Maine: Sweeps Coins as indirect consideration
Maine’s LD 2007 attacks the model at its foundation, treating the purchase of Gold Coins as indirect consideration for the Sweeps Coins bundled with them.
| Statute | LD 2007 |
|---|---|
| Signed | 6 April 2026, Gov. Janet Mills |
| Effective | Mid-July 2026 — non-emergency legislation, roughly 90 days after adjournment |
| Theory | Sweeps Coins acquired alongside a Gold Coin purchase constitute indirect consideration |
| Status | In force |
The argument Maine adopted
The dual-currency defence has always rested on a formal separation: the player buys Gold Coins, which have no redeemable value, and receives Sweeps Coins free of charge as a promotional bonus. No purchase necessary, therefore no consideration, therefore no gambling.
Maine’s answer is that money changed hands and Sweeps Coins arrived, and that a court is entitled to see the substance rather than the packaging. Consideration is indirect but it is consideration. This is the same reasoning that decided Kater in the Ninth Circuit, arriving now as statutory text rather than as case law.
Why the effective date has no single day
LD 2007 was not passed as emergency legislation. Under Maine’s constitution a non-emergency act takes effect roughly ninety days after the legislature adjourns, which placed this one in the middle of July 2026 rather than on a date any source could print in advance. Operators who were waiting for a headline date to plan against did not get one, and the ban arrived anyway.
That is worth stating plainly rather than smoothing over. A tracker that invents a precise day to look authoritative is a tracker that will eventually be precisely wrong.
Why this drafting spreads
A ban premised on indirect consideration does not require the legislature to define a sweepstakes casino, which was the SPGA’s most effective line of attack against Montana. It requires only that the state’s existing gambling definition contain the word “consideration” — which all of them do.
Maine’s statute is the most portable of the 2026 bans, and portability is what determines which drafting wins.
Sources
- Verified Maine LD 2007 (2026) — bill text, Maine Legislature.
- Verified Signed 6 April 2026 by Gov. Janet Mills; non-emergency, effective approximately 90 days after adjournment.
- Verified Kater v. Churchill Downs Inc., 886 F.3d 784 (9th Cir. 2018) — the parallel consideration analysis.
- Probable No single operative day was published by the Legislature or reported by trade press; mid-July 2026 is the ninety-day computation. Confirm against the enacted chapter law before relying on it.