A bill from a Portland lawmaker is holding the door open for Native American tribes in Maine to pursue casino gambling, keeping alive the decades-long political debate that has consistently come down on the wrong side for the state’s Indigenous peoples.
Rep. Ben Collings, a four-term Democrat who has worked as a tribal consultant, introduced the bill as a placeholder intended to keep a tribal gambling proposal in the wings, ready to go, after state lawmakers act on a tribal sovereignty bill expected to come out in the next few weeks.
“Every session, I put in a tribal gaming bill, and it’s up to the tribes to decide what to do with it,” he said.
