Nickerson said, “The public knows that casino jobs dealing blackjack lead nowhere, local planning concerns are ignored, traffic piles up, compulsive gambling increases and non-casino businesses can’t survive in the casino kill zone. Our neighbors in Maine and Massachusetts have measured the Connecticut experience and concluded that the claimed benefits of casinos are far outweighed by the problems. It is clear that the bloom is off the rose. Voters are no longer seduced
by promises that states can gamble their way to prosperity.”

In Maine the referendum to establish an Indian casino was defeated on Election Day by a stunning 2 to 1 margin and was rejected in all 16 counties. As usual, the “front” proponents were the Passamaquoddy and Penobscot tribes but the real financial backer was a casino financier from Las Vegas, Marnell Corrao. Anti-casino forces, led by Governor John Baldacci, were far less well funded, but had a different kind of advantage, namely, in the words of one commentator “Their devotion to the concept that, despite all the promises, bringing casinos into the state of Maine would diminish – perhaps destroy – the quality of life they had come to love and cherish” (Portsmouth Herald 11-6-03). The proposal to build a $650 million 200,000 square foot casino with 4,000 slot machines and 180 gaming tables has sunk below the waves in the gulf of Maine.

It was no coincidence that the day after the Maine defeat the effort to bring Las Vegas style gambling to Massachusetts suffered a major setback. Leaders of the Massachusetts Senate abandoned their much touted plan to call for a vote on legalizing a casino and permitting slot machines at race tracks. The Massachusetts House has long opposed the plan. Casino interests spent over $1 million lobbying and hired over 9 former state senators and representatives to push gambling but it wasn’t enough. The economic stimulus bill which was to be the vehicle for the casino amendment was then passed by the legislature without any reference to casinos. There are no plans at this time to resurrect the gambling proposal.