[ Home ]

[ Slots News ]

NY Racino Waits on Election Results

An untimely glitch in voting equipment has left the Scarborough Downs still wondering over the fate of the proposition to allow slot machines to be installed at the racino. The horseracing and gambling establishment in Scarborough, Maine, was left on tenterhooks after a midnight announcement that more than six thousand absentee ballots would have to be counted by hand following the malfunction of a voting machine. Town Clerk Tody Justice regretfully announced that the device had reset itself unexpectedly late last night, causing town clerk officials to take the issue in hand –literally!- into the wee hours of the morning. Scarborough voters cast no less than four ballots apiece (separated into federal, state, and town tickets), which made the matter far more time-consuming than it could have been.

The news about the absentee ballots was terrible news for activists on both sides of the slot machine proposal, who have been biting their nails waiting for the votes to come in. Those against the slot games coming to the racino say that they are concerned about the overwhelming number of exit polls showing that residents voted for the gambling devices.

If the slots bill passes in Scarborough, the racetrack will have to get state Governor John Baldacci to sign off on an exception to the state law prohibiting expansion of current state slot machine numbers. Scarborough citizens were told that taxes on the income from the machines would help pay for water, sewer, and road enhancements. On a national level, the dismal economy has citizens more wiling than ever before to give gambling a chance in the interest of boosting local budgets.

Back to November 2008 Archive.