Proposals are on the table

By Mark Brunswick

Star Tribune

      You won't hear a constant bling-bling-bling, and there will be no flashing lights. Beverages won't be complimentary. You can't win the car on display, and Engelbert Humperdinck won't be appearing nightly in the lounge on the weekends.

      But the hottest place to lay down a bet in the next couple of weeks may be in the hallowed halls of the Minnesota State Capitol, where some of the most significant changes in gambling in years may be forthcoming.

      It's crunch time at the Capitol, and gambling is on the table. This is the biggest challenge to the Indian casino-gambling monopoly in Minnesota in the 15 years since compacts between the tribes and the state were signed. It includes the lure of a portion of the state's $1 billion-plus

annual gambling market as a way to ease state budget woes.

      Shuffled in the deck is the unknown of how much money the tribes, all sovereign nations with closed books, are making in the industry. There are also centuries-old racial tensions about what Indians may still be owed and what injustices need still to be remedied.

      High stakes players include Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who has been meeting with the state's casino-owning Indian tribes to broker a deal for a possible contribution from them to the state in exchange for a continued monopoly. Also at the table is the Senate, which is holding its cards close to the vest about which, if any, gambling proposal it will support. Sen. Jim Vickerman, DFL-Tracy, chairman of the Senate's new Veterans and Gaming Committee, said the omnibus gambling bill he will present deals only with charitable gambling, leaving a host of other gambling proposals up in the air -- and many of them as possible bargaining chips for a larger budget deal.

      "I'm not so sure how much more gambling we need," Vickerman, a longtime supporter of the current situation, said last week.

      The tribes themselves are divided. The poorest and most populous among them, two northern tribes at White Earth and Red Lake, want the state to help set up a metro-area casino that will give them entree into the lucrative metro gambling market. It is a proposal the other tribes are opposing, fearful of their market share being threatened.

      Added into the mix is the possibility of an expansion of gambling to include non-Indians. The Canterbury Park horse racing track in Shakopee wants the right to install slot machines for a "racino." Backers of a proposed harness-racing track that would be put in Anoka County are waiting to see how that plan works and whether they, too, can get in the game.

      Gambling industry behemoth Caesars Entertainment Inc. is bankrolling market studies behind a proposal to have a state-run casino at the Mall of America or a similar high-profile metro location.

      With the suicide earlier this year of the longtime executive director of the Minnesota State Lottery under a cloud of a critical legislative audit, uncertainty about the administration of the lottery also is a factor that might contribute to the success or failure of some of the proposals.

Building trades unions, which stand to gain jobs in construction of new casinos, are also becoming a factor in the debate.

      Handicapping the prospects of any of the proposals is a day-to-day proposition. The Daily Racing Form can only be so much help in determining which proposals are long shots and which might be mudders.

      The following, though, is a roundup of the proposals and their chances as the legislative session hits the final stretch:

      Racino

      The Canterbury racino proposal might have the most legs of any gambling measure. It already passed the House last year, and House leaders have earmarked $30 million from revenues from the racino as a partial answer to reduce a $160 million projected deficit for 2004-05.

Canterbury has one of the most aggressive stables of lobbyists at the Capitol, and one former Canterbury lobbyist, Cristine Almeida, is now the chief of staff for the DFL Senate majority. Senate Minority Leader Dick Day, R-Owatonna, is the longtime author of the racino idea, providing an unusual undercurrent of potential bipartisanship.

      For those interested in the easiest route to expanding gambling beyond the Indian monopoly, Canterbury also is the favorite because the track already exists.

      Northern tribes

      The bill, sponsored in the House by Rep. Bill Haas, R-Champlin, and in the Senate by Sen. Sandy Pappas, DFL-St.Paul, would allow the Red Lake and White Earth tribes of northern Minnesota to operate a metro-area casino and lease slot machines from the state lottery. In return, the state would get 20 percent of the gross revenues, an estimated $89 million a year. Each tribe would get about $65 million a year.

      Haas admits that he faces a challenge in an upcoming hearing in the House Ways and Means Committee. But he said he thinks that the measure could pass if it gets to the Republican-controlled House floor. House Speaker Steve Sviggum, R-Kenyon, supports the bill, but the Canterbury racino remains the main focus of the caucus.

If there is some effort to bring the northern tribes into the mix of the gambling market, many think the Haas proposal might represent a vehicle for compromise, particularly if the other gambling tribes agree to participate.

      Mall of America

      The elephant in the room is Caesars Entertainment and the Mall of America proposal. Caesars recently contracted with a high-profile lobbying firm and has the money and wherewithal if it so desires to launch a last-minute media campaign to support its effort.

      Under a plan proposed by Rep. Lynda Boudreau, R-Faribault, a new gambling corporation would be established that would sell a license for a huge gambling emporium near the Mall of America. The facility would have 5,000 slots and 150 gaming tables, generating $250 million a year for the state, much of it going to fund higher education scholarships.

      Even though it potentially represents the largest revenue generator for the state, Boudreau jokingly describes her bill as "resting" and acknowledges that her caucus' focus on the racino makes prospects for her bill dim -- at least for this year. Further clouding its prospects is that it has no Senate sponsor (Sen. Bill Belanger, R-Bloomington, has vowed to fight it vigorously), and other Bloomington legislators have introduced bills designed to block it.

      But in a legislative world where anything is possible until the last gavel is hammered, the Mall of America proposal could find itself attached to other legislation in the form of an amendment.

      "I never said I would do that," Boudreau said last week. "But I never said I wouldn't do that, either."

      Stadiums

      Rep. Tom Hackbarth, R-Cedar, proposed one privately owned casino in the metro area to help finance three new stadiums. The proposal would allow Minnesotans to vote on a constitutional change to permit private non-Indian casinos in the state. His plan would sell a gambling license for $450 million, and the money would be used to guarantee the issuance and retirement of revenue bonds. No state money would directly finance the stadiums.

      Hackbarth's proposal, like Boudreau's, would use the state lottery to administer its operations, raising questions about its short-term viability. A bill to finance stadiums also has to wait while it is determined who will get a stadium and when.

      Harness track

      A pared-down bill that would help out a proposed harness-racing track in Anoka County remains in the paddock. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Jim Abeler, R-Anoka, was stripped of a request for a constitutional amendment for casinos at horse tracks and for a proposed "racino" to make it more palatable. But after some financial amendments about its costs were attached, Abeler said he parked the bill instead of subjecting it to possible defeat. Given heavyweight opposition from the gaming tribes and Canterbury, Abeler said he was actually happy to just get the bill out of one committee.

      "Harness racing is a nice, family thing. County fairs, that sort of stuff. Three hundred jobs," Abeler said. "But when you go up against the big guys, it's tough to have a chance."

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