The Governor of Maine has allowed a bill that legalizes online gambling and poker to become a law, paving the road for the state’s four tribes to begin to offer digital slots, table games and poker.
Gov. Janet Mills declined to both sign or veto the bill. She allowed the expansion of gambling in her state despite expressing reservation about public health.
“I considered this bill carefully,” said Governor Mills. “And while I have concerns about the impacts of gambling on public health, I believe that this new form of gambling should be regulated. I am confident that Maine’s Gambling Control Unit will develop responsible rules and standards to hold providers of this new form of gambling accountable while ensuring that Maine’s tribes benefit from its operations.”
The bill gives the four tribes that make up the Wabanaki Nations a monopoly in the online gaming market in Maine.
This means the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, the Mi’kmaq Nation, the Passamaquoddy Tribe, and the Penobscot Nation all have the right to partner with one of the many online gambling companies to set up shop there.
Residents of Maine should expect to be able to make online wagers in late 2026 or early 2027, but unless its lawmakers move to join the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA), online poker players will most likely be left out.
Joining MSIGA a must
While Maine becomes the ninth state to legalize online poker, unless it joins MSIGA, there’s little chance companies that run online poker rooms would choose to operate there.
The reason is simple. Maine doesn’t have a large enough poker population to make an online room worth it for these companies.
In order for online poker fans to have any hope that legal games will be offered there, the state will have to become a member of MSIGA, which is essentially the United States’ online poker network.
MSIGA allows sites that are licensed to operate in member states to run as one room.
For example, WSOP.com is legal in Nevada, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, and since all are members of MSIGA, it’s allowed to put all the players under one virtual roof.
Since Maine’s bill does not include language to apply to join MSIGA, lawmakers will have to act.
Just take a look at Rhode Island and Connecticut to know this is true. Online poker is legal in both those tiny states, but since they are not members of MSIGA, operators have no interest in accessing their populations.
West Virginia is another example. If it didn’t join MSIGA in 2023, there would be no poker sites operating there even though it has a healthy online gambling and brick and mortar industry.
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