Board seeks direction on gambling oversight

BANGOR – Members of the Maine Gambling Control Board have said in no uncertain terms that they won’t assume oversight of any forms of gambling other than slots unless asked to by state lawmakers.

“At this point in time, we need their direction,” Chairman George McHale of Orrington said Wednesday in a telephone interview. “Basically, we’re asking, what would you like us to do?”

Board members have put on hold a study on consolidating all forms of gambling in the state, including slots, pari-mutuel betting, off-track betting, high-stakes bingo, beano and games of chance.

Those forms now are regulated by other state entities and departments, such as the Maine State Police and the Maine Harness Racing Commission.

Gambling Control board members also sent a letter earlier this month to state legislators saying they wouldn’t take on oversight of other forms of gambling without that legislative direction.

McHale said Wednesday that if other forms of gambling were taken on, board members would want authority, jurisdiction and funding.

More than a year ago, state lawmakers asked the board to research and write a report exploring the benefits of bringing all types of gambling under the board’s purview as a way to increase efficiency and save money.

The board’s original deadline for the report was Jan. 15 of this year. The report was delayed, however, because the board was still in the midst of developing rules for the slots facility Penn National Gaming Inc. plans to open in Bangor in November.

Gambling board members said at the time they first wanted to get a handle on regulating slot machines before taking on any other forms of gambling.

Now that much of the rule-making work regarding slots is complete, the gambling board “is ready to acquire under its jurisdiction any entity of the gambling industry in Maine,” members wrote in a letter signed during last week’s meeting.

The board’s resolve also states that it awaits appointment of other forms of gambling to their jurisdiction by the Legislature’s Legal and Veterans Affair Committee.

A gambling board subcommittee looking at gambling consolidation, led by Peter Danton of Saco, concluded that the study that lawmakers were seeking would require a great deal of time and effort.

The gambling board, however, lacks staff to assign to the study, which ultimately might not result in any expansion of the gambling board’s oversight, the subcommittee concluded. Hence the study again was postponed.

In addition, gambling board members still are working on a volunteer basis. Legislation aimed at providing the legislative per diem to which they are entitled – $55 a day, plus expenses such as meals and car mileage – was overlooked during the budget process earlier this summer.