Inside Asian Gaming

December 2008 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 21 Market Outlook Approval was heartily welcomed by Colorado’s community college system,which is primarily funded by gaming revenues, which will now likely increase. MAINE Question 2 has become the latest gambling proposal to go down to defeat in Maine. Voters in Oxford County voted 54% against legalizing casino gambling, thus enabling Olympia Gaming to build a casino in this ski resort area. Dennis Bailey, head of the chief opposition group Casinos No, said he hoped this vote will end forever the desire of some to builds casinos in Maine. But Pat LaMarche, spokesman for the pro-casino group, said Maine residents missed the boat, as a casino will likely be built elsewhere in northern New England, with the resulting jobs and revenues going with them. MARYLAND Marylanders voted overwhelming for Question 2 to legalize slot machine in the state. Approved by a 3-to-2 vote, the measure would allow up to 15,000 slots to be installed at five locations throughout the state, with most going to Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties. Proponents claimed that the slots would generate an additional $600 million in taxes, most of which going into the Maryland Education Trust Fund, but some targeted to refurbish the famed Pimlico racetrack. Opponents of Question 2 told the Baltimore Sun they are not finished, and promised to wage campaigns against the proposed sites for slots gambling. MASSACHUSETTS Second time was the charm for opponents of greyhound racing in Massachusetts. With the 57% approval by voters of Question 3, the 75-year run of racing dogs in the Bay State will end when the sport is banned in 2010. The owners of the two dog tracks in Massachusetts were aghast at the outcome of the voting, as they believed the measure would fall short as a similar ballot initiative did in 2000. The ban will likely cost the jobs of about 1,100 employees at the two tracks, though it is legally possible that the tracks could stay open offering wagering on races videocast from out of state instead of live races. Another way to keep the tracks open would be to let them install slot machines, which Massachusetts House Ways and Means Chairman Robert DeLeo told the Boston Herald he would propose in 2009 to cover the state’s expected loss of revenues from dog racing. MISSOURI Voters in Missouri approved by a healthy 56% margin Proposition A, even though opponents continue to press a lawsuit to keep the referendum off the November 4 ballot. As approved, the ballot initiative repeals Missouri’s unique law limiting gambling losses to $500 per two- hour period, caps the licensing of casinos to those already open or under construction, and increases taxes on gambling revenue from 20% to 21% to better fund public education. Although Cole County Circuit Court Judge Richard Callahan rejected a lawsuit to strip from the November ballot, opponents to the measure have appealed that ruling to Missouri’s Western District Court of Appeals in Kansas City, where oral arguments began November 20. The appellate court’s ruling will likely not be the final word, as either losing side expects to appeal that decision to the Missouri Supreme Court, thus stretching the legal battle well into 2009. Colorado’s Riverside Casino Baltimore’s Pimlico racetrack to get a facelift Casinos will stay clear of Maine’s slopes Missouri’s Supreme Court Building Greyhounds run out of Massachusetts