Fans of the e-gambling expected to finance the Vikings stadium got some good news Monday, when electronic games were approved for the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and two new manufacturers were given the green light to sell in Minnesota.
The airport will become one of the nation's first to offer electronic gambling to passengers, gambling officials said.
The Metropolitan Airport Commission approved installing the games played on iPads at six restaurants, starting in January. If successful, dozens more could come on board.
Meanwhile E-tab Manufacturing of St. Paul will begin rolling out electronic games at several locations Thursday, following approval by the Gambling Control Board. Its hand-held device plays both pulltabs and bingo, although the bingo games are not expected to be approved until next year.
A second manufacturer, Electronic Games Solutions of Missouri, also was approved to sell electronic linked bingo. No rollout date was given.
"It was a good day," said Allen Lund, executive director of Allied Charities of Minnesota, the trade organization for the roughly 2,500 nonprofits offering charitable gambling. "We now have some [manufacturer] options. We have an electronic linked bingo platform. And we're meeting with the Minnesota Licensed Beverage Association later this week to plan to roll out some joint marketing in the future."
The stepped-up activity comes in response to reports that tax revenue from electronic gambling has not kept pace with state projections. The electronic games are expected to fund the state's share of the Vikings stadium, or roughly $350 million.
Although Minnesotans have plunked down nearly $3 million to play the electronic games since they were launched in September, roughly $120,000 was paid in taxes. And none of that tax money went to the Vikings stadium because taxes paid on all charitable gambling must first reach a certain threshold -- $34 million -- before the Vikings funding kicks in.