Online Casinos Remain a Contentious Topic in Maine

By John Isaac,
Editor at online-gambling.com

John Isaac Editor at online-gambling.com

John Isaac is an editor with many years of experience in the gambling industry. He writes expert articles on card games like blackjack and poker. In addition, he is also well aware of the US gambling laws and the Indian and Dutch gambling markets. You can rely on verified information and insightful details.

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Last updated: April 10, 2024

In Maine, fans of online gambling may be out of luck as the fate of a current online casino bill looks grim. Maine lawmakers passed a sports betting bill in 2022, which has of course been a promising boost to the state’s bettors. However, their optimism about the potential for gambling growth and revenue to boost the state’s economy seems not to extend to online casino legalization.

Status of Online Casino Gambling Bill in Maine

The latest trouble is to do with an online casino gambling bill that would make the activity legal in Maine. Currently, gamblers in Maine can go to one of two brick-and-mortar casinos. Sports betting is also now available and is controlled exclusively by four of the state’s Native American tribes: the Maliseet, Micmac, Passamaquoddy and Penobscot.

However, online casino gambling is less accessible. Though fans of online gambling understand that some sites do offer their wares in states without legally recognized gambling, these sites cannot be considered fully safe to use until they have adequate licenses. Therefore, gamblers play at their own risk and have little recourse in the case of dubious and sham sites.

The Latest of Maine’s Gambling Bills

It has been hoped that this would change with the introduction of Maine’s latest online casino gambling bill. However, the bill did not pass in Maine’s House of Representatives. Unusually, the bill was passed onto the Maine Senate despite the negative response from the House.

Nonetheless, with a chance to revive the bill, the Senate did not do so. They instead voted to table the gambling bill. It could be revisited before the end of the current session, but experts deem it unlikely as the session closes on April 17.

In both cases, the vote was fairly close, with representatives voting 71-74 and senators voting 14-20. The vote to table the bill ended with a 27-7 split on April 10.

Bad News in Maryland

As in Maine, Maryland also saw a similar defeat in this current legislative session. Lawmakers were seeking to pass an online casino bill in Maryland, which would have meant safe access to online gambling in another of the country’s Easy Coast states. Maryland’s session closed on April 8.

Maine Sports Betting

Things are looking up however when it comes to sports betting across the United States. In Maine, lawmakers approved sportsbooks to legally operate in May 2022. However, they must work with Maine’s four Native American tribes.

The gesture was seen as an offering to the four tribes of the Wabanaki Nation, since they do not enjoy the same status as tribes in other US states. They actually had not been looking to run sportsbooks to begin with, but the hope is that this will be a win for both sports bettors and for the tribes.

Interestingly, the sports betting issue and the online casino issue indeed relate to one another. Within the legalization of sports betting in 2022, the tribes also were given the right to operate online casino betting. Unfortunately, this can only be instated once a framework is created for the operation of online casinos in Maine and this must happen via its own separate bill.