{"id":60240,"date":"2017-10-07T14:00:44","date_gmt":"2017-10-07T21:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=60240"},"modified":"2017-10-07T07:54:55","modified_gmt":"2017-10-07T14:54:55","slug":"maine-casino-developer-shawn-scott-vilified-pac-website","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/maine-casino-developer-shawn-scott-vilified-pac-website\/","title":{"rendered":"Maine Casino Developer Shawn Scott Vilified by PAC Website"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/maine-casino-supporterss-promise-thousands-of-jobs\">In Maine, a contentious casino proposal<\/a>, which has found its way onto the November ballot, became the target of a no-holds-barred web campaign this week which seeks to characterize the its developer as \u201cShady Shawn.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_60241\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-60241\" data-style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-60241\" src=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/27088801_H1322893-600x413.jpg\" alt=\"Shawn Scott\" width=\"600\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/27088801_H1322893-600x413.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/27088801_H1322893-600x413-142x98.jpg 142w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/27088801_H1322893-600x413-160x110.jpg 160w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/27088801_H1322893-600x413-436x300.jpg 436w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption  id=\"caption-attachment-60241\"class=\"text-description\">PAC \u201cBad Deal for Maine\u201d casts Shawn Scott (pictured) as a shady customer who \u201cflips\u201d casinos and racetracks across the US while leaving behind him a trail of lawsuits. (Image: Bangor Daily News)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>WickedShady.com, launched by political action committee \u201cA Bad Deal for Maine,\u201d urges voters to reject the proposal of casino entrepreneur Shawn Scott, who wants to build the state\u2019s third casino, in York County. The PAC is backed by Churchill Downs which owns Maine\u2019s Oxford Casino.<\/p>\n<p>The York County casino project has been mired in controversy, since the question on the ballot has been worded in such a way that, if approved, only Scott, or a company controlled by him, could be granted a casino license.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Serial \u201cFlipper\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/maine-casino-campaign-financier-withdraws-state-ethics-investigation-continues\/\">Meanwhile, Scott\u2019s sister, Lisa Scott<\/a>, who ostensibly spearheaded the signature-gathering campaign that succeeded in getting the issue on the ballot, is being investigated by the state\u2019s ethics committee.<\/p>\n<p>Lisa Scott claimed to be the sole listed officer of the campaign \u201cHorseracing Jobs Fairness,\u201d which purported to be about safeguarding the thoroughbred racing industry. She also claimed that she alone funded the $4.3 million campaign, which was later found to be bankrolled by a complex network of companies linked to her brother.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"main-blockquote\"><p><strong>\u201cIt\u2019s always the\u00a0same story\u00a0with Shawn Scott,\u201d claims the website.\u00a0\u201cIn 7 states, Shawn Scott has a\u00a0pattern\u00a0of leveraging\u00a0slick accounting methods\u00a0and\u00a0legal sleight of hand\u00a0to make tens of millions of dollars on referendums.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>WickedShady accuses Scott of \u201cflipping\u201d racetracks and casinos across the US, leaving behind him a trail of lawsuits and complaints about the way he does business.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFlipping\u201d refers to the practice of purchasing properties before reselling them with the goal of making a short-term profit. The report notes Scott was the subject of 37 lawsuits between 1992 and 2000 alone.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>\u201cBrexit Team\u201d on Board<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>In 2003, Scott won voter approval to add slots machines at Maine\u2019s struggling Bangor racetrack, which he had purchased for just $1 million. He quickly sold it and its new gaming rights for a $50 million profit.<\/p>\n<p>But Scott has his own political action committee, \u201cProgress for Maine,\u201d which has launched a blitz of television advertising and has its own website that details the expected positive economic impact of the casino.<\/p>\n<p>He has also hired Washington DC-based consulting firm Goddard Gunster, the company widely credited with convincing British voters to decide to leave the European Union through the use in-depth demographic polling and precision target social media messaging.<\/p>\n<p>The company claims a 90 percent success rate in every referendum it has been involved in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Maine, a contentious casino proposal, which has found its way onto the November ballot, became the target of a no-holds-barred web campaign this week which seeks to characterize the its developer as \u201cShady Shawn.\u201d WickedShady.com, launched by political action committee \u201cA Bad Deal for Maine,\u201d urges voters to reject the proposal of casino entrepreneur [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":60241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,10,18],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Maine Casino Developer Shawn Scott Vilified by PAC Website<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Shawn Scott\u2019s Maine casino proposal attacked by WickedShady website, launched by political action committee. \u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Maine Casino Developer Shawn Scott Vilified by PAC Website\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Shawn Scott\u2019s Maine casino proposal attacked by WickedShady website, launched by political action committee. \u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/maine-casino-developer-shawn-scott-vilified-pac-website\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-10-07T21:00:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-10-07T14:54:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/27088801_H1322893-600x413.