- Maine gaming regulators are reminding the general public that iGaming is illegitimate
- Maine is house to authorized on-line sports activities betting and fantasy sports activities
- On-line slots and desk video games stay prohibited
Lawmakers in Maine proceed to contemplate laws to authorize iGaming, or web sites and apps that facilitate on-line slots and desk video games. Within the meantime, the state company tasked with governing authorized types of playing is cautioning the general public about using offshore playing web sites.
The Maine State Home, the state’s capital, is pictured in Augusta on Might 18, 2022. State gaming regulatory officers are warning the general public that on-line on line casino playing in Maine stays unlawful. (Picture: Shutterstock)
On Monday, Milton Champion, the chief director of the Maine Playing Management Unit, a division of the state Public Security Division, issued a press release advising shoppers to keep away from accessing unlicensed, unregulated playing web sites.
Maine is house to 2 authorized on-line sportsbooks — Caesars Sportsbook and DraftKings — and 5 on-line fantasy sports activities platforms — DraftKings, FanDuel, PrizePicks, OwnersBox, and RealTime.
Accessing a web site providing sports activities playing and/or fantasy sports activities not named a type of operators is illegitimate. The identical goes for any web site or cell app that conducts real-money on line casino video games, together with controversial websites billing themselves as sweepstakes platforms.
These websites might seem reputable, however none are licensed or regulated by the state. No on-line on line casino, iGaming, or sweepstakes web site is permitted to function in Maine,” Champion stated in a press release.
Sweeps and social casinos proceed to face scrutiny from gaming regulators, state attorneys basic, and the federal authorities. The platforms’ use of dual-currency methods has been deemed an unlawful workaround to bypass state legal guidelines.
Sweepstakes pursuits reject such allegations, with the Social Gaming Management Alliance (SGLA) telling On line casino.org on Monday that their members present “partaking, free-to-play on-line leisure … by sweepstakes promotional fashions broadly utilized by revered shopper manufacturers nationwide.”
Maine Mulls iGaming
Final week, Maine’s Veterans and Authorized Affairs Committee stunned the iGaming trade by forwarding laws to permit on-line casinos that it had beforehand shelved in March. Legislative Doc 1164/Home Paper 769 is now being reviewed within the State Legislature’s chambers.
The chances of Maine becoming a member of Connecticut, Delaware, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and West Virginia in permitting on-line on line casino video games stay lengthy. Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) opposes extra gaming, and the state’s two present on line casino operators — Penn Leisure and Churchill Downs — have advised state lawmakers they don’t want to increase their operations to the web.
Champion says the general public can solely legally play slot machines and desk video games in individual at Hollywood On line casino Bangor and Oxford On line casino Resort. Any web site promoting in any other case is illegitimate.
State Gaming PSAs
Maine’s Playing Management Unit turns into the most recent state gaming regulatory company to warn shoppers that iGaming stays prohibited. Together with gaming regulators, advisories have additionally been issued by casinos themselves, which have come throughout offshore web sites posing as their on-line identities.
In April, Jake’s 58, a video lottery on line casino on New York’s Lengthy Island, warned its patrons and the group of a fraudulent web site claiming to supply iGaming on the on line casino’s behalf. The Golden Nugget in Illinois’ Danville, Caesars Virginia, Plainridge Park in Massachusetts, Beau Rivage in Mississippi’s Biloxi, and Saracen On line casino Resort in Arkansas have additionally issued releases condemning on-line apps and web sites posing as associates of the brick-and-mortar casinos.
Lots of the unlawful gaming web sites function from nations pleasant to iGaming, together with Malta, the Isle of Man, Anjouan, Gibraltar, Curacao, the Philippines, and Ukraine.
