Very few saw it happening, but a new state has finally legalized igaming in the United States.
At midnight on Saturday, January 10, Maine will officially become the eighth state to legalize online casino and the ninth state to legalize online poker in the US, making regulated Maine online poker possible .
That development comes after Maine Governor Janet Mills on Thursday announced her intention to allow LD 1164, titled “An Act to Create Economic Opportunity for the Wabanaki Nations Through Internet Gaming,” to become law.
The legislation grants exclusive internet gaming rights to the state’s four federally recognized tribes, effectively handing them a monopoly over igaming, similar to the framework already in place for sports betting in the state.
LD 1164 cleared both chambers of the Maine Legislature on the final day of the 2025 legislative session in June and has been sitting on Democratic Governor Mills’ desk ever since.
For the bill to fail, it would have required a gubernatorial veto. However, on Thursday, Mills confirmed that she will not veto the legislation, allowing it to become law without a signature, a move that surprised many, given her past opposition to efforts aimed at expanding gambling in Maine.
“I considered this bill carefully, and while I have concerns about the impacts of gambling on public health, I believe that this new form of gambling should be regulated, and 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,” said Governor Mills.
No Shared Liquidity Provision
That said, Maine online poker players should not get their hopes too high.
LD 1164 does not include any explicit provision allowing the state to join multi-state online poker compacts. With a population of roughly 1.4 million, Maine is a very small market, and for online poker to be viable in such a state, participation in agreements like the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA) is essential. Since the legislation does not address this, operators are unlikely to have much incentive to roll out full-scale online poker offerings in the Pine Tree State.
For Maine to join interstate poker compacts, separate legislation would be required, similar to the path taken by Michigan. Until that happens, the prospects for meaningful online poker in Maine remain slim, if not nonexistent.
The situation closely resembles that of online poker in Connecticut, where online poker was legalized but lacks authorization to participate in shared liquidity agreements, leaving the market effectively dormant.
Who Could Realistically Launch Online Poker in Maine?
Still, assuming Maine were to eventually pass additional legislation or amend its framework to allow participation in multi-state poker compacts, the question becomes: who would actually be able to offer online poker in the state?
Because LD 1164 grants exclusive rights to the four federally recognized tribes: the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, the Mi’kmaq Nation, the Passamaquoddy Tribe, and the Penobscot Nation, each tribe would be permitted to partner with a single platform provider. At present, those tribes are already aligned with DraftKings and Caesars Entertainment for sports betting.
Under the current structure, that realistically limits potential online poker operators to DraftKings Poker and WSOP Online.
Caesars Sportsbook is already live in Maine through partnerships with the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, the Mi’kmaq Nation, and the Penobscot Nation. Since Caesars owns WSOP and operates its US online poker platform, it could theoretically extend WSOP to Maine. In practice, however, such a launch appears highly unlikely as long as the state remains unable to join interstate poker compacts.
DraftKings, meanwhile, has its sports betting partnership with the Passamaquoddy Tribe. While the company does not run a traditional peer-to-peer online poker platform, it does offer Electric Poker, a lottery-style sit and go product comparable to PokerStars’ Spin & Go or WSOP’s BLAST.
Because this format is far less dependent on shared liquidity, DraftKings could, in theory, introduce Electric Poker in Maine. The operator already offers Electric Poker in New Jersey, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, none of which share a common player pool for that product. Technically, that means DraftKings could launch Electric Poker in Maine despite the absence of interstate poker provisions. However, it is worth noting that DraftKings chose not to roll out Electric Poker in Connecticut, leaving its intentions in Maine uncertain.
Even beyond poker, the legislation has drawn criticism for shutting out other major operators such as PokerStars US, BetMGM Poker, and BetRivers Poker. The Maine Gaming Control Board itself urged Governor Mills to veto the bill, citing concerns over the structure of the market. A key issue raised by the regulator was the exclusion of the state’s two commercial casino operators: Penn Entertainment, which runs Hollywood Casino Bangor, and Churchill Downs, which operates Oxford Casino Hotel, from the framework.
In addition, BetMGM, Fanatics, and FanDuel testified against the legislation during the process, warning that it “will not create the healthy, regulated market that we have seen in many other states.”
That argument is hard to dismiss.
