AUGUSTA, Maine — After Maine lawmakers made a late fix in 2022 to overturn new rules for pull-tab gaming, veterans clubs that feared losing a major source of revenue thought the issue was settled.
A year later, Maine regulators are proposing essentially the same set of rules that social clubs and fraternal organizations such as the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Elks and Eagles complained about last year as hurting their ability to raise money for operating costs and charity.
The proposed rules relate to sealed ticket games in which a player buys one or more tickets, peels open tabs and hopes the symbols match up like a slot machine to win a monetary prize.
At the VFW post on Forest Avenue in Portland, each ticket costs $1 and his post offers prizes that usually top out at $350 before decreasing in amount as the odds increase, with the most number of winners receiving $25 or $1, Jared Sawyer, quartermaster for the post, said.
For years, the VFW and many other clubs have listed off the prizes as players won them and then stopped the game early once participants lost interest, which typically occurs after the bigger cash prizes are off the board. In March 2022, the Maine Gambling Control Unit finalized rules that effectively prevented the social clubs from posting the prizes already won and stopping games before a pack of tickets was played out.
Before that, the Maine Gambling Control Unit received complaints that the games were not run fairly due to skewing the odds, Milton Champion, the regulator’s executive director, said. He has argued that the practice discourages people from playing, prevents people from winning smaller prizes and makes it hard for his office to verify if winnings are accurate.
After several clubs expressed surprise over and opposition to the rules last year, Sens. Brad Farrin, R-Norridgewock, and Craig Hickman, D-Winthrop, tweaked an existing gaming bill to overturn the proposed rules shortly before the Legislature adjourned for the year.
Champion did not offer a new explanation for this year’s proposed rule change, but Sawyer noted a few disgruntled players can sometimes bring their complaints to the state.
“We are well aware of the opposition [to the proposed rules],” Champion said Monday.
State regulators have told the Portland club that they want it and others to only mark off the top winner during each game, rather than listing all prizes that have been taken off the board, Sawyer said. He said the Gambling Control Unit is viewing VFW posts as casinos rather than as more casual social watering holes.
“Hopefully, (the revenue) helps us pay the light bill at the end of the month, but we’re not trying to make a maximum profit out of these games,” Sawyer said.
Last year, the VFW post on Forest Avenue distributed more than $30,000 in proceeds from the pull-tab games to various charities, Sawyer added.
This year’s proposed rules are categorized as “routine technical” changes, meaning they do not have to go before lawmakers in order to take effect. But Champion noted public comments on the rules are due to him by Oct. 6 and that “we’ll go from there.”
