The opening of the new Hollywood Slots complex in Bangor is only the latest chapter in an ongoing debate over legalized gambling in Maine.
The debate will enter a new phase this November, when voters decide whether to allow construction of a casino in Oxford County.
The vote follows two setbacks for gambling proponents, so the larger issue now is whether the Nov. 4 referendum will extend or reverse that streak.
Already the two sides in the Oxford County debate are making their cases, although the campaign has not heated up and it remains to be seen how intense it will become.
"It's time to stop saying no to real opportunity" for economic development, said Pat LaMarche, spokeswoman for the organizer of the casino referendum. "In a free society, adults should be able to choose what they see as recreation," she said, instead of having the state make that decision for them.
"There are so many things (wrong) with that proposal that, for us, it's a target-rich environment," said Dennis Bailey of the anti-gambling group Casinos No!.
Bailey says the proposed law would set no limit on the number of slot machines at the casino and would lower the legal age for playing the slots from 21 to 19, among other problems.
Maine's longstanding and ongoing debate over gambling kicked into gear in 2003, when a high-profile referendum campaign ended with the defeat of a plan for a tribal casino in southern Maine.
Voters overwhelmingly rejected that idea, 67 percent to 33 percent, capping a lengthy campaign in which the two sides spent a combined total of close to $10 million.
In a separate vote five years ago, Mainers allowed harness-racing tracks to install slot machines with local approval.
That paved the way for the 2005 opening of the Hollywood Slots "racino" in temporary quarters, a development that did not put an end to the political wrangling over gambling in Maine.
Last year, voters turned down the Passamaquoddy Tribe's request for permission to build a racino in Washington County, 52 percent to 48 percent.
That vote followed a relatively low-key campaign in which the opposing camps raised a combined total of close to $1 million through late October 2007, about a tenth of the 2003 total.
Also last year, the Legislature postponed action on a request by the Penobscot Nation for permission to install slot machines on Indian Island. The tribe argued that Hollywood Slots had cut into its bingo revenues, forcing the tribe to seek alternative sources of funding for services to tribal members.
Taking another look at that issue this year, the Legislature passed a bill allowing the tribe to operate 100 slot machines on its reservation, but Gov. John Baldacci vetoed it and the Legislature upheld the veto. Baldacci restated his opposition to gambling, adding that any expansion should originate with voters through the initiative process, not in the Legislature.
Also this year, the Legislature rejected a citizen-initiated bill authorizing a casino in Oxford County, and by doing so set up the referendum on Nov. 4.
The question to appear on the ballot reads: "Do you want to allow a certain Maine company to have the only casino in Maine, to be located in Oxford County, if part of the revenue is used to fund specific state programs?"
The Oxford County plan is being promoted by a Rumford-based group called Evergreen Mountain Enterprises. The president of that firm, Rumford lawyer Seth Carey, stepped down in April and faces unresolved complaints about his professional conduct as a lawyer. Carey has yet to be replaced.
If approved, the pending referendum would implement a law requiring approval in the host community before a casino could be built in Oxford County.
Evergreen Mountain Enterprises has yet to say where the casino would be located or who wouldpay for it, but LaMarche says more details will be forthcoming...
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