Column: Looking Shakopee Tribe's gift in the eye
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Filed Under:
Opinion
"Good deeds, such as the Shakopee tribe's gift to the University of Minnesota's new football stadium, deserve not be punished. No, they should called what they are -- a generous manifestation of the gambling monopoly handed to indigenous tribes by the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988, then furthered in Minnesota by then-Attorney General Skip Humphrey in 1989, on the watch of a hands-off Gov. Rudy Perpich.
The largest single gift to the athletic department ($12.5 million) derives from those untaxed tribal gambling proceeds, much of it plucked from the poor, sort of a tax on down-on-their-luck jackpot-dreamers and gamblers of babies' shoes and the rent money. Choices are being made, perhaps pathologically for some, afflicted with an urge to win or to escape reality in a clockless casino where the house always wins; that's guaranteed.
The Star Tribune's editorial ("Shakopee tribes' gift is jackpot for U," Oct. 22) exclaims, without foreboding or a hint of shame, that it's "unfortunate that some critics have used the [Shakopee tribes' gift] to reignite debate over non-Indian gambling in Minnesota." What?
Debate is usually a good thing. Truth tends to emerge, if it's lucky. Don't look now, but the Mdewakanton Sioux Community's tax-free casino monopoly in the Twin Cities is maintained by politicians of a certain stripe."
Get the Story:
Gary Larson: Look at the monopoly that enabled the gift
(The Minneapolis Star Tribune 10/25)
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Relevant Links:
Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community -
http://www.ccsmdc.org
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