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"413\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/maine-casino-developer-shawn-scott-vilified-pac-website\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/maine-casino-developer-shawn-scott-vilified-pac-website\/\",\"name\":\"Maine Casino Developer Shawn Scott Vilified by PAC Website\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/maine-casino-developer-shawn-scott-vilified-pac-website\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/maine-casino-developer-shawn-scott-vilified-pac-website\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/27088801_H1322893-600x413.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-10-07T21:00:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-10-07T14:54:55+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77\"},\"description\":\"Shawn Scott\u2019s Maine casino proposal attacked by WickedShady website, launched by political action committee. \u00a0\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/maine-casino-developer-shawn-scott-vilified-pac-website\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/maine-casino-developer-shawn-scott-vilified-pac-website\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/maine-casino-developer-shawn-scott-vilified-pac-website\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/27088801_H1322893-600x413.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/27088801_H1322893-600x413.jpg\",\"width\":600,\"height\":413,\"caption\":\"PAC \u201cBad Deal for Maine\u201d casts Shawn Scott (pictured) as a shady customer who \u201cflips\u201d casinos and racetracks across the US while leaving behind him a trail of lawsuits. (Image: Bangor Daily News)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/maine-casino-developer-shawn-scott-vilified-pac-website\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Financial\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/financial\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Maine Casino Developer Shawn Scott Vilified by PAC Website\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77\",\"name\":\"Casino.org Staff Writer\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0853bd574da5b217483afb1fbbee33a5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0853bd574da5b217483afb1fbbee33a5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Casino.org Staff Writer\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/corg-staff-writer\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Maine Casino Developer Shawn Scott Vilified by PAC Website","description":"Shawn Scott\u2019s Maine casino proposal attacked by WickedShady website, launched by political action committee. \u00a0","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Maine Casino Developer Shawn Scott Vilified by PAC Website","og_description":"Shawn Scott\u2019s Maine casino proposal attacked by WickedShady website, launched by political action committee. \u00a0","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/maine-casino-developer-shawn-scott-vilified-pac-website\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2017-10-07T21:00:44+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-10-07T14:54:55+00:00","og_image":[{"width":600,"height":413,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/27088801_H1322893-600x413.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Casino.org Staff Writer","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Casino_Org","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Casino.org Staff Writer","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/maine-casino-developer-shawn-scott-vilified-pac-website\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/maine-casino-developer-shawn-scott-vilified-pac-website\/","name":"Maine Casino Developer Shawn Scott Vilified by PAC Website","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/maine-casino-developer-shawn-scott-vilified-pac-website\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/maine-casino-developer-shawn-scott-vilified-pac-website\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/27088801_H1322893-600x413.jpg","datePublished":"2017-10-07T21:00:44+00:00","dateModified":"2017-10-07T14:54:55+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77"},"description":"Shawn Scott\u2019s Maine casino proposal attacked by WickedShady website, launched by political action committee. \u00a0","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/maine-casino-developer-shawn-scott-vilified-pac-website\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/maine-casino-developer-shawn-scott-vilified-pac-website\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/maine-casino-developer-shawn-scott-vilified-pac-website\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/27088801_H1322893-600x413.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/27088801_H1322893-600x413.jpg","width":600,"height":413,"caption":"PAC \u201cBad Deal for Maine\u201d casts Shawn Scott (pictured) as a shady customer who \u201cflips\u201d casinos and racetracks across the US while leaving behind him a trail of lawsuits. (Image: Bangor Daily News)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/maine-casino-developer-shawn-scott-vilified-pac-website\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Financial","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/financial\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Maine Casino Developer Shawn Scott Vilified by PAC Website"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77","name":"Casino.org Staff Writer","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0853bd574da5b217483afb1fbbee33a5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0853bd574da5b217483afb1fbbee33a5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Casino.org Staff Writer"},"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/corg-staff-writer\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60240"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}