Though Champion isn’t pointing to a launch date, if you do the math, late summer or just ahead of football season appears to be the earliest possible option.
Once the rules are approved, the state can begin reviewing and vetting applications, which typically takes 60-90 days. After that, the revised regulations would need to be posted and another public-comment period of at least 14 days would be opened. Either way, Champion estimates it will take his small staff at least through April to finish reviewing the comments and reworking the proposed regs. Some may be incorporated into the rules, others not. Maine sports betting likely to take longer than initially thought | Įvery comment will be logged and responded to. I’ll just give my money to NH and now MA til this state figures it out By the March 1 deadline for responses, Gambling Control Unit Chief Milt Champion said 24 interested parties had filed 581 comments that he and his staff are now working through. The state’s Gambling Control Unit is the regulator and, earlier this year, it posted 56 pages of rules for public comment. The bill also allows for the tribes to eventually offer iCasino. Under Maine’s new law, the number of mobile platforms is capped at four, one for each tribal nation, and up to 10 brick-and-mortar sportsbooks would be allowed at the state’s off-track betting parlors and its two casinos. “Bigger operators want to be coast to coast and in every state that they can be, if you make it so regulations are reasonable.” Launch still months away “Major operators are willing to enter smaller states if the barrier is reasonable to deal with,” one industry insider told Sports Handle. That’s about half the volume of Arkansas, which has more than five times as many residents. BetMGM, Caesars Sportsbook, DraftKings, and FanDuel - are all live and took a combined $14.3 million in wagers in January. In New York, operators get volume in the biggest legal sports betting state in the U.S., and there is already a movement afoot to lower the tax rate.Ĭonversely, in the smallest state in the nation, Wyoming (581,381 population), the four biggest operators in the U.S. Three other states have a 51% tax rate, but in New Hampshire operators pay that rate in exchange for a monopoly, while Delaware is retail only. For comparison, Iowa‘s (3.2 million population) retail and 18 digital platforms had handle of $233.6 million, while Kansas‘ (2.94 million population) retail and six digital platforms had handle of $206.1 million. Arkansas has a population of 3.01 million and, in January, the state’s retail casinos and three digital platforms accepted $33 million in bets. When Arkansas lawmakers set the tax rate for betting at 51% in 2018, all of the big operators chose to stay out of the state, meaning handle, and ultimately tax revenue, are far below similarly sized states. Legal sports betting was a pawn in negotiations between the state and its four federally recognized tribes, none of which enjoy the same level of sovereignty as others across the U.S.ĭespite the fact that Maine’s tribes have no gaming experience, they will have a mobile monopoly in Maine, and the proposed rules include enough idiosyncrasies that major operators could choose to stay out of the state. Maine lawmakers last April passed a law crafted and backed by Mills that put legal digital wagering in the hands of tribes and all but shut out the state’s two retail sportsbooks, owned by PENN Entertainment and Churchill Downs Inc., from mobile betting. Janet Mills’ sports betting peace offering to the state’s four Indian tribes, the first round of proposed regulations include the most stringent advertising guidelines in the country, would force operators to pass at least 60% of revenue to tribes or the state, and could keep top operators from considering entry into the ninth-smallest state in the U.S.
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