Council wavers on developer Councilors exploring other racino companies

BANGOR – Increasingly skeptical about the prospect of embattled Las Vegas developer Capital Seven LLC securing the needed approvals to bring slot machines to the Bangor Raceway, city councilors here are hedging their bets.

On Monday, the council will meet with at least one of Capital Seven’s competitors – Iowa-based Kehl Management Co. – to discuss a backup plan to create a “racino” at the Bass Park harness racing track should Capital Seven fail to get its license from the Maine Harness Racing Commission next month.

“There are some members of the council who think more and more that this is a prudent course of action to take,” Mayor Dan Tremble said Friday. “We need to be ready in case things don’t work out.”

Two other gaming companies – Penn National Gaming Inc. and Delaware North Companies – that earlier had expressed interest in the project were also invited to attend the recently arranged meeting. It was unclear Friday if they would.

The meeting, a session of the council’s Strategic Issues Committee, comes about a month after the city signed a deal with Capital Seven to invest $30 million in the aging track and bring about 1,500 slot machines there.

But since then, the company, owned by businessman Shawn Scott, has become the subject of intense scrutiny amid a flood of news reports about the company’s legal battles and questionable political maneuvers.

“[Scott]’s in the paper every day, and what I see is very concerning to me,” said City Councilor Gerry Palmer, referencing recent reports linking Scott’s company to a political action committee set on derailing a similar project at Scarborough Downs. “It would be good to talk with other people that are out there.”

Scott’s link to the PAC – exposed because of a shared fax number – troubled some in the harness racing industry because it seemed to fly in the face of a signed agreement in which the parties, including Scott, promised to promote racinos to help revive the faltering harness racing industry.

After initial denials earlier this week, Scott acknowledged the connection but said he didn’t know about his company’s involvement until Wednesday.

David Nealley, a city councilor and Capital Seven’s newly named executive vice president, said the news reports of the incident have been blown out of proportion, and he faulted the timing of the council’s apparent willingness to entertain other options.

“There is another political agenda here,” said Nealley, attributing the council’s actions to the close ties some on the council have to Gov. John Baldacci, an outspoken opponent of gambling expansion in the state. “If you can’t kill the project, you try and kill the developer.”

Nealley also questioned the message the council’s action and the recent press coverage sent to the racing commission, which will meet Dec. 15 to consider the company’s license application.

“It’s going to make it a lot more difficult for the commission to be objective,” he said. “Lately it’s been all about politics and not about the merit of the situation.”

Baldacci spokesman Lee Umphrey said Friday that, whoever the developer, the governor wants the racing commission to forgo issuing any licenses in Bangor – the only site where slot machines would be allowed – until after the adoption of more stringent requirements including the creation of a gaming commission.

Maine voters in a November referendum approved slot machines at the state’s harness racing tracks in Bangor and Scarborough pending approvals at local referendums.

Bangor already has local approval. Westbrook voters are scheduled to consider a Scarborough Downs proposal next month that could move the track’s operations to that town should slots be approved.