BIDDEFORD — Nearly 200 people attended an informational meeting at City Hall Monday to hear the concerns of those who oppose the creation of a $125 million racino on Andrews Street.

Citizens Against a Bad Deal, a grassroots organization that opposes the racino, gathered more than 100 signatures in a petition to have their side heard. The group filed for an injunction against the city after they were denied a request for public discussion at the Oct. 22 City Council meeting. The injunction was denied in York County Superior Court earlier in the day Monday, as the city had agreed to allow the group to host a public meeting.

The meeting, featuring a panel of experts, was moderated by Owen Grumbling, a University of New England professor, rather than Mayor Joanne Twomey or the City Council. Twomey and city staff have been strong proponents of the racino plan.

The panel’s presentation ended at 8 p.m., but discussion on both sides of the issue continued past 10 o’clock.

Tim Shannon, a pro bono attorney for Citizens Against a Bad Deal and the panel’s first speaker, claimed the event to be the only recourse available to directly provide the public with information that was not in support of the proposed casino, without the interference of city officials.

“The process underlying this referendum question has stunk,” said Shannon. “That viewpoint (opposing the racino) has not been heard. We have been ignored, scolded, talked down to, and stifled for too long.”

Fellow panelist Dick Balkite, who once served on former Gov. Angus King’s casino gambling task force, said the social costs associated with bringing a casino or a racino into any town easily outweigh the financial gain.

He cited the home of the Foxwoods casino, Mashantucket, Conn., a town roughly the same size of Biddeford, and its mounting financial costs due to casino related litigation. He also noted the town’s need for a much greater law enforcement presence as an example of what Biddeford might become with the opening of a racino.

Balkite also discredited the relationship between harness racing and gambling, calling a racino “a casino with a horse tied up outside.”

Sam Reynolds, a Saco resident and chairman of the sociology department at UNE, described the economic pitfalls of bringing gambling into a town. According to Reynolds, the average salary of a worker at the Biddeford racino would be $37,000 a year, but 75 percent of the workers would only make $17,000 a year, or about $8.25 a hour, a wage that would qualify them for food stamps, welfare, and MaineCare.

Reynolds also said that for every $1,000 a casino makes, $243 is lost by businesses within a 30-mile radius of the casino, many of whom are competing for the same entertainment and restaurant dollars as a casino.

“These (jobs) are not the right type, the right quality, or the right quantity,” Reynolds said.

Reynolds also pointed to significant increases in crime rates and single-digit increases in the percentage of gambling addicts in areas with casinos. According to Reynolds, 90 percent of a casino’s gambling revenue comes from 10 percent of the gamblers who walk in the door.

“It is a tax,” said Reynolds. “Chronic gambling is a disease the same as alcoholism is.”

Stu Bristol, a national sporting journalist and outdoorsman, addressed the environmental impacts of the proposal. (Bristol writes a weekly column on the outdoors for the Journal Tribune.)

The 88 acres of land to be used for the racino is one of the largest unfragmented habitat blocks in all of York and Cumberland counties, said Bristol. He also labeled the area as one of the primary deer wintering areas for local deer.

“There’s only so much habitat left,” said Bristol. “What’s good for fish and wildlife is what’s good for the city of Biddeford.”

The panel fielded a number of written questions until around 8 p.m., when Shannon’s request to extend the meeting was nearly drowned out by shouts of “yes” and “no” from the packed council chambers. The mayor’s refusal brought on scores of applause and the floor was opened to the public to speak for both sides of the racino.

Tom Varley, senior vice president of Ocean Properties Ltd., the hotel company partnering with Scarborough Downs in proposing the Biddeford racino, spoke in defense of the racino’s job creating capabilities.

Varley, once a housekeeper in his very own company, promised 500 Biddeford jobs with a chance for upward mobility as a result of the racino.

“We have people from Maine work all over the country with us,” said Varley. “We will be hiring only local people.”

Cari Cote, a human services case worker in Biddeford, stated that nearly half of the state is on Mainecare and the jobs offered by the racino wouldn’t be second rate jobs to many of the citizens of Biddeford.

“The poverty in this town is phenomenal,” said Cote. “Burger King and McDonald’s can choose who they’re hiring because 500 are applying. We need jobs in this town.”   

Voicing concern over the Biddeford racino was former mayor Gen. Wallace Nutting (ret.), who said that gambling is a burden on everyone, no matter where it may be. The renovations taking place in Biddeford’s mills and the revival of the downtown area could make the city’s downtown the economic center of all of southern Maine, he said, but “the location of a (racino) will suck the air out of an extremely important effort in our downtown.”

If a majority of Biddeford’s citizens vote yes on Question 1 on Nov. 2, supporting the racino, the matter will go before the City Council and further approval will be needed from the Legislature as well.

— Nathan Proctor is a Biddeford High School senior who writes for the Journal Tribune.