Three major gambling proposals likely to get first vote Friday night

By Don Davis

Pioneer Capitol Reporter

      ST. PAUL - Minnesota legislators face three major gambling proposals, and their first vote is to come Friday night.

      That is when the House gambling subcommittee considers whether to allow:

-- Three northern Minnesota American Indian bands to open a Twin Cities casino.

-- The suburban Canterbury Park horse-racing track to build a casino.

-- Bars across the state to install slot machines.

      Odds are that the two casino proposals will pass, but probably not the bar plan, according to John McCarthy, president of the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association. McCarthy’s group opposes all three, fearing new gambling will take money away from existing Indian casinos.

      Gov. Tim Pawlenty proposed the tribal casino and has said he could live with a racino. But this week he said the bar proposal goes too far.

      House Speaker Steve Sviggum, R-Kenyon, says none would pass at this halfway point in the 2005 session. However, the speaker said, when lawmakers see how much money they need to fund their favorite programs, some form of gambling expansion will pass since all would send some money to the state.

      This year’s revised plans, all have been heard in other forms in the past received their first hearings Wednesday.

      All would require the State Lottery to own or lease the machines and would provide the state money from profits.

      The subcommittee plans to hear testimony on the proposals Friday afternoon, but votes on the bills and amendments won’t come before 7 p.m. Friday.

      The slots in bars proposal is the newest, coming out just hours before the subcommittee hearing.

      “I don’t know anything that could be more fair,” said bill sponsor Rep. Tom Rukavina, DFL-Virginia, adding that the slot machines would be equally dispersed geographically.

      It would allow up to five video slot machines in every bar already involved in chartable gambling. Supporters expect 15,360 machines.

      Bars would get a third of the profits, something bar lobbyist Colin Minehart said is badly needed since they are losing business due to an increasing numbers of smoking bans and soaring insurance costs.

      The $352 million supporters say would go to the state general fund is the most of any gambling proposal in front of lawmakers.

      The governor’s tribal casino plan, presented to the subcommittee by Chief of Staff Dan McElroy, has been heard in some form since 2002. The 2005 version would allow the White Earth, Red Lake and Leech Lake bands of Chippewa to open a casino in the Twin Cities area.

      McElroy said the casino, at an as-yet undetermined site, would house 3,000 slot machines, each bringing in $295 a day. The casino and accompanying hotel would hire 3,000 people, with an emphasis on minorities, he added.

      The Canterbury proposal includes a $120 million private investment in existing facilities, race track President Randy Sampson said. If a casino were added to his race track and card club, it would mean 1,300 new jobs, he said.

      Sampson and bill sponsor Rep. Mark Buesgens, R-Jordan, emphasized the money agriculture would get from a “racino.” They said the $18 million added to the horse-racing purse each year would help preserve the horse industry.