Maine Nurse: Casino watch

The first vote is in, and the results are good for casino boosters. Not surprisingly, their subsequent moves have looked a bit like a gambler playing the rush.

Racinos? Yes! That's what Bangor residents said in a recent citywide referendum asking whether the city should allow slot machines at the Bangor Raceway. With 57% of voters approving the idea, city officials and the Nevada developer Capital Seven LLC are now working to finalize a development agreement for the racing-slots-entertainment-hotel complex. But the project still depends on voters' approval of a Nov. 4 state-wide referendum on slots at horse racing tracks, and Capital Seven is preparing a statewide advertising campaign aimed at winning the fall vote.

The action up north caught the attention of Scarborough Downs officials, who now want town approval for a racino of their own. Racetrack officials recently began collecting signatures to put a slot machine referendum question on the town ballot this fall, hoping to overturn an existing town ban on the gambling machines.

Further fueling the burgeoning relationship between horse racing and slots, the Legislature recently approved a bill that would allow slot machines at the state's five off-track betting facilities. Gov. John Baldacci says he will veto the bill, even though the Legislature's overwhelming support for the bill means there are enough votes to override that veto.

The $650 million resort casino proposed by the Passamaquoddy and Penobscot tribes also got a bit more tangible recently, when the tribes announced they have an option to buy a 300-acre site in Sanford for the development. The land in question, near Sanford Airport, has long been suspected as the casino's site, but the formal announcement still surprised some neighbors, who suddenly didn't seem so keen on the idea of a casino in Sanford after all. Others, though, welcomed the development in anticipation of a boost it will give surrounding property values, the Portland Press Herald reported.