"Best estimates are that racinos would bring in more than $125 million annually and create thousands of badly needed jobs in the construction, hospitality and agriculture industries in our state, all without increasing anyone's taxes.

For starters, after passage of the racino bill, Canterbury Park and Running Aces would begin to beef up their purses. Like a magnet attracting metal, bigger purses will draw horses back from states like Iowa and Indiana, which already have racinos.

That return of horses would, in turn, provide a major shot in the arm for Minnesota's agricultural industry, and its horse industry in particular -- an industry that, according to a researcher at the University of Minnesota, generated nearly $1 billion in annual economic activity as recently as 2003.

That renewed activity would rain dollars from the sky where they're most needed -- in rural Minnesota, extending from farmers to fence builders and from truckers to trainers.

And it doesn't stop there. Our badly hurting construction industry will get its own stimulus."

Get the Story:
David Senjem, Dan Sparks and Bob Gunther: More gambling good for Minnesota? Certainly (The Minneapolis Star Tribune 3/26)

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Column: Breaking the monopoly of tribal gaming in Minnesota (3/25)
Editorial: It's time to renegotiate casino compacts in Minnesota (3/8)
MPR: Minnesota tribes oppose expansion of non-Indian gaming (2/24)