PART A

Sec. A-1. 8 MRSA §271, sub-§9, as reallocated by RR 1997, c. 1, §7, is amended to read:

9. Previous year's dates. Beginning with licenses issued for calendar year 1996, notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, every commercial track or tribal commercial track that is licensed for a specific calendar year must be assigned all of the race dates that it requests for that year if it conducted live racing on those dates during the immediately preceding calendar year. For the purposes of this section, a race date is the same from year to year if it is the closest calendar date that falls on the same day of the week.

Sec. A-2. 8 MRSA §275-A, sub-§12 is enacted to read:

12.__Tribal commercial track.__"Tribal commercial track" means a harness racing track, operated by a tribe federally recognized as a tribe in Maine as of January 1, 2005, that:

A. Is located more than 90 miles from an existing commercial track that operates slot machines but within 45 miles of the operating tribe's Indian reservation as described in Title 30, chapter 601; and

B.__Conducts racing on more than 25 days each calendar year after being granted a license to conduct harness racing.

For purposes of this subsection, distance in miles is determined by measuring the distance from the center of the tribal commercial track along the most commonly used roadway as determined by the Department of Transportation.

Sec. A-3. 8 MRSA §275-C, sub-§2, as enacted by PL 1997, c. 390, §1, is amended to read:

2. Payments to agricultural fairs conducting live racing. A commercial track or tribal commercial track located within a 35- mile radius of an agricultural fair track may not present a simulcast on a day when the commercial track or tribal commercial track is not conducting live racing and the agricultural fair track is conducting live racing unless the commercial track or tribal commercial track pays the agricultural fair track 2% of the wagers made at the commercial track or tribal commercial track at the time live racing is being conducted at the agricultural fair track and 1% of the wagers on the other races