AUGUSTA – Maine’s two largest Indian tribes want to compete for the rights to own and operate a racino at the Bangor Historic Raceway track.

If accepted by lawmakers and the city of Bangor, it could mean that Shawn Scott of Capitol Seven and Penn National Gaming Inc. would have competition from the two tribes, which are backed by the rich Pequot Nation, owner of Foxwoods in Connecticut.

And it could mean that the horsemen and the Indians – who until recently were competing for gambling – would be working together.

Whoever owns and operates the Bangor racino stands to make millions.

The two parties now involved are from out of state, Penobscot Nation Chief Barry Dana said Thursday. Capitol Seven is from Las Vegas, Penn National from Pennsylvania.

If the tribes run the racino for the horsemen, both the harness industry and tribes would benefit, and the profits would stay in Maine, Dana said.

Bangor Mayor Dan Tremble said Wednesday that the city is interested in the tribe’s proposal, that it could offer a better deal to not only Bangor taxpayers, but horsemen and the state.

The tribes would be offering more to the city than Capitol Seven, Tremble said. “But this is pretty new.”

The city will be watching what the Legislature does with the amendment, and will be talking with the council and city attorneys, Tremble said.

According to Dana, the tribes would give Maine taxpayers and horsemen a better split than Scott’s, which is 75 percent for track owners, 25 percent to horsemen and the state. The tribes would be willing to offer a 60/40 split, the chief said. They’d keep the 60 percent, and the state and horsemen would get 40 percent.

“This is a better deal to the state,” Dana said.

After voters defeated Question 3, which would have allowed a huge Indian casino in Sanford, “we learned our lesson,” Dana said. This proposal would not be a huge casino that Mainers don’t want, nor would it be one that the language could not be changed. Their racino offer would fall under the governor’s proposed regulation of no more than 1,500 slots, “and the law could be changed,” Dana said.

The idea surfaced Thursday as an amendment to Baldacci’s LD 1820, which seeks to more tightly regulate the referendum passed Nov. 4 allowing slot machines at horse tracks.

The amendment was offered to the Legal and Veterans Committee working on LD 1820. The amendment proposing the tribes compete was sponsored by committee member Rep. Roger Landry, D-Sanford.

“Our idea is to give the city of Bangor the opportunity to open the process up for slot machine license holders. The tribes, the Passamaquoddy and Penobscots, would like to be at the same table, given the same opportunity, to bid for that license” along with Capitol Seven and Penn National, Dana said during a State House interview.

The tribes have contacted the Pequots, “which we helped get started in gaming,” Dana said, referring to the fact that it was the Penobscots that helped the Pequots get started in high-stakes Bingo, which eventually became Foxwoods. The Pequots would be the financial backer. “We’ve always looked for the opportunity to call that card and call them up and say, ‘Can you help us with this venture?'” Dana said.

While it would be a three-tribe partnership, Maine’s two tribes would hold the lion’s share of the ownership, Dana said.

The governor is interested in the idea, but remains committed that gambling not be expanded more than what’s on the table, his spokesman Lee Umphrey said.

“There needs to be public hearings on this, but the more alternatives the better,” Umphrey said. “We’ve learned that this is a fluid process, that it’s hard to take any proposal at face value without knowing what’s behind the curtain.”

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