More than two years have passed since the proposal of constructing a third casino venue in the state of Maine and yesterday the community of the state said a solid No to the idea. This Tuesday brought 84 percent of the voters rejecting the proposal which was manifested as Question 1 on the state ballot. This means strong opposition to the building plans of the developer Shawn Scott.
It is known that for quite some time the controversial offshore entrepreneur has been trying to pass the idea of constructing a third casino venue in the state and the eventual approval of the voters would have meant that he is the only suitable candidate for the casino operator. However, the reality turned out being quite different from his expectations and people living in the community decided not to support the idea. As many as 70 percent of the locations reported results and the overall spirit was that of rejection.
Scott’s response to the official downturn of the casino proposal was to express his gratitude to the people who worked on the campaign. The results were far from what he and his supporters had expected and he showed his disappointment of the fact but stated that he respects the decision of the public. If the proposal was approved, Scott’s Capital Seven would have been the only company fitting the conditions for receiving a casino license. According to estimations that license would have cost as much as $200 million as well as $5 million aid in licensing fee to the state.
Chronology of the Casino Campaign
More than $10 million was spent on a bid which started back in 2015 and the supporters of the proposal were pushing forward the idea. Back then the signatures they collected were not enough to introduce the question to the ballot which took place in 2016. This year the number of signatures was enough because of the extensive campaign for gathering them and the question made it to the ballot. However, the campaign itself faced a lot of opposition as there were several ethic fines which were issued on it only several days before the official appointed Election Day.
Roy Lenardson, who is a Republican strategist is the person behind the anti-casino campaign stated that many people were involved in the informative process around the casino campaign and giving the people all details was crucial for the positive outcome. He expressed his gratitude to Gov. Paul LePage, the Legislature, various media outlets and ethics regulators because they gave their best to expose the true nature of the deal which Scott was trying to pass. According to experts in the industry, the whole situation was caused by the weak regulation of the gaming sector.
