70589 Info

Some analysts say Disney and, by extension, Orlandos entire tourism industry has good reason to be wary of casinos. Though adult-oriented resorts in South Florida are unlikely to appeal to Disneys core audience of families with young children, they could siphon away travelers in narrower segments that are also important to the resort, from South Americans to conventions to weddings.

Disney has lots of little pockets or niches that theyre really good at getting market share in. And it adds up, said Duncan Dickson, a professor at the University of Central Floridas Rosen College of Hospitality Management. Disney doesnt want another Las Vegas anywhere close to them. Who needs the competition?

Disney has always opposed efforts to expand gambling.

The Walt Disney Co., one of the most brand-protective companies on the planet, does not want to jeopardize its kid-friendly reputation by any association whatsoever with casinos and the taboo images they often conjure. The companys cruise line is the only major operator to sail ships without onboard casinos, which are typically one of the biggest generators of on-board spending.

Weve studied this issue carefully and remain opposed for many reasons, said Disney spokesman Mike Griffin, including the fact that it is inconsistent with Floridas brand as a family-friendly destination and with the efforts weve long supported to diversify Floridas economy through research, innovation and entrepreneurship.

The legislation to be considered in Tallahassee would authorize three destination casinos in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. Each would boast a luxury hotel, shops, restaurants, convention space and casinos with every major game, from blackjack to roulette and craps. Any company awarded a casino license would have to spend at least $2 billion building the facility.

Las Vegas Sands and Wynn Resorts, both based in Las Vegas, and Genting, a Malaysian-based resort developer, are among the companies expected to seek licenses. Genting has already spent more than $300 million to buy bay-front property in downtown Miami and has announced plans for a $3.8 billion resort.

All have promised they will create thousands of jobs in South Florida, making the deal attractive to lawmakers hoping to lower the states 10.6 percent unemployment rate.

Analysts say anyone that invests that much capital to build a resort also will have to spend lavishly to market the property. At a minimum, that will force Disney to ramp up its own spending on advertising, eroding its profit margins.

Anytime youve got to fight and compete with more marketing dollars, which you know these folks have in abundance, it makes Disneys job that much harder to battle against, said Vicki Johnson, a tourism-marketing expert in Orlando.

More specifically, casinos could prove attractive draws in key markets for Disney. Executives at Genting, for instance, have said they would market heavily in Latin America.

November 6

With gambling question,the jobs count the most

Kennebec Journal Staff

One of my early attractions to newsrooms was the intriguing collection of characters and rogues who practiced their craft in settings that were mostly dark and dingy, but somehow conveyed an energy that was both raw and fine-tuned.

They reminded me of my days at the racetrack as a kid. The track was a place that not only offered an oasis for a horse lover but also put you in the midst of hardscrabble men and women who eked out a living in a tough and unforgiving sport.

At both places, the newspaper and the track, you found hard-working people who had the glint of adventure in their eyes, who relied on wits and talent to survive and felt no need to conform to the structure of society beyond their own environment. Those who worked there, in fact, often created their own society of friends who depended mostly on one another, exclusive of the outside world.

Racetracks, horses and horsemen held an allure and fascination for me. In Maine, there is a strong tradition of harness racing that is a way of life for many, both as a job and as a spectator sport.

We have a chance this week to preserve that sport, to help it grow and continue to be part of a tradition that makes us special. Question 2 on Tuesdays election ballot, if approved, will provide a shot in the arm for Biddeford and Washington County by allowing development of racinos featuring harness tracks and slot machines.

Have you been to either Biddeford or Washington County lately? I have, and they need economic help. Its that simple. Building these facilities will immediately create construction and real-estate related jobs and put money in Maine workers pockets. Once built, the facilities will need many full and part-time employees.

Hollywood Slots in Bangor says it has more than 400 employees and attracts up to 80,000 visitors a year. Drawing from the close proximity to New Hampshire and Massachusetts, can you imagine how many people will come to Biddeford?

