OTB slots bill breezes through Legislature

AUGUSTA – A harness racing industry bill that would place slot machines in the state’s five off-track betting facilities was approved Wednesday evening by the Maine Legislature in back-to-back landslide votes.

The House voted 112-29 in favor of LD 1361 and the Senate reciprocated with a 24-6 affirmative vote. The huge margins are significant since Gov. John E. Baldacci has vowed to veto the legislation, which he sees as an impediment to real economic development in the state.

In order to overturn a governor’s veto, two-thirds of the members present in the House and Senate must vote in favor of overriding the veto. Had that vote been taken Wednesday night, the governor would have lost based on the tallies for final enactment of LD 1361.

“Hopefully, we can hang onto these votes when the time comes,” said Robert Tardy, a lobbyist for Scarborough Downs.

Industry lobbyists said they would have liked to think they had been extraordinarily persuasive in making their case to lawmakers. But in reality, they attributed the overwhelming legislative support for the bill to a full-court press of legislators by persistent individual members of the harness racing community and supporters of the state’s agricultural fairs.

The Legislature’s approval of the industry slots bill arrived the day after Bangor voters overwhelmingly backed a proposal to place slot machines at Bangor Raceway. Although that measure must be approved in a statewide referendum in November, the bill passed by the Legislature will become law if the governor cannot persuade an adequate number of lawmakers to change their minds and sustain his veto.

“I want them to uphold my veto and I hope they respect that we can’t have that kind of thing in our state – it’s important just to say no,” Baldacci said Wednesday.

In the event the governor’s best efforts fail and voters approve the Bangor “racino” bill in the fall, the Queen City would become a slot machine mecca with gambling devices at not only the raceway but also the OTB at Miller’s restaurant on Main Street. The development would fly in the face of state law requiring OTBs to be located at least 35 miles away from a commercial track, but Tardy said Bangor would get an exemption since Miller’s establishment would pre-exist the law and be “grandfathered” under any new statute.

The Bangor track could operate as many as 1,500 slots while OTBs such as Miller’s could install up to 200. The measure passed Wednesday night by the Legislature would leave the bulk of the profits with the OTBs but send 13 percent to harness racing industry accounts to provide more money for purses and horse-breeding programs. It also would distribute 4 percent of the profits to the state’s agricultural fairs.

The bill earmarks 1 percent of the profits for cessation programs for addicted gamblers and allocates 3 percent of the OTB profits to the municipality in which the business is located. Commercial track operators at Bangor Raceway and Scarborough Downs would divide 5 percent of the gross profits based on the number of racing days. The state’s share of the profits would be 28 percent or, according to proponents, around $62 million annually.