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Minnesota Casinos Struggling to Stay Alive

MINNESOTA – As reported by the Minnesota Star Tribune: "A month after being promoted as a source of pain-free money for a state with a budget deficit, plans for a government-sponsored Twin Cities casino are struggling to stay alive.

"House Speaker Steve Sviggum, R-Kenyon, said Friday that Gov. Tim Pawlenty was working with three northern Minnesota Indian bands and the Canterbury Park racetrack to come up with a plan to combine separate proposals for a state-sponsored racino and a state-tribal casino.

"…Under one recipe, the governor, Canterbury Park and the bands would join forces in a single bill for two metro casinos, offering more money to the state than it would receive from either of the casinos proposed earlier.

"Another idea is proposing a single racino at Canterbury Park that would be owned by the track or the tribes and run by the state, with profits shared among the three parties.

"But on the very real chance that no state-run casino will get off the ground, the governor and legislators have to be thinking about Plans B and C for filling the $200 million hole that would be left in Pawlenty's proposed budget.

"…Casino backers face their own challenge: coming up with a plan that will secure support from Republican legislators who backed a Canterbury Park racino in 2003 but now aren't sold on it or the state-tribal casino favored by the governor. The proposals -- or some combination of them -- are expected to face a close vote in the House Taxes Committee…"

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