Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Following a meeting with local organizations, the City Council appears ready to allow the devices in Hopkins establishments.
City officials are ready to welcome electronic bingo to Hopkins following a meeting Tuesday night with local charitable gambling managers and the businesses that host their organizations. The managers said they’re fine with allowing electronic bingo in Hopkins as long as it doesn’t pave the way to full-scale bingo halls that would hurt organizations already running bingo games. “Times change. You have to go back and look at why times changed and where we’re at,” Mayor Gene Maxwell said. Legislators last year allowed charities to use electronic gaming devices under the theory that they’d lead to an increase in charitable gambling—resulting in more money for both the charities and the state, which already gets a cut of charitable gaming. The…
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Bingo is currently limited to organizations that host games in locations they own and operate.
The City Council could take up the issue of electronic bingo in January, City Manager Mike Mornson announced at a work session after Tuesday’s council meeting. Hopkins’ existing legislative policies only allow organizations to host bingo games in locations they own and operate. That prevents organizations, including those that already conduct pulltab games in local bars, from using electronic gaming devices that also include bingo. Legislators allowed charities to use electronic gaming devices under the theory that they’d lead to an increase in charitable gambling—resulting in more money for both the charities and the state, which already gets a cut of charitable gaming. The state is counting on increased pulltab use to help pay for about …
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
The Hopkins Youth Hockey Association asked for a policy change Tuesday so that it can use the devices for electronic bingo.
The Hopkins Youth Hockey Association has become the first organization to formally ask the city to allow electronic gambling devices that the Legislature is counting on to fund the new Vikings stadium. Angela Quale, the organization’s gambling manager, asked the City Council on Tuesday for a policy change that would allow the organization to use electronic bingo. “I guess our big fear of it is that if St. Louis Park and Bloomington bars and restaurants start doing it, we’re going to lose business to those establishments because we can’t offer it,” Quale said. The change is needed because the electronic gaming devices the association would use include both electronic pulltabs and electronic bingo—with pots that may reach $150,000, Quale …
Fabuladico
4:04 pm on Friday, November 23, 2012
Ah yes, nothing like teaching our youth well. Remember when the state wanted scratch offs? They told us it would lower our taxes because of all of the revenue the scratch off would generate. Anybody out there ever see those lower taxes? The thing is, that a electronic bingo would pave the way to slots, and then electronic roulete, then casinos. In the end, we'd make a lot of money for the folks … more ›