Maine--- Black Bear Entertainment LLC, the group of business owners that are backing the casino proposal for Oxford County, made another step last Thursday when the Legal and Veterans Affairs committee held a public hearing for the proposal. The proposed casino can either be turned down or accepted by lawmakers through a vote. However, the bill does not lose much momentum because if the bill is rejected through the vote by lawmakers, it will go to a popular vote later on this year.
Casinos in Maine have always been a center of controversy. In general, there is typically quite a bit of opposition against building casinos in Maine due to the fact that casinos encourage gambling, and there is a belief that with casinos come crime. Maine is the safest states crime-wise according to the government census website, and people that oppose the bill would like to keep it that way. The people who support casinos in Maine typically argue that casinos are a great source of income for the state that it operates in. Black Bear Entertainment LLC’s casino proposal would be taxed 42%, one of the highest tax rates in the country. All of that money would be distributed around the state, and would contribute to the University of Maine system (4%), Maine’s community colleges (3%), as well as the K-12 educational systems throughout the state (25%). In a state that is under a lot of economic stress, the casino supporters think they have found a possible combatant to this problem, and that would be a casino.
Black Bear Entertainment is taking a different route in their pursuit of a casino in Maine. The careful construction of the wording of the bill was important in pushing forward the bill, as many casinos proposals have failed in the past. This particular group made sure that the gambling age would not change, and it would remain at 21. In addition to this, the group supporting the bill also made sure that the Maine Gambling Control Board would have more power in overseeing the activities of the casino. By keeping the methods of control in the hands of both the casino owners and the state together, Black Bear Entertainment is hoping that this bill will go through more amicably. The wheels are in motion, but the likely state-wide vote towards the end of the year may ultimately determine the fate of the proposed casino.
Sources
http://www.mainebiz.biz/news45314.html
http://www.myfoxmaine.com/news/maine/87459692.html
http://www.census.gov/statab/ranks/rank21.html
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