Of the many exaggerated claims that the backers of a Biddeford casino are making, perhaps the biggest one, is that their proposal will help Maine’s struggling harness racing industry.

Not true. In fact, the evidence shows that if anything another racino in Maine will only hasten its demise.

Oddly, even those behind the Biddeford Downs casino acknowledge this. In a YouTube video supporting their project, the narrator says the harness racing industry “has been struggling in Maine because of increased competition from gaming revenue.”

So what’s their solution? Bring in more competition, a casino with 1,500 slot machines. This makes no sense and it shows that the industry hasn’t learned from its mistakes.

It’s not like the harness racing industry’s struggles are anything new. In the early 1990s, the industry was in a full panic. Business – as measured by the live handle, the total amount wagered on harness racing – was down more than 30 percent, from $45.2 million in 1987 to $29.8 million in 1991.

The solution to this freefall? Off-track-betting parlors, neighborhood pubs where fans can gamble on races via live TV. According to news articles at the time, OTBs were the “salvation” of the harness racing industry.

But nearly 20 years later, both harness racing and OTBs are withering. That $29.8 million handle that sent the industry into a panic in 1991 is down to just $4.4 million today, according to the Maine Harness Racing Commission, and revenues at the state’s four OTBs are falling just as fast.

In 2003, voters were again told that the industry needed saving. This time the solution was slot machines. The law that eventually passed divides millions of dollars in slots revenue from Hollywood Slots between the two major harness racing tracks – Scarborough Downs and Bangor Raceway – as well as the state’s agricultural fairs and OTBs.

And while it’s true that track owners, horse breeders and suppliers are benefiting from what amounts to a slots subsidy, it’s done nothing to bring people into the stands or generate new interest in the sport.

Since 2005, the year Hollywood Slots opened in Bangor, the live handle has fallen every year but one and is now at a record low. Scarborough Downs, which last year alone received more than $4 million from its share of the slots revenue, still managed to operate most years in the red.

The track even switched to free admission, but attendance is still down. (Ironically, OTB owners now blame the slot machines for their declining revenues.)

The harness racing industry may be worth saving, but the only way to do that is to get more people into the stands betting on horse races. Casinos aren’t the solution.

Those pretty pictures of horses and hay barns are just an attractive veneer for the real goal of the Biddeford Downs campaign – legalizing slot machines.

That may fatten the wallets of the casino owners and operators, but it’s a sure bet they won’t restore Maine harness racing to its former glory.

Dennis Bailey is the executive director of CasinosNo!, an anti-casino political action committee. Bailey has worked on numerous anti-casino campaigns over the last decade.