Charitable Gambling Ordinance

I support charitable gambling in Minnetonka, fun pastime while out to eat as well as reinvesting back into the community.

Charitable gambling is a great way to have fun while out to eat, and also support different charities. I have personally seen the benefits to our local youth sports. The funds from charitable gambling keep the fees low and provide scholarships to families who may not otherwise be able to play sports.
In addition, it will provide millions of dollars in revenue to the city of Minnetonka.
Currently other cities are benefiting from the fact that people will choose to drive an extra 2 minutes to an establishment that will allow them to play pull tabs. That is revenue we are missing out on as a city, and our local charities are also not receiving.

Let's join the rest of our well educated, well funded, like minded neighboring cities and approve charitable gambling!

This is a great idea that will benefit Minnetonka and the non-profit organizations that will be able to receive these funds.
The financial benefits from Charitable Gambling allow youth sports to keep costs down and accessible for all families and the funds from Charitable Gambling benefit small businesses, charitable organizations, and other community organizations such as the Fire Department, City Police, etc.
It's a win-win!

I hate this idea. There are no family studies that say this is good for families or even for individuals. It's not about money, it's about health. I strongly encourage a "NO".

What a horrible idea!
Minnetonka- Sin City
You may as well add prostitution and drugs to the Minnetonka list.
Isthis just for the 10% revenue to the city?

Will more gambling make Minnetonka a better place to live?

Absolutely NOT! please!!! There is a reason why Minnetonka is far more educated and safer than communities that do allow gambling in liquor establishments. It’s a recipe for complete disaster and financial instability within families and young adults! Please do not allow this!

Please pass this ordinance for Minnetonka! We are losing quite a bit of money to Hopkins and St. Louis Park. Including my own families! If people don't like gambling, they are not forced to partake. Let those of us who enjoy pull tabs and other forms of casual gambling enjoy it in our home city.

I support charitable gambling in Minnetonka, this will help the bar/restaurant business in Minnetonka vs those who want to gamble go to other surrounding communities to do so, might as well help our community versus others. Sounds like a no brainer.

I am firmly opposed to the proposal to allow expanded gambling in Minnetonka.

I believe that the city council has a responsibility to act in the best interest of the community. For me, this means being able to identify the expected benefits, costs, and risks of a proposal and only pursuing those that can demonstrate the highest likelihood of achieving the greatest positive impact. At this point, I do not believe there have been any expected benefits identified to support expanded gambling in Minnetonka, but there are numerous costs and risks that have been identified by research and community members on both sides of this proposal.

The notes from the city council meeting on May 20, 2024 state that “The potential revenues from lawful gambling cannot be estimated at this time.” It seems that there should be numerous ways to estimate the potential city revenue from this proposal, or if it is truly not possible to estimate, it may be necessary to test it out. With no expected benefits identified, there is nothing to suggest that expanded gambling would be a good choice for our community.

The negative impacts of gambling to individuals and communities have been widely established by a large amount of research. Charitable gambling has been characterized as taking advantage of people with addiction challenges and those least able to afford the losses. And childhood exposure to gambling has been shown to increase the likelihood of future gambling and other addictive behaviors. Additionally, I wonder about the potential impact to safety on our roads. If charitable gambling encourages more frequent and/or longer visits to businesses selling alcohol, it seems reasonable to expect an increase in alcohol related driving incidents. I believe there would also be costs to the community to establish and enforce new laws related to expanded gambling. These costs and risks would need to be identified and outweighed by the potential benefits before I could be convinced that expanded gambling is good for the community.

I appreciate the council members’ time and consideration of the public comments provided, and I hope that the council members will choose to put the community first and vote to deny this proposal to expand gambling in Minnetonka.

I support and encourage changing the ordinance to support lawful gambling, which will benefit city tax collections, adults who want to exercise their free will to participate— or not — and the establishment owners who should be encouraged to grow their business in the city.

It makes no sense that a federal law has legalized U.S. gambling, but the same business owner of both The Scoreboard sports bar in Minnetonka and JJ’s sports bar in St. Louis Park must operate under two different city policies where gambling activities like pull tabs and football numbers can be sold in one bar restaurant but not the other.

Liquor is sold with the idea adults can choose responsibly to partake, and the same should be applied to soft gambling in Minnetonka establishments. Gambling is already here to stay in lottery tickets, legal poker and casinos and racetracks.

I agree with the concept of allowing charitable gambling in Minnetonka. Many of the previous comments make the rationale for it. I am concerned about the 70 percent of gross profits clause and would want that fully set out so that groups are able to comply with easy to understand language as to what the trade area is geographically or however that is defined.

Looks like a lot of talk about pull tabs, but under Minn. Stat. §§ 609.75 Subd 8. it looks like there is a possibility that this could be used for video poker as well.

It's amazing how many different hands dip into that Charitable Gambling Pot and how little actually gets to the charity.

Yes, I support this. It keeps the money local. It could attract businesses to Mtka and encourage customers to bring their business here. It's fun. I don't participate, but I believe it could be a plus for our community.

I am 100% for the ability of our restaurants to have charitable gambling.

There is no reason this shouldn’t pass. If an establishment holds a liquor license, its staff is familiar with following tight regulations.

As someone who shared in pulltab winnings of $500 in March and $400 in April, both in St. Paul bar-restaurants, it was a gas! Bring the excitement to Minnetonka. Even when you lose, you win by supporting local activities. And pulltabs is mostly a fun “group” activity vs something a person does alone —addicted gamblers choose casinos, not charitable gambling. See no harm in allowing Minnetonka businesses to add it if they choose.

I think it would be a great addition and a great way to give to the community. Unfortunately a lot of times I choose to dine in SLP or Hopkins because of pulltabs and bar bingo.

Very much against. What with recreational marijuana, alcohol, now gambling...none that enhance the lives of Minnetonka residents and families. It always seems to come down to money and not what is right.