Maine Looks to Change Sports Betting Legislation

With over thirty states having changed legislation and legalization for online sports betting and casinos over the past few years, pressure is mounting for other states to make the change too and the latest to be added to this list is the eastern state of Maine – much of the east coast has been heavily pushing for change in recent months in particular with New York becoming one of the latest to go live, and Maine may look to be added to this list in the near future.

The change comes after failures throughout 2020 having the initial bill vetoed and a bill being rejected in 2021 too, but with the economic growth that has been found in states that have pushed new legislation forward and made the change there’s a lot of success to be found with other states posting exciting figures – New York for example saw $2.4 billion in wagers five weeks after its release and helps to show promise, being home to over 1.3 million people there’s certainly the market for it to succeed but on a smaller scale to some of the neighboring options.

Whilst much of the bill, like many other states, is focused primarily sports betting with no mention of online casinos, there may be the possibility for this to be a future change as other states have also looked to change the online gambling bills with casinos in mind – so far the measures have been aimed to allow existing tribal and commercial off-track betting parlors and casinos to operate the retail sportsbook under a four-year license to be priced at $4,000 and more news will soon emerge around the taxes associated with sports betting, for a more complete picture at what Maine legalized sports betting could look like.

If Maine is to pass the legislation, it will be the 32^nd American state to do so and signal a continued change across the country for the legalization and the launch of these different services – if the new bill can pass through legislation quickly enough it may look to launch before the end of the year or heading into the start of 2023 but there is still a possibility that the bill will be held up further down the line or other delays may slow the process much like Maryland with a readjustment of priorities that has seen mobile options slow down.