With legal sports betting off and running, the Pine Tree State is kicking around adding iGaming in the legislature early in 2024.
In 2023, Sen. Laura Supica (D-Bangor) filed LD 1777, a bill extending tribes in Maine control over all gambling, including online casinos. It was carried over to the new year.
The bill came up for discussion in the first second-session meeting of 2024, but a series of bomb threats made on January 3 against several capitol buildings across the country, including Maine's, closed the session before a vote on LD1777 could be taken and the building was evacuated.
The threat turned out to be a hoax, according to The Associated Press, so the iGaming debate continues in Maine.
LD1777 calls for Maine's tribes to offer internet gambling beyond sports betting, including “skill or chance offered through the Internet in which an individual wagers money or something of monetary value for the opportunity to win money or something of monetary value.”
The bill proposes a 10% flat tax on all online wagering, but Maine’s cut would be spread to different public services than where sports betting tax money currently goes.
Proponents of iGaming
Those in favor of online casinos see it as a way to enhance economic development in the Pine Tree State and to tribes, but especially in regions that need it.
“I don’t see this as an irresponsible policy that’s going to cannibalize our services,” Supica told the Portland Press Herald. “I think it’s something that could be very good for our services, especially in central and northern Maine where we are really economically depressed.”
It’s a gamble picking which way this Maine debate will go, but iGaming has support beyond Supica. LD1777 is supported by House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross and Senate President Troy Jackson.
There are also two casino bills in the House. Proposed by Rep. Ben Collings, LD 1944 supports casinos on tribal lands while LD 1992 would promote gaming terminals run by tribes. Both bring controversy Maine has steered clear of for decades.
Not so fast
There are certainly opponents to giving the state’s tribes more power, including Janet Mills. Maine’s governor was not in favor of sports betting for a long time, even though it was finally legalized in 2022 and launched on November 3, 2023.
Mills said she’d veto a bill Collings proposed in 2023 because of the rights it would give tribes, so it never made it through the House.
The Pine Tree State’s relationship with the tribes is tricky. Tribes are not treated like sovereign nations because of the 1980 Maine Indian Land Claims Settlement Act.
Some of the bills that have been proposed would give Maine’s tribes more rights and make them federally recognized.
Exclusivity issue
One of the other issues Maine faces in legalizing iGaming is how its only form of online wagering is already set up.
In Maine sports betting, DraftKings and Caesars have a partnership with the Passamaquoddy Tribe to operate. There's a steep price to pay to do business with the tribes allowed by law to operate sports betting, leading to so few participants.
If online casinos are handled in the same fashion, it could cause a loss of revenue from their brick-and-mortar locations as iGaming grows.
“Maine absolutely should consider legalizing Internet Gaming,” Maine Gambling Control Boar Chairman Steve Silver wrote in a submitted testimonial. “It is my personal belief that adult Mainers should be free to enjoy legal, regulated gaming in all its forms. But I also believe that any qualified operator should have the ability to obtain an iGaming license including the Wabanaki Nations. Cutting out Oxford and Hollywood Casinos entirely from offering iGaming is ill-advised in my opinion.”
Sports betting did generate a handle of $37.6 million in the first month of operation in Maine, so relaxing the exclusivity could bring big dollars if online casinos are legalized.
