(The Center Square) — Maine’s casino operators are suing the state to block a new law giving the Wabanaki Nations exclusive rights to online gambling, saying it would create “race based monopoly” over the games.
In the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, lawyers for Oxford Casino — one of two brick and mortar casinos in the state — allege that Maine’s approval of a law authorizing iGaming rights to the state’s four federally recognized tribes “deals a gut-wrenching blow” to existing businesses that “have heavily invested in the state and its people.”
Oxford’s lawyers claim the new law creates “a race-based monopoly for in-state businesses” that “violates equal protection, flouts constitutional restrictions on economic protectionism, and fails scrutiny under both the United States and Maine Constitutions.”
“Maine has for decades provided careful limits on gaming to protect its citizens,” the plaintiffs wrote in the 19-page complaint. “Now, the Legislature has blessed a race-based monopoly that will allow Maine Tribes alone to offer iGaming in every square inch of Maine.”
Lawyers for the plaintiffs cited a recent industry study which found that brick and mortar-based casino revenue drops by 16% on average after iGaming is introduced, “causing substantial job losses, hundreds of millions of dollars in lost economic output, and reduced tax contributions that fund public services.”
In Maine, the study projects on average the introduction of iGaming into the State will lead to approximately 378 lost jobs, $22 million in lost labor income, and $60 million in lost value added across the economy.
“All these harms are the direct consequence of a race-and-geography-based monopoly,” they wrote in the lawsuit. “If the Maine Legislature has made the choice to allow iGaming within the State, it should give everyone a fair chance to compete, without regard to race or citizenship, as both the United States and Maine Constitutions require.”
Legislation that went to effect this month updated a decades-old compact with the state’s Wabanaki Nations – the Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, Micmac and Houlton Band of Maliseet – allowing them to set up an online sports gambling market, including setting regulations and taxes on bets placed on professional sports.
Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, who has previously opposed an expansion of gambling, allowed legislation to become law without her signature. Mills said she changed her mind after meeting with the five elected Chiefs of the Wabanaki Nations who “spoke passionately” about the “economic sovereignty” that online gambling could provide for their communities.
“It has always been my strong desire to work with Tribal leaders to improve the lives and livelihoods of the Wabanaki Nations, and it is my hope that this new revenue will do just that,” Mills said in a statement.
Maine was among states that authorized wagers on professional sports after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 struck down a federal law barring sports gambling in nearly all states except Nevada, paving the way for betting on games.
But a landmark land claims settlement in 1980 exempted Maine from federal Indian gaming laws, which has prevented the tribes from opening casinos on their lands.
