At least two Maine television stations on Tuesday pulled from their airwaves an anti-casino advertisement dubbed “false and deceptive” by casino supporters.

The rather unusual move came after the pro-casino political action committee Think About It enlisted retired Maine Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Daniel Wathen to petition television station managers across the state to remove the ad, which began airing the same day.

“The first ad run in the campaign by Casinos No! is founded on irrefutably false statements, the publication of which does not further meaningful debate and is not in the public interest,” said Wathen, now in private practice and representing Think About It.

Officials at NBC affiliates WCSH 6 in Portland and WLBZ 2 in Bangor apparently agreed after receiving Wathen’s letter.

“We looked at the points that were made … and looked up those references,” said Judy Horan, WLBZ general manager, explaining the station’s decision to remove the ad. “We thought it was intentionally misleading as well as being factually incorrect.”

Other stations reached Tuesday said they either referred the matter to their attorneys or asked Casinos No! to respond to the allegations by Wednesday morning. Meanwhile they continued to run the ad.

The dispute comes two months before Maine voters are set to decide the issue at a Nov. 4 referendum.

At that time, they will answer the question: “Do you want to allow a casino to be run by the Passamaquoddy Tribe and Penobscot Nation if part of the revenue is used for state education and municipal revenue sharing?”

Specifically, the pro-casino group contested two statements in the 30-second spot narrated by state Rep. Janet Mills, a former district attorney for Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties.

They said the ad falsely claims that the act “can only be changed by the tribes,” and that the casino’s financial records would be “confidential.”

Casinos No! spokesman Dennis Bailey stood by the ad Tuesday, calling the pro-casino effort to discredit it predictable.

“They need to make people think they’re the pillar of truth … but they’re not,” said Bailey, pointing to vagaries in pro-casino ads that promise $100 million to the state and 10,000 jobs, both of which he said were predictions at best.

“This just tells me that they’ve got all the money in the world and the biggest lawyers in the world,” he said.

The ad’s claim that the tribes have the final say over any changes to the act allowing the casino may be more a matter of semantics than deception.

The act, if approved in November, would amend the 1980 Maine Indian Claims Settlement. Neither the state nor the tribes can make any changes to the settlement without the other’s approval.

Wathen took issue with the ad’s suggestion that the tribes could unilaterally change the act and that the state was “powerless” to do so.Wathen also disputed the ad’s claim that the casino books were “confidential” and that the state would never know if it was getting its “fair share” from the tribes.

The act requires the tribes to submit the results of an internal audit to the state. The state auditor’s office would then review those reports and have full authority to conduct its own audit, according to Think About It spokeswoman Erin Lehane.

However, the casino’s books, like those of many privately held companies, would not be available for public inspection.