Minnesota Indian gaming means US$2.75 billion in economic impact, 41,700 jobs and US$150 million in healthcare benefits. In 2007 the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association (MIGA), established in 1987, stated that the 18 tribal gaming operations in the state had a positive economic impact throughout rural Minnesota and brought much needed funding to tribal government programmes serving a disadvantaged segment of the state’s population.

For Minnesota's Indian tribes, one of the most important issues of the 2010 Legislature is gambling expansion. On 4 March this year Bill SF2950 was introduced in the Minnesota Senate and immediately referred to the State and Local Government Operations and Oversight Committee because the racino bill’s author, Senator Dan Sparks, did not have enough support for a vote. A similar bill is pending in the House. No further committee hearings are expected on any of the gambling expansion bills currently before the legislature, but any of the proposals could resurface as amendments to bills on the Senate or House floors later in the session.

Minnesota tribes were the first in the nation to negotiate and sign gaming compacts with a state government. However, the state did not want Las Vegas-style casinos and the tribes agreed to limit their casinos to video games of chance and blackjack. The compacts are effective in perpetuity. Under the compacts, Minnesota tribes pay the state a fixed fee to cover enforcement costs and the Minnesota Department of Public Safety has considerable powers of inspection and regulation.

Dan Sparks today published an article entitled ‘Racino bill is an unconventional solution to the state's budget problems’. He asks, “What if there was a way to make a dent in Minnesota's ongoing budget deficits without raising taxes, and without making spending cuts that jeopardize things such as education and transportation? What if that solution also promised to dedicate the new money to five very specific purposes targeted at education and job creation?”

He is pursuing legislation that could raise as much as US$125 million annually by expanding video-game wagering at Minnesota's two existing racetracks: Canterbury Park in Shakopee, and Running Aces Harness Park in Anoka. Sparks admits that the bill is a diversion from Minnesota's current gaming policies but claims that it is in no way a major expansion of gambling across the state, simply a moderate expansion of current practice.

MIGA Executive Director John McCarthy says the Association is not taking anything for granted, even though no gambling bills were passed out of committees in either chamber. “The racino forces aren’t going to go away just because their bills didn’t get committee support,” McCarthy said. “They’ll attach a racino amendment to some other bill to get it on the floor for debate. We’re prepared for that.”

A recent report issued by the Minnesota legislature's non-partisan House Research Department has provided legislators with a reality check on the amount of revenue they should expect from proposed racinos at Canterbury Park and Running Aces Harness Track. A memo issued February 18 by House Research Director Patrick McCormack suggests the amount will be substantially lower than lobbyist projections of US$125 million per year for the state. (E-03.31.10)

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