point residents out of work in 1999, according to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. In addition, more than one-third of those who are employed at Pleasant Point and Indian Island are earning wages that are below the federal poverty level.

The incomes of tribal members are also well below state averages. According to the U.S. Census, the per capita income at Indian Township was $6,165 in 1990, less than half the state average of $12,957. The picture was not much brighter for the other reservations.

Given such bleak conditions, any amount of revenue can only help, many tribal members reason.

Under the terms of the Indian Gambling Regulatory Act, which was passed by Congress in 1988, revenues from gambling must be used to promote the economic development and welfare of tribes.

Members of Maine’s tribes interviewed were largely in agreement on how any casino money should be spent. Improved and better housing for tribal members, improved and expanded services for tribal elders and more money for education topped their lists.

In addition, they would like to see gambling revenues used as seed money to get other tribal economic development projects off the ground.

“We want to tell the federal and state people, ‘You keep your money. We are generating enough money to take care of ourselves,'” said Passamaquoddy tribal representative Soctomah.

The Gambling Impact Study Commission found a whole host of benefits of tribal gambling, ranging from “dramatic drops” in unemployment rates, reduction in welfare roles, and increased funding for tribal services such as road maintenance, housing, child protection and suicide prevention.

“There was no evidence presented to the commission suggesting any viable approach to economic development across the broad spectrum of Indian country, in the absence of gambling,” the study concluded.

Tribal casinos certainly don’t benefit just Indians either, the study found. The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation and the Mohegan Nation contributed nearly $300 million to the state of Connecticut in 1999, of which $135 million was redistributed directly to towns.

Aside from the financial benefits, tribal casinos increase pride, optimism and hope on reservations, the study commission found.

Not everyone is convinced

Despite the potential benefits, not everyone believes the tribes should jump into the gambling business.

“I don’t think the tribe needs it,” said Pleasant Point’s 69-year-old tribal elder Frederick Moore Sr. “If we want to live the old way, we should forget about the casino and stick to the traditional way of life. I am one of the very few left still living the old ways,” he said from his home at Pleasant Point.

For the Passamaquoddy, the traditional way is to create ash and sweet-grass baskets and build the birch-bark canoes of their ancestors.

Moore, surrounded by the elegant baskets he creates, said he believes tribal members should guard their culture. “I will never get rich, but as I look around me now, I think I am the happiest man who ever lived.”

Pleasant Point tribal member Dolly Dana said she does not believe the tribe should involve itself in building a casino. “I just think the money that is spent trying to make this happen could be better used for the people here that need it,” she said. “To me, they are just flushing money down the toilet chasing a dream.” She said she does not believe the state will allow the tribes to build a casino.

Pleasant Point Gov. Rick Doyle said he welcomes the casino’s opponents. “Somebody needs to be there to challenge our ideas. I have a healthy respect for that,” he said.

Penobscot David Loring worries that a casino, like so many other tribal ventures, may not be successful.

“Usually when we get things going they don’t work out so well,” he said before rattling off a list of failed ventures, including tribal involvement in a mobile home company, ice arena and molded plastics business.

“If it brings money to the tribes, that would be good. If it falls apart, that’s not good,” Loring concluded.

The dangers predicted by critics are overblown, many tribal members say.

“Alcoholism creates alcoholism. Casinos don’t cause alcoholism,” said Penobscot Gov. Barry Dana.

As for aiding compulsive gamblers, Brenda Fields, the tribe’s grants and contracts writer, pointed out that Mainers already can play the lottery every day, go to an off-track betting parlor in Bangor or to the casinos in Connecticut.

“The problems are here anyway,” she said.

For these reasons, many members of both tribes bristle at what they view as the hypocritical stance of Gov. King that gambling is bad and should not be allowed in the state. The state-run lottery generates more than $40 million in annual revenue.

Instead of relying on a casino, King has said tribal members seek employment in more traditional realms.

“They have options the same as other people in Maine, to work in any business and do everything from teaching to working in business,” the governor said recently.

“That is simple-minded,” said Pleasant Point Lt. Gov. Eddie Bassett. “That statement is saying that native people have equal opportunities, but they don’t, because we have had a long history of oppression and racism which has disadvantaged us,” he said. “Jobs are not that easy for us.”

Bassett said that if a Passamaquoddy and a non-Passamaquoddy competed for the same job, the non-Passamaquoddy would be much more likely to get it.

The lieutenant governor said he is concerned about conditions that might force more young people to leave the reservation. “That is like saying, ‘Why don’t you just forget about your culture and go get jobs? Forget about who you are,'” he said.