Maine Legalizes Online Poker: What It Means and What Comes Next

How LD 1164 Came to Be

LD 1164, formally known as An Act to Create Economic Opportunity for the Wabanaki Nations Through Internet Gaming, had a rocky ride through the Maine Legislature.

The House passed it last June, but when LD 1164 reached the Senate, it hit a wall. Basically, the Senate couldn’t agree: there weren’t enough votes to pass it but not enough to kill it outright. So instead of taking a formal up-or-down vote, they engrossed the bill, sending it to be printed and filed, without fully enacting it.

At that point, it looked dead in the water. The state budget didn’t include any projected iGaming revenue for 2026, and most lawmakers figured the session was over. Enter Senator Peggy Rotundo. As Chair of the Special Appropriations Committee, she had the power to yank bills off the table, and she did just that, moving LD 1164 for enactment “under the hammer”, a maneuver that skips a roll call vote entirely unless someone objects. No one did.

However, that wasn’t actually the end of our story.

The Veto That Didn’t Happen

Because of a procedural quirk in Maine law known as a pocket veto, bills passed at the very end of the session don’t require an immediate decision from the governor. Instead, they carry over until the next session reconvenes.

Governor Janet Mills had just three days after the new legislative session opened in January 2026 to make her call. Veto it? Sign it? Or let it ride?

She chose the third option.

On January 8, Mills announced that she would not block the bill. In a statement posted to the official Maine government site, she said:

She also acknowledged her concerns:

That was it. No signature. No veto. LD 1164 became law at midnight on January 10, 2026.

What LD 1164 Actually Does

Under the terms of LD 1164, the state’s four federally recognized tribes (the Penobscot Nation, Passamaquoddy Tribe, Mi’kmaq Nation, and Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians) are each entitled to one online gambling license. That includes online poker, slots, and table games.

Each tribe can contract with one commercial partner to power their site. That means at most four platforms will operate in the state, probably fewer. If this setup sounds familiar to you, it’s because Maine already uses it for online sports betting. Right now, only two operators, DraftKings and Caesars, have taken those sports betting slots.

So, yes, online poker is now legal in Maine. But that doesn’t mean you’re about to multi-table tomorrow.

The issue here is shared liquidity. LD 1164 doesn’t authorize Maine to join the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA) that lets poker players in different states compete against each other. Without that, a state with just 1.4 million people is going to struggle to field more than a couple of low-stakes tables during peak hours.

This is the same problem Connecticut ran into. It legalized online poker, but didn’t approve interstate play. Two years later, no site’s launched.

As far as Maine goes, that means serious online poker likely won’t happen unless the state passes additional legislation and lets it join MSIGA. That could take years. Michigan needed about two years to go from legalization to shared liquidity. West Virginia took five years before even signing the compact.

So, Who Could Might Actually Launch Online Poker in Maine?

There are two main contenders, and they’re the ones already in Maine: DraftKings and Caesars.

Caesars has an deal with three of the tribes and owns the WSOP brand. Technically, that should put it in a position to launch WSOP-branded poker in Maine but there’s a catch. Since selling WSOP to GGPoker, Caesars is limited in how and where it can launch new WSOP platforms.

DraftKings, meanwhile, doesn’t run traditional poker but it does offer Electric Poker, a lottery sit-and-go format like Spin & Go or BLAST. This product doesn’t require pooled player liquidity and it’s already live in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Other major poker operators, like PokerStars, BetMGM, and BetRivers, are sidelined unless they strike a tribal partnership. That’s unlikely in the short term, given the limited number of licenses and existing sportsbook relationships.

For now, though, players will need to be patient. The bill is in place, but the rules haven’t been written and tribes haven’t picked partners. And real poker tables, if they show up, are likely a year or more away.