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Maine’s Online Casino Law is an Attempt to Rectify a Centuries-Old Issue

Legal Writer

Publish Date: Mar 20, 2026

Fact checked by: Matt Moreno

Key Points

The Act to Create Economic Opportunity for the Wabanaki Nations Through Internet Gaming puts the Wabanaki Nations on more equitable footing with commercial operators in Maine.
A conservative estimate of the total value of iGaming in Maine is around $167 million annually.

Tribal nations within the borders of Maine have a unique relationship with the state that has put them at a disadvantage, and iGaming could start to mitigate that inequity.

In 1980, the United States government attempted to resolve issues between the state of Maine and tribal nations living within the state’s borders. The measure created a relationship between Maine and sovereign Indigenous Peoples Groups there that differs substantially from the normal situation across the United States.

Maine State House Capitol Building

As a result, gambling for tribes in Maine has not provided as much of an economic opportunity to reinforce their sovereignty compared to that which tribal nations enjoy in many of the other 49 states in the U.S. The recently enacted online casino statute helps to improve that inequity.

A unique online casino law for unique circumstances in Maine

While Maine is the eighth U.S. state to legalize iGaming and create a regulated system for playing digital table games, live dealer games, and online slots, Maine is the second to “route” that gaming exclusively through tribal nations that exist within the state’s borders. Tribal authorities can participate in licensed online casino opportunities in some of the other seven states, and Connecticut is the other state in which iGaming happens exclusively under tribal purview.

In Maine, there are four federally recognized tribes. Although all of them fall under the broader umbrella term of "Wabanaki," they are distinct.

Maliseet
Micmac
Passamaquoddy
Penobscot

Enrolled Act LD 1164 allows each of these authorities to offer real money iGaming in compliance with regulations that the Maine Gambling Control Unit is charged with drafting. The tribal bodies can contract out these opportunities or provide their own platforms.

The statute requires nations to share 18% of their iGaming revenues with Maine. If they partner with an existing online casino operator, they will also have to share revenue with that provider via the terms of the private agreements between the parties.

Otherwise, all the revenue produced by legal iGaming in Maine will belong to the tribal nations that take part in the gaming vertical. That is why the act was named “An Act to Create Economic Opportunity for the Wabanaki Nations Through Internet Gaming.”

The measure comes nearly half a century after the U.S. Congress intervened in the relationship between Maine and Wabanaki Nations in 1980. The aim of the act was to resolve a land dispute in Maine, but the results have been restrictive for tribes.

Settling a centuries-long land dispute in Augusta and Washington, D.C.

While a dispute over land rights in Maine that began in the 1970s elevated strain between the state government and Wabanaki Nations, that was just the result of nearly three centuries of less-than-amiable relations boiling over. The Maine Indian Tribal-State Commission (MITSC) details how judicial precedent and statutes dating back as far as 1790 contributed to the situation.

A summary from the Maine legislature mostly agrees with the MITSC’s assessment on the history of the issue through the 1970s. At issue was a treaty between Wabanaki Nations representatives and the leaders of Massachusetts (the land that is now Maine was part of Massachusetts at that time) that was ratified without federal approval, which is a violation of federal law.

A report from the Maine Center for Economic Policy estimated that the land in question had a valuation of $105 billion in 1976. The report adds that the area in question measures about 12.5 million acres.

After negotiations failed, the parties took their dispute to federal courts throughout the 1970s, which mostly resulted in decisions favorable to the Wabanaki Nations. In 1980, Congress and the Maine legislature passed new statutes known as the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act (MICSA) and the Maine Implementing Act (MIA).

MICSA included some tenets that have put Wabanaki Nations in a peculiar position, especially in the greater context of federally recognized tribes in the United States. Further legal disputes arose almost immediately thereafter and have continued into the 21st century.

Flexibility of Maine Implementing Act and MICSA tested

As the Maine legislature stated, these statutes were intended to be flexible documents, adaptable to cultural evolution over time. However, the legislature also acknowledges that “the Maine settlements have not succeeded in creating flexible and effective relationships between the Tribes and the State.”

Instead of developing its own policy, the legislative report states, Maine has let the courts do that, and the result has been further strained relations in addition to inequitable opportunities for Wabanaki Nation citizens. The MITSC’s assessment adds that establishing jurisdictional parity between Maine and tribal authorities remains a central issue.

That points to the uniqueness of the position of the Wabanaki Nations in relation to gambling. When Congress passed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) of 1988, that law applied to federally recognized tribes everywhere in the US except Maine.

The MICSA made clear that federal statutes enacted after MICSA became law which benefit tribal bodies and also would affect or preempt the application of state laws do not apply in Maine unless Congress explicitly includes such language in the statutes. IGRA doesn’t include any such language, so Wabanaki Nations can’t go the usual route of a state-tribe-U.S. Department of the Interior compact to offer Class III gaming on sovereign lands.

Rather, the Wabanaki Nations’ sole bargaining party in the interest of gaming is Maine. While that might seem like it would simplify the process, the U.S. Dept. of the Interior’s role is supposed to be an advocate for tribal interests according to court precedent in mediating agreements with state governments.

That lack of mediation has led to Wabanaki Nations running into obstacles in attempts to operate brick-and-mortar casinos in recent years. Those failed attempts followed Maine opening itself up to commercial gaming facilities.

