Gaming figures don’t add up
Saying that the people don’t think the figures in this article don’t add up is an understatement:
Figures released by the Dayton administration project a 229 percent growth in sales at the Hoffman senior center, the highest figure in the state, in percentage terms.
“Our people wouldn’t go for that at all,” said Darlene Christensen, CEO of the Hoffman Senior Citizens Club that serves about three-dozen people daily. It offers meals, a weekly craft activity and a foot clinic. Christensen is skeptical about the $100,000 in new sales the state thinks the bingo operation could get.
“Aw, get off my back. No way.”
It’s silly to think that a town of 672 people could grow from a $900-per-week bingo game to over $100,000 a year e-pulltabs game.
State revenue commissioner Myron Frans concedes that the numbers may not add up in Hoffman. But he said they’re still valid overall.
For one thing, the state’s projections assume the number of places to gamble will jump by a third, and that growth will likely be uneven, big in some places, nonexistent in others.
Saying that “growth would be uneven” is spin for saying ‘We have no idea how this will work’.It’s shameful that Gov. Dayton, Commissioner Frans and Sen. Bakk are proposing such a financing plan for a major project like the Vikings stadium.
It’s time to pull the plug on this stadium financing plan. It’s unstable at best.
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