Maine Governor Janet Mills (D) signed Legislative Doc 585 this week to legalize sports activities betting. However authorized playing on skilled and sure faculty sports activities may nonetheless be a yr or extra out.
Maine Governor Janet Mills speaks with the media on March 11, 2022. Mills signed Maine’s sports activities betting invoice into legislation this week, however operations aren’t anticipated to start anytime quickly. (Picture: AP)
LD 585 supplies Maine’s 4 federally acknowledged tribes with the unique rights to function cellular sportsbooks. The state’s two industrial land-based casinos — Hollywood On line casino Bangor and Oxford On line casino Lodge — can be given in-person retail sports activities betting privileges.
The gaming growth is being utilized by Mills and her administration to supply fairness and inclusion for the 4 tribes. However the legislation significantly overhauls Maine’s relationship with the federal Indian teams, because it engages the 2 sides into an financial enterprise relationship for the primary time.
The invoice signed by Mills this week duties the Maine Playing Management Unit with creating governing circumstances that can oversee and regulate sports activities betting within the state. The laws mandates the varieties of sports activities permitted to be guess on, how a lot licensing charges will price, and what kind of tax can be imposed on income.
The rulemaking course of, which should embody a number of public hearings and a remark interval is predicted to take eight to 18 months to finish. That’s plus the required forthcoming hiring of two Playing Management Unit workers who can be solely centered on sports activities betting.
Preliminary Laws
The Maine sports activities betting legislation requires that every tribe wishing to take part in cellular sports activities betting pay a one-time $200,000 charge to the state. The state’s casinos can obtain their in-person sportsbook licenses for simply $4,000.
The nice disparity within the licensing charges is due to the projection that 85% or extra of the forthcoming sports activities betting income can be realized on-line. Each on-line and brick-and-mortar sports activities betting earnings can be topic to a ten% tax.
The common time from a governor’s signing to the primary guess being positioned in states which have handed cellular sports activities betting legal guidelines is round 5 and a half months. However officers in Maine say it is going to doubtless be eight to 18 months earlier than the tribal web sportsbooks go dwell.
As director, I cannot take any shortened measures to control [sports betting],” mentioned Milton Champion, government director of the Maine Playing Management Unit.
The state plans to subject on line casino sportsbooks and tribal on-line licenses on the identical time, that means the retail books is not going to start working freed from competitors.
“We’ve really had folks calling us for years asking when sports activities betting is coming, so we’re glad to a minimum of lastly be capable of say, ‘Sure, it’s legislation. Keep tuned.’ Sadly, it’s going to take longer than I feel most individuals count on,” Austin Muchmore, normal supervisor of Hollywood On line casino Bangor, informed the Bangor Every day Information.
Partnerships Wanted
Since Maine’s tribes don’t have any expertise operating a on line casino or sportsbook, the sports activities betting legislation requires the Native American entities to associate with skilled third-party operators like DraftKings and FanDuel. At the least one tribal official, nevertheless, says such a enterprise association is not going to take a lot time.
Corey Hinton, an lawyer representing the pursuits of the Passamaquoddy folks, believes the state ought to deal with its sports activities betting rulemaking in a a lot shorter time-frame than urged.
“One thing has gone critically amiss if guidelines take till 2024,” Hinton declared.
