Maine sports betting regulator placed on leave in wake of inflammatory tweets
Milt Champion suspended after series of social media posts containing sexist and racist connotations
The head of Maine’s Gambling Control Unit was placed on leave in the wake of a series of social media posts that contained sexist and racist connotations.
Milt Champion was formally suspended with pay on May 17 by the Maine Department of Public Safety, which serves as the oversight body for the Gambling Control Unit.
The suspension came on the same day that Champion’s office provided an update on the progress of the state’s sports betting framework, with the release of a second draft of operational rules quickly overshadowed by the news, which was first reported by the Portland Press Herald.
Champion posted a pair of inflammatory tweets to his personal account over a three-week period prior to the suspension.
In the first, he indicated that groups of women should not be called “ladies,” adding that “In this day and age I guess ‘b—–s’ is better.” He used the second tweet, a week later, to voice tacit support for the Patriot Front, a hate group that espouses white nationalist ideologies.
“I can confirm that director Champion has been placed on paid administrative leave, pending a review that is being conducted by the Bureau of Human Resources,” Lieutenant Thomas Pickering of the Maine State Police told the Press Herald. “Given that this is an ongoing, personnel-related matter, the department is unable to comment further.”
Champion had been spearheading the regulatory work around sports betting in Maine, which passed a law legalizing both online and retail wagering in April 2022.
The revised set of rules his office published ahead of the suspension included a prospective launch timeline as soon as mid-November, pending a public comment window that will span through the first half of June.
It’s unclear how Champion’s suspension will affect the next phase of the regulatory process.