An effort to allow a casino in Oxford County is losing by 40,000 votes with 77 percent of precincts reporting, according to preliminary results compiled by the Bangor Daily News.

Dennis Bailey, head of the opposition group CasinosNO!, is considering this a victory. He hopes this will be the definitive vote on casinos in the state. “Maine people made up their mind five years ago. Las Vegas didn’t get the memo,” he said.

The casino campaign was virtually nonexistent until six weeks before the election, when a Las Vegas company took over the project and began an aggressive campaign.

“They threw everything they had at us, the down economy, promise of economic development, they had everything going their way. Maine people still said no,” Bailey said.

Despite their ad blitz, Bailey said the bill was “pretty terrible,” with provisions that lowered the gambling age and put the casino president on a number of boards and commissions. Maine people do their research, however, Bailey said. “I don’t know how they thought people would enact this thing,” he said.

The casino proponents promised to bring the bill before the Legislature and ask lawmakers to fix the problems with it.

Speaking from Oxford County, Vote Yes on 2 spokeswoman Pat LaMarche was hopeful, and wanted residents’ votes to be counted before reaching a conclusion. Eleven Oxford County towns had yet to be counted. “With great humility we wait,” LaMarche said.

LaMarche took aim at CasinosNO! for working diligently to prevent economic development from coming to the state. She said she would like to see them come up with a plan to help Maine families.

“These are desperate times, and desperate locations,” LaMarche said.