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Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Maine may legalize more forms of online gambling
Jun. 5—AUGUSTA — Maine may legalize more forms of online gambling under a bipartisan bill that would grant expanded gaming rights to federally recognized tribes in Maine. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Ambreen Rana, D-Bangor, and Sen. Marianne Moore, R-Calais, would expand upon the tribes' exclusive access to online sports betting. LD 1164 was recommended for passage by the Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee in a party-line vote, despite opposition from health care professionals, established casinos and the Mills administration. The bill was scheduled to be taken up in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, but was tabled. Lawmakers considered a similar bill last session, but the measure failed in the House, 74-71, and in the Senate, 20-14. The current bill would grant exclusive rights to four federally recognized tribes in Maine — the Passamaquoddy Tribe, the Penobscot Nation, the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians and the Mi'kmaq Nation — for online games such as roulette, blackjack and others. The state would receive 18% of the gross receipts, generating millions of dollars annually for a variety of programs, including gambling addiction prevention and treatment, opioid-use prevention and treatment, Maine Veterans' Homes, Fund for Healthy Maine, school renovation loans, and emergency housing relief. At a public hearing in late March, proponents argued that the bill is needed to promote economic growth and development for tribes in Maine, which unlike hundreds of other federally recognized tribes are not treated as sovereign nations but more like municipalities because of a pair of state and federal laws enacted in the 1980s to settle tribal claims to two-thirds of the state. William Nicholas Sr., chief of the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Motahkomikuk (Indian Township), said that online gambling is already being provided illegally to people in Maine, and the state receives no financial benefit. "The lost business opportunity for a legal and state regulated entity is in the tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars per year," Nicholas said in written testimony. "Those revenues should be benefiting Mainers, not shadowy offshore companies or whoever runs the many apps that are currently available for illegal internet gaming." But opponents, including the heads of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the Gambling Control Unit, said the bill should be rejected, citing public health concerns with gambling and the relative infancy of the online sports betting program, which came online nearly two years ago. Maine CDC Director Puthiery Va said lawmakers should not expand online gambling until they fully understand the effects of the online sports gambling, which went live late in 2023. "Internet gambling is a format that can be isolating, and isolation is a risk factor for poor health outcomes," Va said in written testimony. "Electronics, including computers and cellphones, are also isolating and addictive devices, and for that reason there are public health concerns about increasing access to gambling in such a manner that allows for play at all hours with opportunity for impulsive and problem gambling behavior." Copy the Story Link
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Which issues will legislators push off until next year?
Members of the Maine House of Representatives during the first session of 2024 in the State House in Augusta. (Jim Neuger/ Maine Morning Star) As the Maine Legislature approaches its anticipated last month of work, lawmakers are deciding which issues to defer until next year. Maine has a two-year legislative session, so it is routine for several bills to be carried over into the second regular session to afford lawmakers more time to deliberate, amend proposals and negotiate. Carry-over requests from committees are due to the presiding officers on Friday, according to a memo the Legislature's presiding officers sent committee chairs on April 29, though realistically all deadlines are moving targets until the end of the first regular session. The presiding officers have the final say on what will be carried over. The total number of bills committees can request to hold should not exceed 5% of their anticipated overall bill load, according to an earlier April 9 memo that advised chairs to begin identifying bills they'd like to be carried over. For example, for the Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee, that 5% amounted to an estimated six bills as of Monday. That number is higher for the Judiciary Committee, about 11 bills out of the 216 total it had as of Tuesday morning. More bills were referred to committees during session on Tuesday and will continue to be throughout the week, so these numbers are not final. As committees decide which bills to request to carry over, votes already taken give a sense of some of the issues that will likely not be decided until 2026. Lawmakers on the Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee on Monday decided they need more time to contemplate a proposal, LD 1851, to create parity between the Wabanaki Nations in how much revenue they get from the state's slot machine income. While legislators said they agreed with the spirit of the bill, they did not support the means it proposed to do so, which would involve a tax increase for Hollywood Casino in Bangor. 'I also have really enjoyed the work that we've been doing in the past few years, in regards to tribal gaming and trying to create equity there,' said co-chair Laura Supica (D-Bangor). 'So, I would ask the committee to consider carrying this over.' The committee voted unanimously to do so on Monday with four members absent, though the chairs said they will reevaluate all of its proposed carry over bills as the week goes on to make a holistic plan for its recommendations. In the Environment and Natural Resources Committee on Monday, Sen. Rick Bennett (R-Oxford) requested the committee carry over one of his bills, LD 754, explaining that it had drafting errors and needed additional work. His hope with the bill is to complement other legislation that the committee endorsed this session to address lithium ion battery waste, especially from electronic smoking devices, he said. However, Bennett thinks the work needed on the bill cannot be done in the limited time remaining for committee work. The Judiciary Committee has voted to carry over one bill so far, LD 1788, which would prohibit an agency or official from charging a fee to cover the actual cost of searching for, retrieving and compiling a noncommercial request of a public record for the first two hours of staff time. Co-chair Sen. Anne Carney (D-Cumberland) suggested on May 6 that the bill be carried over and the bill sponsor, Rep. Rachel Henderson (R-Rumford), agreed. The committee followed suit with a unanimous vote among those present, with four members absent. While both Carney and Henderson noted that substantial work has been put into the bill so far, they said expertise from groups such as the Right to Know Advisory Committee is needed to work through outstanding logistics. 'I'm still looking at two pages worth of issues to consider,' Henderson said. 'There are legitimate questions.' The Judiciary Committee will also be sending a letter to the Right to Know Advisory Committee asking them to take up the matter for consideration and to invite Henderson to present on it before the Legislature returns for the second regular session in 2026. Committees are racing to wrap up their work as the bulk of the action shifts to the chambers of the House of Representatives and Senate, which are starting to have lengthier sessions with floor votes. Debate on the two-year budget is also expected to pick back up soon as the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee has been meeting every day to cast votes on what to include in the plan. At the end of March, Democrats pushed through a two-year budget that continued government spending at the same level but also included additional funding to address emergency needs. The majority did so without GOP support after Senate Republicans refused to support an earlier change package for the current fiscal year to address the MaineCare funding deficit, and some other urgent needs, unless it included structural reform to the healthcare program. That plan did not include any policy changes to address the sizable budget deficit the state faces over the next biennium. Gov. Janet Mills' proposals to close that gap — tax increases and program cuts — as well as the requests from the public and lawmakers are being considered in this next iteration of the budget plan. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
