Maine’s chief playing regulator, Milton Champion, is dealing with a insurrection from his on line casino inspectors who accuse him of unilaterally “deregulating casinos … with out enter from the voting public” and of making a “deeply dysfunctional and poisonous office atmosphere.”
Milton Champion, above, is accused of making a “poisonous office atmosphere” in a letter signed by all 9 of his on line casino inspectors. They are saying they haven’t any confidence in his capacity to manage playing in Maine. (Picture: Maine Public Radio)
All 9 inspectors below Champion’s management signed an open letter printed Wednesday by the MSEA-SEIU Native 1989 public providers union. The letter expresses no confidence in Champion, who has been govt director of the Maine Playing Management Unit since 2016.
An accompanying press launch by Native 1989 notes that just lately enacted adjustments to working schedules are stopping the inspectors from overseeing the state’s two casinos, the Oxford On line casino and the Hollywood On line casino Bangor, on Sundays and Mondays.
“On line casino playing … was a extremely contentious difficulty in Maine in 2003 when it was handed by voters and legalized,” Mark Brunton, president of Native 1989, stated in a press release. “One of many issues was to ensure it was well-regulated to guard the residents of Maine. That’s the necessary position that our inspectors play. They should be on the job at any time when the casinos are open.”
‘Undermining the Board’
The inspectors’ letter claims that Champion “doesn’t respect” the oversight of the Maine Playing Management Board as a result of it has denied his proposals up to now.
Now, somewhat than topic himself to the checks and balances of the Board’s oversight perform, Milton Champion is circumventing the Board altogether by making unilateral selections that utterly undermine the Board’s capacity to supervise playing issues in Maine.”
The inspectors declare that “many of those selections make little or no sense, are based mostly on false knowledge, and have irreparably harmed the Maine Playing Management Unit’s capacity to manage on line casino playing.”
Further grievances embody Champion’s alleged failure to “accurately pay” his inspectors for providers rendered and refusal to debate the entire above points.
“We should make it identified that Milton Champion has repeatedly proven a scarcity of respect for our authorized rights and processes spelled out in our union contract, has retaliated in opposition to us individually and as a bunch, and has created a deeply dysfunctional and poisonous office atmosphere,” the letter states.
Champion Blunder
Champion hadn’t responded to a request for touch upon the letter from On line casino.org on the time of publication. Nevertheless, Steven Silver, chair of the Maine Playing Management Board, advised The Portland Press Herald that “from a purely operational standpoint, issues have been working very easily and really profitably below Director Champion.”
Silver additionally acknowledged he was conscious of complaints a couple of hostile work atmosphere and had issues over the decision-making that went into the schedule change.
This isn’t the primary time Champion has discovered himself in a sticky state of affairs. In Might 2024, he was positioned on administrative depart over a tweet that used a sexist pejorative and one other that might be perceived as supporting a white nationalist march.
On Might 6 of that yr, the regulator replied to a poster’s opinion that referring to a bunch of girls as “girls” was inappropriate.
“These days, I suppose ‘bitches’ is best,” he urged.
Then, simply over every week later, he reacted to pictures of a white nationalist march on the US Capitol with: “Not less than they don’t seem to be burning down or looting shops.”
