Minnesota is taking the lead on e-gambling

do the math: The Vikings stadium deal is unleashing the biggest expansion of Minnesota charitable gambling in 25 years while ushering in electronic gaming on a scale not seen anywhere else in the country. Vendors of the new electronic pulltabs and bingo games already are visiting the Twin Cities, hoping to nab a lucrative contract. Distributors are hawking their services to the state's 1,200 nonprofits and charities that hold gambling licenses. The stakes are high. Minnesota's $1 billion-a-year charitable gambling industry, which funds everything from softball teams to VFWs to fire departments, is being counted on to generate $348 million in taxes to underwrite the state's share of the cost of a new Vikings stadium. Meanwhile, Minnesota suddenly finds itself in the vanguard of charitable gaming. Electronic pulltabs, a game played on an iPad-like device with computer graphics and sound, are expected to boost gambling revenue by attracting younger and new customers. But the new technology can be found in just a handful of states, such as Idaho, Illinois and Florida, and only on a limited scale. That has the Minnesota Gambling Control Board scrambling to hire technology-savvy staffers to oversee games played on cardboard for decades. "Our work is just beginning," said Tom Barrett, executive director of the Minnesota Gambling Control Board. "Bingo has been legal since 1946. Pulltabs since 1985. This is the first time they've really changed." Colleges in America (TheStreet) [?]