Opinion: Minnesota tribes desperate to preserve casino monopoly

Thursday, July 21, 2011  

"It has been 22 years since state-tribal compacts established casino-style “gaming” at Indian casinos and nowhere else in this land of 12,000 or so lakes.

Surveys shows 70 percent to 80 percent of Minnesotans approve of racinos, or slot gaming, at horse tracks. However, the public’s will has not translated into legislative action to enable them, including this year, even though racinos would provide $250 million in new, publicly palatable taxes every two years. So the state’s implacable casino monopoly stands firm, pouring millions into the war chests of only one political party.

Guess who wishes to preserve that cash-rich monopoly of untaxed gambling profits?

Profits from Indian gambling, by law, go untaxed. But that says nothing about voluntary contributions to states, as happens elsewhere. Nor do tribes — sovereign entities, to be sure — pay Minnesota’s stiff corporate income tax, which tops out at 9.8 percent, the third-highest in the nation."

Get the Story:
Gary Larson: Big casino money again thwarts racinos and their tax windfall (The Duluth News Tribune 7/21)