Sports betting legislation advanced in Maine as the House Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee recently voted to approve a framework for taxing and regulating the industry. Under the bill, online and mobile sports wagering revenue would be taxed at 16 percent and casinos and off-track betting parlors would pay 10 percent. The proposal would allow 11 venues to apply for on-premise sports betting licenses: Hollywood Casino in Bangor and Oxford Casino; Scarborough Downs racetrack; off-track betting locations in Brunswick, Sanford, Lewiston and Waterville; and the state’s four Native American tribes. Online and mobile betting also would be permitted.
The bill also would earmark 98 percent of tax revenue to Maine’s General Fund, with 2 percent split between the Department of Public Safety’s Gambling Control Unit and problem gambling services. The bill would not require online operators to be connected to a licensed, physical facility in Maine.
Committee members split on whether online and mobile sports betting sites could be licensed only if they’re “tethered” to in-state locations. The majority group argued tying online licenses to physical locations would make it difficult to enter the market, and also that the taxing framework was designed to favor Maine businesses over providers that don’t pay state property taxes.
State Rep. Scott Strom said, “This industry only would be singled out. To me, that just doesn’t make sense to pick one industry and have one set of rules for that but all of these other industries. We do not require them to tether whatsoever.” He added, “There is a ton of online mobile businesses that operate in the state that have no ties to brick-and-mortars. It has been completely legal up to this point. Nobody has ever asked them to tie to a brick-and-mortar, Amazon being the biggest.”
Favorites Off-Track Betting Facility owner Don Barberino said, “The casinos, the OTBs, we all have substantial investment in the state. We pay property taxes, sales taxes, payroll taxes. We are part of the community. It is important to keep us because we’ll get cannibalized by the online people.”
State Rep. Sheldon Hanington urged the committee to reconsider sports betting in the 2020 legislative session. “I’d like to see the industry prove itself,” he said. But state Rep. John Andrews countered, “I feel like it would be irresponsible to punt it to the next session. I think we should do what we have to do while we’re still here, especially since the Supreme Court, what, a year ago?”
