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January 20, 2011

Racino backers submit petition

By The Mainebiz News Staff

The partners behind a proposal to move Scarborough Downs to Biddeford and turn it into a racino have submitted a petition to amend state gambling laws to allow the project to move forward.

Biddeford Downs, a partnership between Scarborough Downs and New Hampshire-based hotel developer Ocean Properties, yesterday filed a citizen's initiative with 76,536 signatures to allow the horse racing facility to relocate to Biddeford and operate slot machines, according to a press release. The group aims to change a provision in the 2003 statewide racino referendum that required voters in both Bangor and Scarborough to approve proposed racinos by the end of that year. While Hollywood Slots was approved, Scarborough voters rejected a plan to add slot machines to Scarborough Downs. Since then, however, Biddeford residents in November voted in favor of a racino. The initiative would also change provisions in the law passed in November approving the Oxford County casino, which stipulates that racinos and casinos must be at least 100 miles apart. Biddeford Downs would be 94 miles from the Oxford casino, according to the release.

The changes would correct what Biddeford Downs' backers call "an inequity" in state gambling laws. "No one group should have a monopoly in Maine," spokeswoman Crystal Canney said in the release. The petition for a statewide referendum is a back-up plan should state legislators opt not to amend the provisions on their own. The changes would also allow for a racino in Calais proposed by the Passamaquoddy Tribe, an effort state voters have previously denied.

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