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Casino Backers Protest Slot Bill
ST. PAUL -- Waving mock pink slips, hundreds of tribal members
and casino workers gathered Tuesday at the Capitol to protest a
bill that would outlaw video slot machines.
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."
Several legislators spoke at the rally, including Senate Majority
Leader Dean Johnson, DFL-Willmar. He said tribes and casinos are
facing "difficult days."
"If Indian gaming had not been successful, as a matter of
economics you wouldn't be on the Capitol steps today," Johnson
said. "As always here in the public debate, it gets to be about
money."
Protesters from several casinos throughout the state rode buses
to the Capitol to join the rally. Some carried signs reading, "No
slots, no jobs" and "One job, family of four -- thanks
to Indian gaming."
Banning video slot machines would hurt businesses that contract
with the casinos, such as vendors and the tourism industry, said
Catherine Colsrud, a Mille Lacs Band member and assistant general
manager of Grand Casino Hinckley.
"I think it has the potential to hurt a lot of people,"
she said.
The jobs that would be affected aren't only held by American Indians,
said Todd Strusz, vice president of marketing for Grand Casino Mille
Lacs and Hinckley.
"Those dollars that are influxed into the communities -- it
helps from the grocery stores to the restaurant owners to the retail
outlets," Strusz said. "That disposable dollar that is
being made through Native American gaming is spent among the non-Native
community tenfold."
Banning slot machines also would hurt programs such as the Mille
Lacs Band's language and culture program, said one of its employees,
David Matrious. The program teaches children and adults about Ojibwe
culture and language in hopes of preserving them, and it relies
exclusively on casino revenue for funding.
If the bill passed, "it would put a severe crunch into specialized
programs," Matrious said.
The program's director, Larry "Amik" Smallwood, said
if the casinos were to go under, many of the workers would end up
on welfare, costing the taxpayers more in the long run.
"It's happened to us before," Smallwood said.
Knoblach said he's disappointed casino operators are "misleading
their employees" and scaring them over the bill.
"This is all about trying to renegotiate the compacts,"
he said. "I think people understand we're not likely to get
rid of the slot machines."
Minnesota has the right under the compacts to ban slot machines,
Knoblach said, so the bill isn't breaking any agreements.
He said the state is at a "crossroads" with gambling,
with new proposals for casinos or racetracks being proposed all
the time. Knoblach said he'd prefer reining in future gambling.
"We're going to expand gambling all over the place, or we're
going to have some sort of renegotiation that restrains that,"
Knoblach said.
Source: St Cloud Times
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