He told them, “I didn’t hire you.”įloyd Thayer, chairman of the Oxford Board of Selectmen, said it took a lot of work on the town level to get to Tuesday’s opening. On Tuesday, he said casino employees approached him and thanked him for the jobs. “The 400 jobs here are going to be nothing compared to what you’re going to see in three or four years.”īahre said he doesn’t know much about gambling and is happy to let management make the decisions. As of Tuesday, the casino employed about 400 people.īahre said he expects that number to go up in the coming years, citing the current expansion and eventual plans to build a hotel and other accommodations. Now, two years after the Bahres joined other investors in pushing for the casino, Bahre said he was happy to see it open. After 1,000 positions were lost in local manufacturing, he said, he wanted to start reversing the trend.

for the crowds to clear out.īahre said he and his son, Gary Bahre, joined up to help bring jobs to the area. The opening was so successful that it took until 2 a.m. He recalled when he opened the New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon in 1990. Maine’s only other casino is Hollywood Casino, located in Bangor.īob Bahre, the casino’s largest initial investor and the former owner of Oxford Plains Speedway, was hoping for a slow opening. A tent next to the side entrance allows customers to sign up for the casino’s loyalty club before entering the building. Inside were 500 slot machines, a restaurant, a lounge and a dozen table games including blackjack, poker, craps and roulette. When the casino opened its doors, the parking lot was about half full.

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