Is this good news for the online gambling industry? Read it.

Hi guys,

While browsing around for the lastest news on our industry, I came across this article that was just released.

I thought it would make for an interesting piece of conversation. :popcorn:

Please read it and share your opinion.

Thanks,

Valen

Internet gambling approved by panel
By Don Davis, The Forum Communications Co.
Published Saturday, March 11, 2006

ST. PAUL – A House committee laid down three of a kind Friday.

Another panel now must decide whether to fold the bills, which would allow Internet gambling, an expansion to the Canterbury Park card club and a casino addition to Canterbury.

But the future is not bright for the trio, since Senate leaders don’t want to deal with gambling this year and Gov. Tim Pawlenty isn’t pushing it.

The House Gaming Division passed the three measures by voice votes Friday afternoon after initially defeating the Internet gambling one on a 4-4 tie. But Rep. Kurt Zellers, R-Maple Grove, returned to the Capitol a few hours after the initial vote, making the difference.

All three bills deal with Canterbury, a horse-racing park in the southern Twin Cities suburb of Shakopee. However, their approaches differ:

– Rep. Andy Westerberg,R-Blaine, proposes allowing Canterbury to open an Internet site to accept betting on all live and simulcast races it now hosts.

– Rep. Mike Beard,R-Shakopee, wants his hometown horse-racing track to be allowed to add an unlimited number of card games.

– Rep. Mark Buesgens,R-Jordan, calls for a constitutional amendment that would let Canterbury add slot machines to establish a facility known as a “racino.”

Westerberg, chairman of the Gaming Division, said he has been assured the bills will be heard in the Regulated Industries Committee, one of several stops the bills would have to make before reaching a full House vote.

A year ago, Pawlenty supported changing the state’s gambling laws; not so this year.

“We made an attempt at reforming and bringing fairness to gaming in Minnesota last year,” Pawlenty spokesman Brian McClung said. “We didn’t get very far. So from the governor’s perspective, he doesn’t expect much, if any, activity on that front this year.”

The Buesgens bill, and to a lesser extent the other measures, would provide more revenue to the state. House Speaker Steve Sviggum, R-Kenyon, said that may be needed if the Minnesota Supreme Court next month declares a 75-cent-a-pack cigarette fee unconstitutional.

Pawlenty thinks the state’s existing budget can handle any hole the cigarette fee could leave, McClung said, so gambling money is not needed.

A representative of American Indian tribes with casinos, John McCarthy, said the bills are nothing more than corporate welfare for Canterbury.

However, Canterbury representatives say they are losing money because other firms, mostly out of the country, are reaping benefits from people placing Internet bets on Minnesota races.

“People with a bank of computers are siphoning that off,” said Cort Holten of the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association. “They don’t have a dime invested in the Minnesota horse-racing industry.”

If Westerberg’s bill passes, the Minnesota Racing Commission would have to approve Canterbury’s plan to accept bets over the Internet. If that happens, Holten said, anyone whose finances have been approved could enter bets, as long as they have Internet access.

Westerberg said the bill would protect Minnesotans because it would regulate the one Internet gambling site. Existing Internet betting sites, many of which are illegal, offer no such protection, he said.

But Rep. Bill Hilty, DFL-Finlayson, said people who bet on fly-by-night sites take the risk on themselves.

“Wouldn’t we expect people to know better than to pay money to an entity that might not be there the next day?” Hilty asked. “It seems to me to be highly risky and foolish.”