This is what it’s come to in Minnesota: The state is now planning on spending money to encourage residents to gamble more in bars, in hopes that they’ll generate enough revenue to pay for the new Vikings stadium. Which they almost certainly won’t, so the state is considering selling more lottery tickets, too. Or maybe letting people bet on computer-generated horse races. And some people are extremely not happy, though the not happiest appears to be the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association, which is not happy because this would mean competition for its casino revenues, not not happy because the government is trying to raise money by getting drunk people to gamble their paychecks away.
And in case you’re wondering how much gambling it takes to build a football stadium, The Deets has an estimate for you: 94 million hours’ worth. As Deets proprietor (and MinnPost writer) Ed Kohler notes: “When Governor Dayton talks about the jobs the Vikings stadium creates, he shouldn’t focus solely on construction workers. He should also consider the 21 gamblers he created to subsidize each of those construction jobs.”
As long as a certain DHS program’s budget doesn’t increase, it just might work…. if MN residents become crazy addicted to gambling in ways they couldn’t before.
http://mn.gov/dhs/media/news/news-detail.jsp?id=252-56447
MN launches a specialized site called get gambling help .
Minnesota is really pathetic.
Maybe additional revenue streams are needed. For instance, the state could lower the drinking age to 16 or 17, impose new taxes on wine coolers and beer and then run a promotion in high schools linking manliness, drinking & watching football on TV.
The athletic programs in high school here in California are hurting more than ever financially. More cutbacks are inevitable. I know the situation is dire in other states as well. Is legalized gambling the answer? Have we run out of meaningful idea’s in raising money for high schools yet burn the midnight oil trying to figure out “creative” (and I use the term loosely) ways to finance professional football/baseball/basketball stadiums?
We paid handsomely for Governor Dayton and it was money well spent. He’ll dance a jig upside down and naked in the middle of a busy downtown street if we demand it, because raising our funds is his top priority.
We the People? Hah! We the NFL, baby!
santa clara jay – or legalizing marijuana & taxing the hell out of it.
Dean – gambling only works if people have the money to waste on it. And of course with a bad economy, it won’t bring in nearly as much as politicians say it will. Personally I think it’s terrible to introduce another evil into society solely for the purpose of revenue. It’ll satisfy a need somewhat, but it will create more problems.
Piggy Wilf – …yeah.
Good thinking santa clara jay, instead of school fundraisers (with those silly brochures of snacks/wrapping paper) and car washes we’ll just send all the school children home with epulltab machines and they’ll collect a small premium to offer the “to the home” service.
Nevermind that kids today would probably find an ipad game that looked similar and pocket the money.