Opening month of mobile sports betting goes smoothly in Maine as bettors wager nearly $40 million

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Bettors wagered nearly $40 million in Maine during the first month online sports betting became legal, with the state’s tribes, two vendors and state government receiving benefits, officials said.

All told, $37.5 million was spent in Maine on online sports bets from Nov. 3 to the end of the month, according to the Gambling Control Unit, part of the Maine Department of Public Safety.

Milt Champion, director of the Gambling Control Unit, said the rollout went smoothly with only a handful of complaints and no spike in calls to a hotline for people with gambling problems.

“Everybody’s behaving, and it’s really nice,” he said Wednesday.

Democratic Gov. Janet Mills gave exclusives rights to online sports betting to federally recognized Native American tribes in the state, providing an olive branch after she scuttled a proposal for greater sovereignty for the tribes in 2022. Existing casinos, meanwhile, are allowed to conduct in-person betting.

Most of the mobile and online wagering was made through Boston-based DraftKings, the vendor selected by the Passamaquoddy tribe. Caesars Sportsbook, based in Reno, Nevada, is the vendor being used by the Penobscot Nation, Maliseets and Mi’kmaq.

For the month, the tribes received half of the gross receipts — about $2.3 million — while state government netted about $468,000 in taxes. The remainder of the gross receipts went to the vendors.