The Maine official in charge of sports betting was given a one-week suspension without pay following an internal investigation into tweets he posted in May that contained sexist language and racist connotations. 

Milt Champion, executive director of the state’s Gambling Control Unit, was suspended June 29 and will return to work Monday, the Department of Public Safety, which oversees the gambling unit, said in a statement Friday. 

He also will need to complete in-person training on the state’s workplace harassment and social media policies. 

In a statement, Champion said the tweets were an error in judgment. 

“While the two tweets were intended to be humorous, I recognize they were anything but,” he said. “They were a mistake … and I apologize for my actions.”

Champion was placed on paid leave in May, just hours after the Press Herald inquired about the tweets. 

In a tweet on May 6, Champion expressed frustration about being told “ladies” was an unprofessional term for females, and suggested “Bitches” would be more appropriate.

In another on May 14, Champion replied to a video showing demonstrators with Patriot Front, a white nationalist group, marching in Washington, D.C. He wrote: “At least they are not burning down cities and looting stores.” The Anti-Defamation League describes Patriot Front as a “white supremacist group” and says it is “responsible for the vast majority of white supremacist propaganda distributed in the United States” since 2019.

The tweets were posted to Champion’s account, which the Maine Gambling Control Unit’s Twitter account follows. 

The Office of the Maine Attorney General forwarded a complaint to the Department of Public Safety. The Bureau of Human Resources wrapped up its investigation last week and “substantiated its potential negative impact on the reputation and work of the department and its executive director,” the Department of Public Safety statement said.

Commissioner Michael Sauschuck reviewed the investigation and recommended the 40-hour suspension without pay and required in-person training on the state’s workplace harassment and social media policies.

Champion has been the key figure in Maine’s push to add sports gambling since the state passed the law legalizing it in May 2022. He’s led a staff of two workers to draft rules governing sports betting in the state, the second draft of which was released in May, the morning of his paid suspension. He also is in charge of approving deals with gambling providers and awarding betting licenses.

While operators, such as the four Maine tribes in the online sports gambling market and off-track betting locations and casinos in the retail market, are free to pursue business with providers of their choosing, three of the tribes – the Penobscot, Maliseet, and Micmacs – have reached a preliminary deal with Caesars Sportsbook. The executive director of the Gambling Control Unit has the say over whether those deals become official, based on the revenue splits in the contract. Providers can receive up to 40% of the revenue they generate with an operator, though deals awarding them between 30% and 40% need the executive director’s approval. 

The time line for issuing sports betting licenses in Maine is still late November or early December, and betting should launch soon after, a spokesperson for the Department of Public Safety said.

Champion has been in his position since November 2016, and earned a salary of $94,851.60 in 2022, according to state records. He’s been in the gambling industry for 36 years, working 20 in casinos and 16 as a regulator, according to an interview with GamblingIndustryNews.com.

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