A hastily approved plan by the DFL-controlled House to eliminate electronic pulltab charitable gambling should be halted before it decimates the budgets of nonprofits across the state that support hundreds of good causes.
The House bill, HF 2366, was approved in committee and quickly blended into a larger bill that will now be negotiated in conference committee.
The move comes at the behest of Indian tribes in the state that say the e-pulltabs work too much like slot machines and infringe on their exclusive rights to run such machines and casinos. While one can sympathize with that argument, an administrative law judge recently disagreed when the tribes filed a legal action, saying the two gambling devices are not similar.
Now the tribes are asking the Legislature to outlaw the e-pulltab games.
But there's more at stake than competition for gambling. Some 1,300 charities across the state use the e-pulltab money for everything from youth hockey to the Lions Clubs, athletic scholarships, veterans' services and lake cleanup efforts. Research suggests charities would lose $33 million a year, wages would drop by $35 million and bars and restaurants would lose $30 million. The e-pulltabs were also set up to help pay for the public cost of the Vikings stadium, and that amounts to about $60 million a year.
Gov. Tim Walz and Democrats are on the wrong side of this issue. We urge legislators in the conference committee to cancel the plan to eliminate e-pulltabs.
FROM AN EDITORIAL IN
THE MANKATO FREE PRESS
