How Maine racinos work
Maine racinos exist under a 2003 citizen initiative that allowed slot machines only at commercial harness tracks, and only where the host community agreed. The law that implemented it, signed in May 2004, set licensing rules, a distribution formula and a regulator. Bangor met every condition; Scarborough did not, which is why the state ended up with exactly one racino.
The Bangor floor uses ordinary slot machines rather than the lottery-linked video lottery terminals common at racinos in New York or Delaware, and table games were added in 2012. Gambling is limited to adults 21 and older. For the general idea of a racetrack with a gaming floor, the what is a racino guide sets Maine beside the larger markets.
Who oversees the casino and the track
Two agencies divide the work. The Gambling Control Board and its Gambling Control Unit, inside the Department of Public Safety, license the casino, inspect machines and publish weekly reports showing slot income and each fund’s share. The Maine State Harness Racing Commission, part of the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, licenses racing and approves every Bangor and fair date.
Every venue in the Maine racinos picture
The table lists the one racino beside two names often confused with it. Only Bangor combines live racing and a casino today; Scarborough Downs raced without gaming until 2020, and Oxford Casino offers gaming without racing. Off-track betting rooms and fair tracks also take wagers, but none holds a slot license.
| Venue | City | Racing | Gaming |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hollywood Casino Hotel & Raceway Bangor | Bangor | Harness at Bass Park, April to November | Nearly 715 slots, table games, 152-room hotel |
| Scarborough Downs (closed) | Scarborough | Harness until November 2020 | None; slot license never obtained |
| Oxford Casino | Oxford | None | Casino only, owned by Churchill Downs Incorporated |
Hollywood Casino Bangor and Bass Park
Hollywood Casino Bangor began as Hollywood Slots on November 1, 2005, in a converted restaurant holding 475 machines. Penn National Gaming had bought the project from the developer Capital Seven early in 2004. The permanent building on Main Street opened in 2007 with around 1,000 slots, and a hotel with 152 rooms now sits alongside the casino floor.
Today PENN Entertainment operates the property, while Gaming and Leisure Properties owns the real estate. The floor carries nearly 715 slot machines and a set of table games, and the dining choices are Hops House 99 and the Zombie Dogz counter. Casino taxes contributed about $12 million toward the Cross Insurance Center, the Bangor arena across the street.
The racing side is far older. Bangor Raceway is a half-mile oval at Bass Park, the grounds Joseph P. Bass left to the City of Bangor in 1932, and harness horses have raced there since 1883. Its 3,000-seat concrete grandstand replaced a wooden one destroyed by fire in 1949, and the 2026 meet was billed as the 143rd season.
How slot money pays for harness racing
The distribution formula is the heart of Maine racinos. Under 8 MRSA section 1036, the Bangor licensee hands over 39 percent of net slot income. Ten points supplement harness racing purses, three feed the Sire Stakes Fund for Maine-bred horses, three go to agricultural fairs and four to a fund that encourages racing at commercial tracks.
The rest serves public purposes: ten percent to the Fund for a Healthy Maine, three percent to the General Fund for regulation, two percent to University of Maine and Maine Maritime Academy scholarships, one percent to community college scholarships and one percent to the City of Bangor. Table games pay a separate 16 percent.
The effect shows up at the windows. Bangor’s 2025 meet averaged a record $101,215 in daily handle, with average purses of $41,497 a day, and for 2026 the track announced a 12 percent purse increase aimed at roughly $50,000 per day. The Sire Stakes Fund pays for non-wagering races such as the $15,000-plus dashes run at the Topsham Fair.
Scarborough Downs and the failed expansions
Scarborough Downs, the commercial track south of Portland, was the other half of the 2003 plan. Town voters rejected slots, the backers missed the December 30, 2003 deadline, and a Penn National-backed attempt in 2008 failed by 225 votes. Without a casino partner the track kept racing for more than a decade, running its final card on November 28, 2020.
Proposals elsewhere fared no better. In 2011 voters turned down racinos for Biddeford and Washington County, and Saco and Westbrook rejected racino plans in 2003. Oxford County’s casino passed narrowly in 2010 after an earlier defeat, but it was licensed as a casino without a racetrack. The history of racinos page places these votes in national context.
Harness racing calendar in Maine
Maine harness racing follows a seasonal rhythm built around Bangor and the fairs. Bangor Raceway takes a three-month winter break, opens in late April and races on Sunday and Wednesday afternoons into July. The fair circuit then takes over in summer, with pari-mutuel cards at agricultural fairs that have staged harness races for generations.
- Late April to July: Bangor Raceway, Sundays plus Wednesdays from May.
- Late July and early August: evening cards during the Bangor State Fair at Bass Park.
- August: the fair circuit, including the Topsham Fair on August 9 and 10, 2026.
- September to early November: Bangor’s 15-date fall meet, ending November 7, 2026.
The Topsham Fair, in its 172nd edition in 2026, was the second stop on the pari-mutuel fair circuit and admitted racegoers free on both days. Fair racing depends on the Agricultural Fair Support Fund and on purse money that the Bangor casino feeds into the system. Dates for tracks in other states are collected on the national horse racing schedule.
Visiting a Maine racino
Most visitors arrive in Bangor by car, since the casino sits on Main Street close to Interstate 395 and near downtown. The casino hotel is the obvious place to stay for a weekend card or a show. Every bet on the horses is pari-mutuel, with payouts set by the pool.
Maine racinos are a small market compared with neighboring states, so racing fans often combine a trip with other New England and New York tracks. Plainridge Park in Massachusetts is the closest comparable harness racino, while New York runs several harness tracks with gaming floors, from Saratoga to Vernon Downs and Tioga Downs.