BETHEL – Gov. John Baldacci and his predecessor, Angus King, have weighed in against allowing a $650 million casino in Maine.

Another former governor, Kenneth Curtis, on Wednesday spoke in favor of a destination resort casino while addressing a group at the Bethel Inn.

Curtis, Maine’s governor from 1967 to 1975, said a casino could deliver thousands of well-paying jobs and provide an opportunity to cash in one of the few growth industries in the nation: recreation.

He said every governor, himself included, has struggled to make Maine prosper economically.

“We’ve failed,” Curtis said. “We have never been able to do the job that ought to be done providing economic opportunities that Maine people deserve.”

Mainers will vote Nov. 4 on a statewide referendum on whether to allow the Passamaquoddy and Penobscot Indian tribes to operate a casino in southern Maine.

The tribes are eyeing land in Sanford where the casino would be located.

Curtis said he opposes video slot machines at horse tracks, and doesn’t like the scratch lottery tickets sold by the Maine State Lottery.

“You see people sitting on benches scratching the tickets,” he said. “That entices people. It’s addictive.”

But he thinks a casino would provide real economic opportunity for the state, as well as the tribes. Curtis said people go to the Lake Tahoe area on the California-Nevada border for shows, conferences, gambling and other activities, and then travel to other parts of those states once they are there. The same could happen in Maine, he said.

“I have a lot of confidence in the planning that’s been going on that this would be done right,” he said. “That’s why I support this.”

Curtis said he also doubts a single casino would tarnish Maine’s clean image.

“We’re talking about 300 acres in southern Maine, with its own entrance off the Maine Turnpike. Is this going to change the mountains? Is this going to change Bethel? Is this going to change the Maine coast? Absolutely not,” Curtis said.

Curtis said he and King are good friends who just happen to disagree about whether a casino would be good for Maine.

Besides, he added, “I don’t know how much attention Maine people pay to former governors anyway.”