Bill in US Congress would give Maine’s tribes most rights available to those in other states

Bill in US Congress would give Maine’s tribes most rights available to those in other states

Article brief provided by Sports Handle
  • Jill R. Dorson, Sports Handle
July 18, 2022 11:15 PM
  • Jill R. Dorson, Sports Handle

Over the first several months of 2022, Maine Gov. Janet Mills pushed through a bill that, in part, gave the rights to digital sports betting to the state’s four tribes. The bill caught commercial operators by surprise and was something of a political football – Maine’s tribes do not enjoy the kind of total sovereignty that federally recognized tribes in most states do, and Mills doesn’t want to grant it, so she offered up this olive branch.

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But on July 14, the U.S. House of Representatives approved and sent to the Senate a bill introduced by Democratic Rep. Jared Golden of Maine that would expand the rights of Maine’s four tribes.