Reins tighten on racino developer State refuses Capital Seven application fees

BANGOR – As construction crews today begin transforming Bass Park into Maine’s first “racino,” state officials are telling the project’s developer to hold his horses.

In a Wednesday letter, a Maine Harness Racing Commission official said the work Capital Seven LLC is doing in anticipation of opening a racetrack casino in Bangor might be premature.

“Of course, this is your choice but it appears to be precipitous for you to take the steps you describe in your letter on the chance you may, eventually, actually have a license to operate or distribute slot machines,” the commission’s executive director, Henry Jackson, wrote in a letter to Martin Gersten, an attorney for Capital Seven owner Shawn Scott.

With the letter, Jackson returned to Gersten a $4,500 check Gersten submitted Tuesday to cover licensing fees set forth in the racino legislation Maine voters approved Nov. 4.

The check was enclosed in a letter Jackson said “purported to be an application” for a license to operate, distribute and register slot machines in Maine.

According to Jackson, that Nov. 4 racino law “is not effective at this time. Therefore, the [Department of Agriculture, which oversees the racing commission] is not yet authorized to receive applications or to issue licenses at this time and effective Maine law prohibits slot machine operation and ownership.”

Meanwhile, in what some considered another premature move, Capital Seven has set Dec. 8 as the date for a job fair aimed at filling an estimated 100 jobs ranging from cocktail servers and managers to cashiers and security workers for the Bangor facility.

According to Christen Graham, spokeswoman for Capital Seven, the slots facility at the grandstand is set to open Jan. 3.

“The sooner we can hire staff and operate the slot machine facility at Bangor Historic Raceway, the sooner the residents of greater Bangor and the state of Maine will begin to receive added prescription benefits for the state’s elders, scholarships for the state’s students, not to mention much-needed jobs,” Graham said.

But Dennis Bailey, spokesman for the anti-gambling political action committee Casinos No!, called Monday’s job fair “a joke,” a stunt designed to pressure political leaders and win public support by dangling hundreds of jobs during tough economic times.

“I feel bad for anybody who gets suckered in by this,” said Bailey, whose PAC successfully helped to block the building of an Indian casino in Maine last month. “There are no jobs here. It’s cruel.”

The job fair will run from noon to 8 p.m. Monday in the Shamrock Room at the Holiday Inn at 500 Main St. in Bangor.

Meanwhile, news of Capital Seven’s attempt to expedite the arrival of slot machines in Bangor did not get a warm reception from the Baldacci administration, which has made no secret of its efforts to derail the plan.

“The people of Maine need more information, not heavy-handed tactics that are trying to pre-empt the process,” said Lee Umphrey, the governor’s spokesman.

In the past week, administration officials have suggested – mainly through the media – that the racing commission delay action on Capital Seven’s application during its deliberations beginning Dec. 15.

Without such a delay, the governor’s office has raised the possibility of a special legislative session to tighten the laws governing slot machines and create a gambling regulatory commission that presumably would provide stricter scrutiny of applicants.

Regardless of his desire to slow down the process, Baldacci, as required by the Maine Constitution, today will sign a proclamation ratifying the results of the November referendum, according to his aides. The governor’s signature begins a minimum 30-day waiting period before the law can take effect, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.

Baldacci’s chief legal counsel, Kurt Adams, on Wednesday said that several more months could elapse before the commission, as required by the new law, could finish making the rules for operating slots, a point also made in Jackson’s letter.

Capital Seven is partnering with Maine-based Cianbro Corp. to develop a $30 million racino at city-owned Bass Park, home of Bangor Raceway.

The $400,000 grandstand renovation project now under way is expected to take no more than three weeks to complete, Capital Seven consultant Charles McCallion told Bangor officials Tuesday night. The refurbished grandstand will serve as a temporary home for the first 250 slot machines heading for Bangor Raceway.

Ultimately, Scott plans to install as many as 1,500 of the machines at the Bangor track. During a Bangor City Council committee meeting Tuesday night, McCallion outlined plans for renovating the more than 50-year-old grandstand. Work will include new sprinkler, electrical and heating systems, carpeting and other cosmetic work and the addition of a breezeway at the grandstand’s main entrance.

The enclosed portion of the grandstand has served as the exhibition hall for the last several Bangor State Fairs. Bass Park Director Mike Dyer said that organizers are operating under the assumption that the fair will be held at Bass Park in 2004. However, it’s not yet clear where it will take place after that.

Under the city’s development pact with Capital Seven, the racino operator must pay the city $1 million if it wants the fair to be relocated.

In a related matter, as of late Wednesday afternoon, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court had yet to release the results of a background check on Scott, his companies and associates. The probe is part of the state’s harness racing licensing process.