Commercial gaming expands while tribes were shut out

In 2003 and 2010, commercial gaming expanded significantly in Maine thanks to successful referendums. The 2003 vote enabled slot machines at horse racing tracks, including what is now Hollywood Casino in Bangor.

A 2010 referendum authorized a Class III casino in Oxford, and in 2011, the legislature amended the enabling statute to allow Hollywood Casino to add table games. Bills that would have given Wabanaki Nations the option to operate Class III gaming began circulating in Augusta as soon thereafter as 2017.

Part of the tax revenue generated by commercial gaming in Maine is earmarked for distributions to Wabanaki Nations. However, that percentage (4%) is a pittance compared to what the tribes could make from their own land-based gaming venues.

When bills to give tribal authorities that option failed to gain momentum, those bodies again sought intervention from the courts but did not get the desired results. Another proposal toward the same end was vetoed by Maine Gov. Janet Mills in 2021.

Then, in 2022, a page started to turn.

Legal sports wagering allows limited gaming opportunities for Wabanaki Nations

The 2022 Maine statute that created a regulated system for sports wagering in Maine gave Wabanaki Nations the exclusive right to offer legal online sports betting in the state. Even that had its drawback for the tribes, though.

Commercial gaming licensees in Maine were also given the green light to offer in-person betting on sports. While online sports wagering tends to outpace action at physical sportsbooks by a large margin in the U.S. in terms of revenue, that tenet nonetheless further enabled non-tribal entities in Maine to enjoy privileges that the Wabanaki Nations have been denied.

The Act to Create Economic Opportunity for the Wabanaki Nations Through Internet Gaming puts the Wabanaki Nations on more equitable footing with commercial operators in Maine by giving them exclusivity over online casino play, just as commercial venues enjoy a duopoly in regard to in-person gaming. iGaming can bring in significant revenues, often representing a multiple of what online sports betting contributes.

Using Connecticut as a model for Maine online casino winnings

Connecticut is the most suitable comparison for Maine because its structure for iGaming is similar. In Connecticut, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation partners with DraftKings for online casino play, and the Mohegan Tribe provides its own branded but FanDuel-provided platform for the same vertical.

There are many variables between the two states, though. Connecticut’s population is significantly larger and more urban than Maine's, for starters.

That population concentration and larger population base work significantly in favor of online casinos in Connecticut. For 2025, tribal gaming authorities paid about $81 million to Connecticut as part of their compact agreement.

Those tribal bodies paid the same 18% share to Connecticut as Wabanaki Nations are obligated to remit to Maine. Therefore, a conservative estimate of the total value of iGaming in Maine is around $167 million annually.

Operators contracting with Wabanaki Nations will get a cut of that action, as will the state. However, it’s still a move to put the Wabanaki Nations on more equitable footing with other tribal authorities in the U.S. in terms of being able to capitalize on gaming, especially in terms of having access to gaming enterprises on a similar level as non-tribal entities in Maine.

That is provided that the Act to Create Economic Opportunity for the Wabanaki Nations Through Internet Gaming survives a court challenge from one of those commercial operators.

Churchill Downs lawsuit seeks to invalidate Maine iGaming statute

On Jan. 23, Churchill Downs sued Milton Champion, the executive director of the Maine Gambling Control Unit, in the federal court for the district of Maine. Churchill Downs operates the Oxford Casino Hotel in the Maine town of the same name.

In the complaint, Churchill Downs alleges that by enshrining the Act to Create Economic Opportunity for the Wabanaki Nations Through Internet Gaming, the state government discriminated in favor of Wabanaki Nations members based on race. The complaint asks the court to block the implementation of the law.

Churchill Downs has been one of the most vociferous opponents of iGaming expansion, including in Maine. After Maine Gov. Janet Mills allowed LD 1164 to pass into law, a statement from the Churchill Downs-backed National Association Against iGaming (NAAiG) called her decision a disappointment and vowed to not accept the bill’s enrollment quietly.

The NAAiG commissioned a “poll” in January that suggested 64% of respondents in Maine did not support legal online gaming in Maine. The timing of that report with LD 1164 on Mills’ desk and the clock running out for her to take action is unmistakable.

It’s also unmistakable that Churchill Downs didn’t issue any statements or raise concerns in any forum about alleged “race-based discrimination” when Maine lawmakers opted not to advance legislation that might have given Wabanaki Nations the same access to land-based gaming opportunities that Churchill Downs enjoys. Based on the NAAiG statement and Churchill Downs’ action to back that statement up, it’s clear that the arguments of Maine “discriminating” in favor of Wabanaki Nations is really an attempt to stop the regulation of online casino play in the state.

Impact of iGaming on the future of the Wabanaki Nations

That iGaming is a potential channel to dignity and self-reliance for Wabanaki Nations, though. A 2022 Harvard study ascertained that Wabanaki Nations “are stark economic underperformers relative to other tribes in the lower 48 states.”

That complements the Maine Center for Economic Policy’s assessment that Maine has “extracted hundreds of millions in profits…without compensating the Wabanaki Nations.” A 2025 study from Johns Hopkins University also showed the economic benefits of gaming operated by tribal authorities can even reduce mortality among members of those tribes.

The Act to Create Economic Opportunity for the Wabanaki Nations Through Internet Gaming is a step toward improving the lives of citizens. It will only start to give Wabanaki Nations more of the economic independence that they deserve if the governments that have deprived them of such self-determination get out of the Wabanaki Nations’ way, though.

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