enlarge John Patriquin/Staff Photographer

“I’m not convinced that the money made in that casino is going to stay here in Maine. It hasn’t happened anywhere else." – Jackie Gammon Andover, Chase Cyclery owner

enlarge John Patriquin/Staff Photographer

“I haven’t enjoyed playing slots since (seeing a family desperate to win slots in Atlantic City). I think I’m going to vote no.” – Gayle Smedberg, Oxford, owner Crystal Spring Farm

enlarge John Patriquin/Staff Photographer

“I’m going to vote this year, just because of the casino. I’ve got to make sure it gets in here, so I don’t have to go to Connecticut.” – Lillian Weaver, Rumford, used to live near casino in Connecticut

enlarge John Patriquin/Staff Photographer

“To me, gambling is a choice – just like coming in here and buying a scratch ticket is a choice.” – Sue Clark, Rumford, store manager

CASINO PLAN: A CLOSER LOOK

THE MEASURE that voters will see on the Nov. 4 ballot is a simple one: "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?" A "YES" vote would support the casino. A "NO" vote would reject it.

IF PASSED by voters, the measure would:

• Require approval before Dec. 31 from voters in the municipality where the casino would operate.

• Allow the casino to have slot machines, bazaar and lottery games, blackjack, poker, dice, roulette, baccarat, money wheels and bingo.

• Remove the limit on the total number of slot machines that are allowed to be registered in the state, now 1,500. At the same time, it would limit to 1,500 the number of slot machines allowed at any one racino.

• Lower the minimum age to play a slot machine or gaming device from 21 to 19.

• Lower the minimum age to work at a casino from 20 to 18.

• Require that the casino be operated by Evergreen Mountain Enterprises LLC.

• Require that this be the only casino in Maine for at least 10 years.

• Require that this casino give the state 39 percent of the total gross gaming device income.

• Specify that the state spend the money on several initiatives, including helping students repay student loans; funding research and development of an east-west highway; building a facility to produce biofuels; providing property tax relief; helping the elderly with the cost of prescription drugs; and expanding the Maine Community College System. The state would also be required to provide money for: K-12 education; the Land for Maine's Future fund; Maine's Renewable Resource Fund; the NextGen First Step Grant program; gambling addiction programs; and helping towns with regionalization efforts. Also, some of the money would have to be spent improving river water quality; improving public access to land and water; and improving public access television. It also directs money to residents ages 15 to 30 who have ideas or projects designed to stimulate the creative economy, improve civic engagement or "otherwise effect positive community change."

• It requires that the president of Evergreen Mountain Enterprises "be appointed a voting member on the governing body or board, if any, of each recipient or program funded in this subsection regarding the allocation of specific funding that is paid by the gaming operator."

TO READ the full text of the legislation click here.

RUMFORD — Mountain Valley Variety bustles inside and out at noon, with cars lined up at the pumps and people grabbing lunch to go.

The convenience store is a hillside hub in this river town, perched at the corner of two busy streets, drawing from neighborhoods, the hospital and the paper mill.

Besides pizza and gas, the convenience store is busy selling scratch tickets and lottery numbers – it's one of the state's top agents in Oxford County.

As such, store manager Sue Clark is only initially shy about discussing her support for a statewide referendum question on the Nov. 4 ballot that will ask Maine voters to approve a casino for Oxford County.

"To me, gambling is a choice – just like coming in here and buying a scratch ticket is a choice," she said, gesturing at the colorful spools of cardboard tickets.

Clark has visited the Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods casinos in Connecticut and has been to Hollywood Slots in Bangor three times. The Bangor visits, she said, made an impression.

"It's people working, people having a job," she said.

Outside, pumping gas into her sport utility vehicle, Jackie Gammon questions any jobs promised by a new casino.

"I'm totally against it. If it does create jobs, it's generally low-paying jobs," said Gammon, owner of Chase Cyclery in Andover. "I'm not convinced that the money made in that casino is going to stay here in Maine. It hasn't happened anywhere else."

Oxford is a big county, and like other regions in Maine is made up of smaller, diverse economies – from paper mill towns like Rumford to tourism-heavy communities like Bethel to the farm and manufactured-home-dependent stretch of Route 26 running through Oxford. It's impossible to broadly paint the county as for or against a casino, and a day's tour through the region last week found both supporters and opponents.

The citizen-initiated referendum question is backed by Las Vegas-based Olympia Gaming. Olympia wants to build a $100 million resort with slot machines, blackjack tables, roulette and other games in a yet-to-be-determined location in Oxford County. Olympia says the casino would generate 800 new jobs and $50 million annually in state taxes and that the company would split the proceeds with Maine taxpayers.

Opponents, notably Casinos No!, question the job creation numbers and whether western Maine could realistically support such a resort casino. The group also says the casino would take Mainers' money and ship it out of state and notes the social ills connected with gambling, including addiction and crime.

Arguments both for and against a casino resonate with Oxford County residents.

Each of those in favor of a casino pointed to economics.

Oxford County had an unemployment rate of 6.4 percent in August. The Maine average was 4.7 percent. The county had the fifth highest rate out of all 16 counties in Maine.

The county has taken its share of hits in recent years. Catalog giant L.L. Bean said it won't open its seasonal call center in Oxford, costing about 250 temporary jobs. Burlington Homes in Oxford closed this year, laying off 70 people. The Maine Department of Labor submitted a National Emergency Grant application to the U.S. Department of Labor early this month to cover workers impacted by job losses in the manufactured-housing sector in Oxford County.

And Wausau Paper plans to permanently shut a machine at its mill in the nearby Franklin County town of Jay before the end of the year, laying off 150.

On the positive side, NewPage Corp. canceled plans for a two-week fall shutdown of its Rumford paper mill that would have affected 500 employees.

But even that news is viewed skeptically by county residents.

"They could close the mill here tomorrow, really," said Willy Blouin of Rumford, a retiree who until recently owned Mountain Valley Variety.

He stood chatting with Clark as...