Since the launch in November of 2023 of a sports-betting partnership with DraftKings, a digital sports entertainment company based in Boston, the Passamaquoddy Tribe has earned nearly $30 million in revenues, more than five times the amount generated for the three other tribes in Maine, according to figures provided by the state. While the tribe plans to use the funds for tribal programs ranging from healthcare to housing, tribal members say that the tribal government has not been forthcoming with specific details about the revenues and how the funds will be divided up and spent.

Lack of transparency alleged
      Funds generated by the tribe and how they are used are considered internal tribal matters, but tribal members themselves, who have been raising questions about the sports betting revenues, say they are not getting sufficient answers. Loretta Godfrey, a retired critical care nurse who moved back to Sipayik 13 years ago, notes that when the chief and councillors are sworn into office "they make a promise to follow the [tribe's] constitution. It's the law, and we need to follow it." A section of the constitution of the Sipayik members of the tribe requires that the chief and council must hold a meeting each year that is open to all tribal members to present an accounting of the financial status of the reservation, "including tribal general funds, any enterprise and special revenue funds and any other funds or accounts." Godfrey says, ""This section comes down to the heart of the matter." Of the chiefs over the past decade or so, none, except one, has followed that section, she states. "They don't follow the constitution, and our chiefs get recalled because the people are dissatisfied." During the seven-year period from 2016 through 2023 four tribal chiefs at Sipayik have been recalled from office.
      Godfrey says the chiefs need to be transparent about the tribe's finances. "This is our law. The reason tribal members don't trust our tribal government and council is because this is not followed. There is no transparency," she says. "The lack of transparency causes a lack of trust by the people." She says the tribe's revenue from its agreement with DraftKings and how those funds are used should be public information. "We'd like to see the agreement with DraftKings." Godfrey adds that there are other tribal ventures "that we know nothing about," including carbon credit funds and the tribe's maple syrup and blueberry businesses.
      Godfrey observes that, as a grandmother, her role in the tribe is to give guidance. "If the chief and council are not going to follow the constitution, they will face the consequences of this," she says, noting that could include a recall effort.
      Madonna Soctomah, an elder, former state representative and former tribal councillor, agrees with Godfrey that it's been many years since the tribal government held a meeting with tribal members about all of the tribe's finances. Expressing concerns with how the tribe operates, she says that over the years there's been a lack of accountability for the tribal government, except through tribal elections or the recall process.
      "There is no accountability on behalf of the tribal people and their natural assets. Our natural resources belong to every tribal member. There's no accountability to any of them. There's a rich and a poor class, and they keep the poor oppressed. Information is power, and they don't give it to them." Soctomah asks, "How can you have Indian pride when you're living like that as an oppressed people?"
      While there are about 3,600 tribal members, a much smaller number end up voting in elections. To vote in tribal elections, a tribal member must live within the health service areas of either Sipayik or Indian Township, which cover Washington and Hancock counties.
      With perhaps 300 or more voting in Sipayik elections and referendums, according to election results, and a similar number at Indian Township, Soctomah says "it's insidious" that those numbers "determine the future of the whole tribe and the natural assets and our future. They say it represents the tribe. That's wrong."
      "Decisions should be done in a collective way of the tribal people," with a majority of the total number of tribal members. The tribal government "should listen to the guidance of the tribal people as a whole. It's not happening."
      "It's just heart-breaking," Soctomah says. While the tribe is supposed to function in a manner different from the federal or state government, she says it is now acting like the U.S. government, creating wealthy people while oppressing others and creating poverty. "We've lost our culture," she says. "They should protect our cultural heritage by living it and honoring it. We're not doing that. We're getting to be just like anybody else." She adds, "We're an oppressed group of people, not just by the federal government but by our own government, the way we don't respect our heritage, culture and traditions."

DraftKings presentation held
     In October 2023, just before the launch of the online sports betting partnership with DraftKings, the tribe formed a corporation, Passamaquoddy Gaming LLC, for the sports betting funds, with the Falmouth office of tribal attorney Craig Francis listed as the corporation's principal office and tribal attorney Michael-Corey Hinton listed as the clerk.
      Of the DraftKings revenue, Francis comments, "The Passamaquoddy Tribe is extremely proud to be partnered with DraftKings and to legally offer mobile sports betting in the state of Maine. The revenue generated since we launched sports wagering on November 3, 2023, has been an incremental driver to help benefit the Passamaquoddy tribal government operations, which focus on programs to benefit healthcare, housing development and economic reform for the tribal community. The Passamaquoddy and DraftKings partnership is expected to continue to benefit the tribal community in 2025 and well into the future."
      Concerning how the profits will be used, Francis says that the Passamaquoddy Joint Tribal Council decided how to allocate the funds but he is not authorized to share that information. The DraftKings partnership is a joint venture of the Sipayik and Indian Township tribal governments.
      Francis did give a presentation about DraftKings to the Sipayik community at a January 7 meeting at the tribal office, but those attending were told not to give out any of the information outside of the meeting. According to Godfrey, revenue figures were not presented, at least while she was present. Neither Pos Bassett, the chief at Sipayik, or Vice Chief Ernest Neptune responded to inquiries about the sports betting revenues.

Revenue comparisons
     Unlike other tribes in the country that have been able to set up casinos to generate billions of dollars to help with self-determination and Native sovereignty efforts, for over 30 years the tribes in Maine, which do not fall under the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act because of the 1980 Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act, have been unsuccessful in their efforts to establish a casino in the state, while two non tribal casinos were approved. Then in May 2022 Maine enacted a sports betting law giving the tribes exclusive access to mobile gaming rights. With sports betting in the U.S. now in its seventh year of regulated operations outside of Nevada, the market has grown rapidly, with revenues projected to reach over $17 billion in 2025.
      Under its revenue sharing agreement with DraftKings, the Passamaquoddy Tribe retains 49.75% of the adjusted gross receipts, with DraftKings keeping 40%, the state 10% and the federal tax being 0.25%, according to Milton Champion, executive director of the Maine Gambling Control Unit. With DraftKings' online sports betting beginning in November 2023 in Maine, for the first full year of 2024 the gross wagering receipts totalled over $445 million, with the tribe's share amounting to $24.4 million, plus the $4.16 million earned in the last two months of 2023. In 2018 the total tribal government budget at Sipayik had been about $14 million.
      For Ceasars Sportsbook Maine, which has partnered with the Penobscot Nation, the Houlton Band of Maliseets and the Mi'kmaq Nation for sports betting, the total gross revenue for 2024 was $77.3 million, or only 17% of DraftKings' revenue.
      By comparison, the two casinos in Maine had a net gaming revenue of $165 million in 2022, with a percentage of those funds, amounting to $68 million, distributed to the state, gambling addiction services and other entities according to a formula spelled out in state law. The Passamaquoddy and Penobscot tribal governments receive 4% of the net slot machine revenue from the Oxford Casino, which in 2022 amounted to just under $3.6 million.
      For online sports betting, Maine's tax revenue, which is 10% of the adjusted gross receipts, goes toward a number of specified state programs, including the state government's general fund and a gambling addiction prevention and treatment fund.