- ME LD 553 is heading to both the Senate and House for a final vote.
- This bill will allow sports wagering to happen in retail and online locations.
- Wednesday marks the final day of the legislative session in Maine.
AUGUSTA, Maine – Maine legislature will make the final votes on sports betting on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, both chambers of Congress in Maine voted to push ME LD 553 forward. Now the bill will head both to the Senate and the House for the final votes it needs to pass.
What To Expect From Maine Sports Betting
The final details of ME LD 553 are now available. The sports betting bill will allow 11 different locations to apply for a sports betting license. This includes state and tribal casinos, and off-track betting locations. On top of retail sportsbooks, mobile wagering options will also become available.
Maine lawmakers have decided that online sportsbooks will not be tethered to a retail sportsbook. This creates a window for FanDuel and other online sportsbooks to do operate sportsbooks in Maine. Casinos were pushing for tethered online sportsbooks. They believe that doing so would help support local businesses. Lawmakers decided against tethering.
“We don’t require Amazon to tether to existing grocery stores and we don’t require Airbnb to tether to hotels,” said Sen. Louis Luchini.
The issue of taxation of legal sports betting is now resolved as well. Retail sportsbooks will have a 10 percent tax rate on sports betting revenue. Mobile only operators will have a 16-percent tax rate on revenue. This is similar to how New Jersey taxes sports betting revenue. We also now know that the legal age to bet on sports is 21 years or older.
Final Day Of The Legislative Session
There is hardly any time remaining for the Maine legislative session. The session will end on Wednesday and there are still many other issues for lawmakers to vote on.
ME LD 553 has to pass both in the House and the Senate in a single day. Although it is possible, time is running out for Maine sports betting. The next session convenes January 2020.
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News tags: FanDuel | Maine | ME LD 553 | New Jersey | Sen. Louis Luchini | Votes
Daniel is a writer that enjoys writing to inform readers. When Daniel was writing for The Borgen Project, he liked informing the world about victories in global poverty issues. Daniel is also an avid horse racing fan who has been going to the track with his father for over a decade betting the ponies. When he is not writing about sports betting or at the track, Daniel loves playing video games and watching sports in his spare time.
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