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Casino Backers Protest Slot Bill

``They say the bill would result in the loss of 30,000 jobs statewide, including 14,000 at casinos.

``Rep. Jim Knoblach of St. Cloud and Sen. Thomas Neuville of Northfield, both Republicans, proposed the bill as a way to urge tribal leaders to renegotiate the compacts that authorize gambling on reservations. They want the tribes to agree to share some gambling revenues with the state.

``The protesters -- both American Indian and non-Indian -- argued gambling has brought economic prosperity to areas once stricken by poverty and unemployment.

```We created 14,000 jobs in the state of Minnesota. We don't want to lose them,' Melanie Benjamin, chief executive of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, told the crowd gathered on the Capitol steps. 'We are pulling our people out of poverty, and we don't want to go back.'..."

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