Maine House of Representatives and Senate Voted to Allow Slot Machines on Indian Island

On June 15th, 2007, the Maine House of Representatives and Senate voted on whether to allow the Penobscot Indian Nation to operate and manage 400 electronic slot machines together with their high-stakes bingo game on their land reservation on Indian Island.

The 101 to 38 approval vote meets the two-thirds requirement that is needed to overrule any veto that could made by the governor.

But while the vote is enough to approved the bill, it still falls short on the supermajority that would be required to overrule any threatened veto by any official or sector.

The bill will face a final vote in the House of Representatives and the Senate. The gambling proposal received resounding support from the Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee.

The Penobscot Indian Nation commented that they need the slot machines for their gambling operation aside from their high stakes bingo games in order to effectively compete with the Hollywood Slots Casino Facility, which is still expanding their gambling operations in Bangor, Maine.

Governor John Baldacci has called for a temporary moratorium on the gambling expansion in Maine and has told the leaders of the Penobscot Indian Nation that he would veto the gambling bill.

Tuesday, 02 October 2007
Caroline Mitchell