A few days ago, state officials revealed that a top gambling regulator in the state of Maine suffered a week-long suspension without pay for a bunch of offensive tweets regarding women and a white nationalist group that he had posted from his personal account.
The controversial and offensive tweets were posted on the regulator’s account, which is currently followed by the official Twitter account of the Maine Gambling Control Unit, on May 6th and May 14th, respectively, and were later removed.
In one of those tweets, Maine’s gambling regulator published a tweet about being told it was not appropriate to refer to women as “ladies”, followed by a pejorative term for women. In the second tweet, he respond to a tweet about a white nationalist group that marched on the US Capitol, saying that the group was at least not birding cities down and looting stores.
A complaint against the two tweets was forwarded by the Office of the Maine Attorney General to the Department of Public Safety. An investigation was officially started by the Bureau of Human Resources about a week ago, with the body proving the potential negative impact of the regulator’s actions on the department’s work and reputation.
Gambling Regulator’s Official to Undergo Workplace Harassment Training
Public Safety Commissioner Michael Sauchuck announced that, following an investigation, the executive director of the Gambling Control Unit – Milt Champion – was forcibly placed on paid leave on May 17th because of the tweets mentioned above. The probe recommended the 40-hour suspension without pay. Now, Mr. Champion would have to pass special training on harassment in the workplace and social media apologies apart from the five-day suspension without pay.
Maine’s gambling regulator, who is expected to return to work today, officially apologized for his actions. Mr. Champion released a statement explaining that the two tweets were intended to be humorous but he now recognized they had not been that harmless. He shared that his tweets were published as a result of an error in judgment. The gambling regulator thanked the unit’s employees for their hard work and their commitment while he was not at work.
Milt Champion was hired on the job in 2016. Since then, the last few years have seen his profile grow after sports betting got officially approved by Maine’s lawmakers. Mr. Champion has more than three decades of experience in the gambling sector, as he participated in opening casinos and then served as a regulator of the gambling industry in Florida and Maine. Now, he is also in charge of the procedures of awarding betting licenses and approving deals with gambling providers in the state.
The now-gambling regulator has played an important role in the state’s push to legalize sports betting since Maine lawmakers officially passed a law to authorize the new form of gambling in May 2022.
