AUGUSTA – The Christian Civic League of Maine is planning to actively oppose efforts to legalize casino gambling in the state.

Executive Director Michael Heath said he expects the issue to occupy much of his time in 2003.

Although the organization always has opposed gambling, it has not been publicly active in opposing a proposal by the Passamaquoddy and Penobscot Indian tribes to build a $650 million casino and resort in southern Maine.

But Heath said casinos will be a major issue in the state this year. Maine residents could vote in a statewide referendum in November on whether to legalize casino gambling in Maine.

He said the league already has published 20,000 brochures against casinos that are circulating in southern Maine, and that he hopes to work with other anti-casino groups, such as Casinos No!

“The Christian Civic League of Maine is concerned about the overall moral climate that’s created by gambling, particularly casino gambling,” Heath said.

The league says it has 3,000 activists and contributors, and is supported by about 150 churches statewide.

Heath said casino supporters are spending more money to gain support and that the lottery has made average citizens more supportive of gambling in general. His organization actively fought against a video gambling proposal that was rejected by voters in a November 2000 referendum.

Heath said the league also will lobby this year for a legislative bill that would give public funds to private religious schools.

The league claims that Maine’s statute prohibiting the payment of public funds to private religious schools violates the religious rights of numerous Maine families who pay their taxes into that public fund.