Maine Moves Closer to iGaming

Online casinos in the Pine Tree State are going to come down to a thumbs up or down from the Appropriation Table after a late-night compromise saved the bill from outright rejection on the last night of the legislative session. The Senate deadlocked twice Monday before some changes to the tax rate from 16% to 18% managed to get the bill a roll call in front of the session again Tuesday, where it passed 18-17.

Last week, when Ambureen Rama’s LD 1164 sailed through the House on an 85-59 vote, it seemed like it had a real chance at becoming law, but the first vote on the amended bill came in at a deadlocked 17-17. It was clear it was in trouble, and even with the second vote, it deadlocked yet again. And while many people have assumed that its passage through the Senate now means it is headed for the Governor’s Desk, unfortunately, the road is not that straight and narrow. 

It will need to be passed in concurrence after the House looks at the higher tax rate, and then, because it contains a fiscal note, a simple way of saying it will cost money to enact the bill, it must pass through 13 House members on the Appropriations Table before it can become law and be funded. Many bills that pass both the Senate and the House fall afoul of the Appropriations Table.  

Then, even if the bill does pass, the governor would still have a chance to veto, something that seems likely as members of her administration testified against the bill when it was being discussed in the House. So, it’s probably wise for the four branches of the Wabankai Nation that would be awarded an online license not to count their chickens just yet. 

And that has been a large part of the problem: the bill awards exclusive online casino licenses to the four tribes of the Wabanaki and no one else. In 2022, the state chose to follow a similar route with its online sports betting licenses, awarding one skin each to the Passamaquoddy Tribe, Penobscot Nation, Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, and the Mi'kmaq Nation.

This left the state’s two commercial interests, Hollywood Casino Bangor and Oxford Casino, owned by Churchill Downs, at a disadvantage. Churchill Downs' disdain for online casinos is legendary, and they were a founding member of the National Alliance Against iGaming (NAAiG).  Penn has been more strategic in its support or opposition to iGaming, depending on its own interests in respective states.

Interestingly, GLPI, the real estate investment trust that owns all the land and casinos operated by Penn National Gaming, joined the NAAiG just hours after the Maine Senate vote. In any case, Churchill Downs and Penn employ more than 3,200 Maine residents between them and pay approximately $60 million in gaming taxes each year. 

It's reasonable to assume they will use all of their formidable lobbying power, along with that of local casino unions and others, to attempt to convince Governor Janet Mills that online casinos will hurt jobs, as well as harm local communities that count on their tax dollars from Penn and Oxford, and are just a bad gamble for the people of Maine. 

The tribes need to spend their efforts on continuing to point out their disadvantaged status under the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act of 1980, which not only left them without the federal protections provided to almost all other federally recognized tribes but also essentially stripped them of any form of self-governance. 

It was this law that stopped the tribes from being able to force a compact allowing tribal casinos in the first place.  Attempting to rectify the situation and allowing the tribes some way forward towards self-governance and economic opportunities led to a bipartisan bill that allowed the Tribes monopoly power of online Sports betting back in 2022. 

Still, this time, the arguments about sovereignty and independence will be weighed carefully against potential job losses and damage to Bangor or Oxford’s tourist economies. 

And while the estimates for potential taxes generated by the tribe are rather modest, in the $3 to $5 million range for the first couple of years, Maine is staring down a potential hole of as much as $400 million by fiscal year 2026-2027, and every penny will needed to be found to fund it. 

It remains to be seen if the governor will even need to sharpen her veto pencil, however, with the rather byzantine operations of the Appropriations Table. However, this is a bill that will have lobbyists salivating on both sides of this contentious debate for next year’s session.