It should not take as long to launch online casinos as it did to launch online sports betting, the director of Maine‘s gaming regulator said.
Maine Gambling Control Unit Director Milt Champion was on hand for Wednesday‘s Veterans and Legal Affairs committee, which touched on new background check rules for fantasy operators and a bill that would ban sweepstakes casinos.
Champion noted he intends to have his new staff ready for the online casino rulemaking process and will begin hiring them once the law is in effect in July. He did not have a full staff until halfway through the rulemaking process of launching sports betting, which took 18 months from when Gov. Janet Mills signed the bill in May 2022.
“I think it’s something that we can turn around relatively quick and my guesstimate would be that hopefully we can do something by the beginning of 2027,” Champion said when asked about the potential launch date.
Could sweepstakes ban be an emergency?
LD 2007 would ban sweepstakes casinos from operating in the state, something multiple other states have done to shutdown what they believe is unregulated gambling.
If the bill is passed, it would have to wait 90 days after the end of the session on April 15. Rep. Sharon Frost asked if anyone considered making this bill an emergency to speed that process up.
“You know what, that’s a good question,” Champion said. “That honestly never came to mind but I would certainly appreciate it, yes.”
Champion told the committee he would eventually be back at some point to discuss prediction markets with them.
Disrupt, you say?
The bill had two opponents: Lloyd Melnick, the chief growth and strategy officer at sweepstakes operator VGW, and Sean Ostrow, managing director of the Social Gaming Leadership Alliance. The two were present earlier this month in Indiana as well to oppose a similar ban bill.
Melnick noted that the majority of its players never spend a dime and can get sweepstakes entries for free. He also noted that while prize amounts are typically small, VGW has made multiple players millionaires over the last 12 years.
Melnick also mentioned the company has “disrupted” the gaming industry, using similar language at other legislative meetings as well. Co-Chair Rep. Laura Supica pressed Melnick on how exactly VGW was disruptive.
“I think we did two major things,” Melnick said. “One is we did develop the sweepstakes promotions, so that we run promotions regularly where people can win cash prizes in addition to the gameplay. That took it from being a great experience – especially for the people who never spend, a lot of those millionaires I mentioned didn’t make a purchase at all. They won millions of dollars just by sending in a letter. That made it a much more exciting experience.
“We also innovated on the quality of the content we’ve created… We’ve invested a lot back into our product and the games on our site are probably the best in the world.”
Updating fantasy sports rules for investigations
The Gaming Control Unit is also looking to get up to date with their regulations on fantasy operators and how they can investigate the key players and executives with LD 2048.
Current law makes it a struggle to get suitability documents for everyone needed since that law was written in 2017 with smaller companies and similar ownership structures in mind.
The new rules would allow for a full state criminal and FBI criminal check.
DraftKings‘ Senior Director of Legal and Government Affairs Kevin Cochran supported the bill but offered some potential changes, including cutting down on the paperwork on both the operator and regulatory side as well as using fingerprints already on file.
