Given the basis for his ruling, it seems that the Kennebec County Superior Court Justice Thomas Humphrey had no choice but to squash the Passamaquoddy Tribe’s plans for a high-stakes bingo parlor in Albany Township. After all, the land, by state law, had to be placed in federal trust as Indian Territory by 1991 and the tribe missed the mark by more than three years.

This certainly was the outcome the Legislature desired last year when it refused to extend the deadline to 2001 and when it killed a bill to ease state control over tribal land in the unorganized territories. Combined with the 1995 Legislature’s rejection of a Passamaquoddy casino in Calais — at the urging of a strongly opposed Gov. King — it is clear that official Augusta is determined to protect the citizens of Maine from the scourge of gambling.

Or maybe official Augusta just doesn’t want the competition.

Maine, despite the squeaky-clean image it would like to project, is a gambling state. Under the purview of the state lottery commission it has Megabucks. And WinCash. And Pick 3/Pick 4. And 21 scratch-off ticket games. Including bingo, with a high-stakes $10,000 grand prize. Not to mention off-track betting.

And Maine already has casinos, hundreds of them. They’re called supermarkets and convenience stores. They sell lottery tickets over the counter, they sell them through vending machines. And they enrich the state considerably; transfers from the lottery commission to the General Fund are projected at some $41 million in the 1998-99 biennium. That’s the sixth-greatest single source of revenue, just behind the cigarette tax, well ahead of taxes on insurance companies, utilities and liquor.

Perhaps Albany Township wasn’t the best place for a bingo hall. It is, despite being just a few miles from one of the state’s premier outdoor recreation areas, quiet, rural and undeveloped. It is understandable that the 174 residents of the township would be alarmed by such a dramatic change. But the Legislature and the governor essentially drove the tribe into the woods by blocking the Calais casino, despite widespread support in that city. With lawmakers exercising such authority over municipalities, the Passamaquoddy had nowhere to go but the unorganized territories. If the Legislature has such power to prohibit, it also has the power to permit. It could, and should, designate an urban location, perhaps just off I-95, as a suitable place for the tribe to set up shop. Unless the Legislature is so intent upon protecting its monopoly that it will perpetuate the illusion of a lily-white, gambling-free Maine.

Some lawmakers recognize this hypocrisy and have encouraged the state either to get out of the gambling business entirely or to let others play. They remain a minority. The majority continues to deny the tribe this opportunity, to agonize over the economic despair on the reservations — and to count the receipts.

Maybe those lawmakers should take a ride out to Pleasant Point or Indian Township to see first hand what life is like in Maine’s most remote, impoverished corner. They could stop along the way for gas and a cup of coffee. And for some high-stakes bingo.