Racino licensing bill stirs debate Confidentiality at center of issue

BANGOR – A bill that would restrict public access to some information the state gathers as part of the racino licensing process debuted Wednesday to mixed reviews.

The bill, submitted at the Maine Gambling Control Board’s request, would allow Penn National Gaming Inc. and other license applicants to submit sensitive personal and corporate information to state gaming regulators with the understanding that the information would remain under wraps.

Proponents include representatives of Penn National, the Maine Department of Public Safety, the gambling control board, several harness racing and horse breeding groups, and the city of Bangor, poised to become the site of the first racetrack casino in Maine.

Opponents included two statewide media groups and anti-gambling concerns.

People on both sides of the issue agreed such information as Social Security numbers and birth dates should remain under wraps.

But some thought LD 90 went too far in extending confidentiality to such areas as criminal and civil litigation histories, and because some definitions of what would be protected were overly broad and vague.

“What this bill is about is public access to information,” Maine Press Association President Michael Fern said.

“It is about secrecy. It is about a new government entity wishing to exempt itself, and therefore its accountability, from public view, public scrutiny, and thereby creating an information cat-and-mouse game that should simply not exist,” said Fern, who works for the Bangor Daily News.

Former first lady Mary Herman, who is affiliated with the anti-gambling group Casinos NO!, also opposed the bill.

The “transparency,” or openness, of state government is an important means for protecting the public’s interest, Herman said.

“This bill goes in the opposite direction,” she said.

Proponents, however, said that without some assurance that sensitive information would be kept out of the purview of the public – and potential competitors – Penn National might not submit the rest of the information that the gambling control board must review before changing the status of Penn’s license to operate slots in Bangor.

“This legislation, I feel, is vitally important for the fulfillment of the voters’ wishes, as expressed by the referendum of November 2003,” said Robert Welch, the gambling control board’s executive director.

“Please keep in mind,” he later added, “that a shield of confidentiality does not allow a person to exclude information; rather it eliminates any fear on the part of either the business or individual applicant that the information supplied on an application will be made public.”

What happens with the bill is critical to Penn National’s plans to develop a $75 million racetrack casino at Bass Park, home to Bangor Raceway.

During his testimony, Steve Snyder, Penn senior vice president of corporate development, said he saw the issue as one of conformity with other gambling states.

Snyder said that much of the information opponents wanted access to – including litigation history – already could be found through other means, including courts and the federal Securities and Exchange Commission.

As far as criminal information history was concerned, Penn spokesman Eric Schippers said it did not exist where key employees are concerned because they could not be licensed if they had criminal backgrounds.

He said, however, that this provision could affect the 400 to 500 employees the company plans to hire in the Bangor area who must be licensed, unless they receive waivers.

Bangor Council Chairman Frank Farrington said he was concerned the confidentiality issue might be used to overturn the slots vote.

“I urge the committee to view this issue for what it is – a technical proposal to correct a problem, not a vehicle to debate whether slot machines should be allowed in Maine,” he said.

The next step in the process is a workshop on Feb. 2.

“The bill will get passed in some form,” said Sen. Kenneth Gagnon, D-Waterville, co-chairman of the Legislature’s Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee, which last year was in charge of reworking the citizen-initiated slots bill passed by Maine voters in November 2003.

Bangor voters also approved slots, the only Maine community to do so.