This Time, Gambling Investor’s Luck May Run Out

The signature-gathering effort began around Election Day in 2015. The petition asked whether Maine voters should support another casino, to be built in southern Maine. The wording of the initiative, which few signers likely looked at closely, was unusual. It said if the referendum passed, the Maine Gambling Control Board could accept applications for a casino license, but qualifying applications could only come “from an entity that owned in 2003 at least 51 percent of an entity licensed to operate a commercial track in Penobscot County.” The sole person who fit that definition was Shawn Scott, a former Las Vegas businessman who now calls the Northern Mariana Islands home. Scott is the enigmatic figure behind Maine’s first successful gambling initiative, Hollywood Slots in Bangor.