Maine state law: casino siting capped at two sites (8 MRS §1011)

Maine authorizes exactly two gambling facilities, and 8 M.R.S. § 1011 is why no third location exists. Subsection 2 lets the Gambling Control Board license a commercial-track operator whose track was "located at or within a 5-mile radius of the center of a commercial track that conducted harness racing with pari-mutuel wagering on more than 25 days during calendar year 2002" and that won voter approval in a 2003 referendum, the path that produced Hollywood Casino Bangor at Bangor Raceway. Subsection 2-A separately lets the board license a casino built on a parcel in Oxford County that is "No less than 50 acres in size" and located no more than "Thirty miles from a Level I or Level II trauma center" and "Fifteen miles from the main office of a county sheriff," approved by a "referendum election or ... vote of the municipal officers" held between October 1, 2009 and December 31, 2011, the criteria behind Oxford Casino.

Section 1019, subsection 6 then locks the statewide map: a new casino or slot machine operator license "may not be issued under this chapter to operate any casino or slot machine facility located within 100 miles of a licensed casino or slot machine facility," with narrow carve-outs for federally recognized tribes and pre-2014 commercial tracks. Subsection 2-B of § 1011 closes the door further: since September 1, 2012 the board "may not accept any application for an initial license to operate a slot machine facility or casino," except from a tribe that held a Washington County high-stakes beano license as of January 1, 2012.

Municipalities don't zone casinos the way they zone ordinary land uses. Section 1062 preserves only local regulation that "does not conflict with this chapter or rules adopted under this chapter," and casino renewal instead runs through a § 1012-A hearing before municipal officers or county commissioners, with the application "considered approved" if they miss the 60-day decision window. Slot machines themselves must stay on the "premises of a casino" or within a defined radius of the licensed track, per § 1035.

Operating or distributing a slot machine or table game in Maine without the license § 1011 requires is a Class C crime under § 1054: up to 5 years in prison and a $5,000 fine under Maine's general sentencing statute. The Gambling Control Board can separately impose civil penalties or modify, suspend, or revoke a license under § 1051 for fraud in obtaining it, disqualifying convictions, or any violation of chapter 31 or its rules.