Lawmakers in Maine are contemplating a invoice that might legalize on-line poker and different on line casino gaming within the state.
The proposal would give management of the trade to the state’s tribes. As a end result, the tribal leaders again the plan. Revenue from a authorized market would convey extra income to each the state coffers and tribal wants.
“Tribally owned and operated internet gaming represents an ideal opportunity to raise both tribal and state governmental revenue for the benefit of all Mainers,” Passamaquoddy Chief William Nicholas mentioned throughout the invoice’s first listening to at a Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee assembly Monday.
According to native media, the committee will vote on the bill subsequent week.
Commercial Casinos Oppose The Plan
However, the proposal has acquired some pushback. Representatives of Maine’s two industrial casinos, Oxford Casino and Hollywood Casino in Bangor, voiced considerations that the invoice provides the tribes a monopoly on the trade.
The invoice would mirror the state’s on-line sports activities betting trade. When the state legalized sports activities betting, lawmakers gave the state’s 4 federally acknowledged tribes unique rights to function on-line sports activities betting. Tribes partnered with third-party operators like DraftKings and Caesars Sportsbook to run the web operations.
The two industrial operators had been allowed to function retail sportsbooks, however most betting is finished on-line. The invoice would shut industrial operators out of a attainable on-line on line casino trade utterly.
“Passage of this bill, to be clear, would constitute the greatest single expansion of gaming in our state’s history without the vote of the people of Maine,” Hollywood Casino spokesman Chris Jackson mentioned throughout the assembly. “It would threaten facilities in Bangor and Oxford.”
LD 1164 would tax on-line gaming income at 16% and cost the state’s Gambling Control Unit with regulating the trade. The invoice additionally contains provisions limiting advertising and marketing, together with “prohibiting misleading, deceptive or false advertisements.”
“For the Passamaquoddy Tribe and all the other Wabanaki communities, this is about fairness and the ability to participate in the industry that already benefits others across the country,” mentioned Rep. Aaron Dana of the Passamaquoddy Tribe.
As a state with simply 1.4 million folks, operating a ringed-in market in Maine appears unlikely however may increase the dimensions of the Multi-State Internet Gaming Association. Pennsylvania can be anticipated to hitch quickly, and Connecticut legislators are contemplating becoming a member of the settlement.
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