Reillys Bakery, a generation upon generation business in downtown Biddeford, will have to double its shifts to keep up with all the people buying cream rolls and lemon meringue pies.

Through the years, I have owned and run a newspaper in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. In that town, Mohegan Sun bought a racetrack, put in slots, and now is developing a world-class hotel. The racino has already drawn restaurants to the facility, including a Ruths Chris Steak House. The owners have given generously of time and money to Wilkes-Barre and surrounding communities. They have changed life there, for the better. Ocean Properties will develop the Biddeford project and it has a long history of developing world-class hotels and other properties. If you want an example of how Ocean Properties has positively affected a single community, take a drive to Bar Harbor. The beauty of the drive will do your soul good, and even though the tourists are gone, you will see that the towns best hotels are those owned and operated by a Maine familys company, Ocean Properties.

Or go to the Samoset in Rockport to see how Ocean Properties restored what is among the states most famous resorts and golf courses.

My Bangor roots give me solid knowledge of Ocean Properties owners, Tom Walsh and his family.

I grew up hearing stories about the entrepreneurial efforts of Tommy Walsh. He built the Holiday Inn and he built this and he built that, the stories went, and then he expanded his business around the country and later around the world. There is no better example of a man from humble Bangor/Brewer beginnings who through hard work, incredible focus and grit became a success, improved communities and provided thousands and thousands of jobs.

Now in his 80s, he is still as hard-working and focused as ever. Hes still growing his company and hes never lost his dedication to Maine.

The Biddeford racino developers have promised that revenues from the track and facility will put about $35 million back into the state: a total of $32 million will go into the states general fund and there will be a guarantee of $3 million for college scholarships. And to those who are either opposed to slot machines or are saying that we have enough casinos in Maine with one in Bangor and another under construction in Oxford, I say: Are you nuts?

Ever heard of free enterprise?

This is not a case of the Field of Dreams line, Build it and they will come.

No. This is a case of build one closer to Maines largest population, in Southern Maine, and build one in a remote part of the state, Washington County. Then let them compete in the open, fair, free-enterprise market.

And slot machines?

We have the lottery. We have pari-mutuel racing. Betting, gambling, games of chance are all around us, all the time.

Personally, I love it all. Before I was old enough to look a racetrack teller in the eye, Id stand around the betting window at the Bangor track, waiting for some family friend to come around and place a bet for me.

When I was older, but still a teenager, I did odd jobs at tracks. I drove the water truck, jogged a few horses, sold programs and tip sheets at county fairs.

I loved the life around the tracks and their Runyonesque characters.

As I traveled the country working for newspapers, I lived in cities with harness racing tracks, but none had the feel and tradition of Maine tracks.

The racino in Biddeford will be a far cry from the circuit I frequented in Maine many years ago. It will be first class and a destination for dinner, entertainment, and a caliber of harness racing this state has never seen.

We have a Maine family prepared to spend at least $120 million to give us a chance at jobs, a chance to improve Biddeford, and a chance to preserve and grow the great Maine tradition of harness racing.

And if you look at a map from east to west and north to south, we will be giving people in all areas of the state a chance to benefit, as Bangor has and as Oxford surely will, from economic growth and jobs and tourists. And the state will get more money.

We need to approve Question 2. Its a safe bet.

NEW YORK Nov 5 (Reuters) – As the US economy stubbornly
resists stimulus efforts, New Jersey and Maine are among
several states betting on a simpler way to fill their coffers:
gambling.

Both northeastern states are holding Election Day
referendums to increase the once-outlawed practice, following
states such as Massachusetts and New Hampshire that have
already embraced gaming to boost revenue and jobs in tough
times.

Maine will gauge support for a new casino and slot machines
at two race tracks, known as racinos, while New Jersey is
seeking to overturn a federal law prohibiting sports betting.

When states experience economic hardship, they turn to
gaming, said Cory Morowitz, chairman of Morowitz Gaming
Advisors. Post-2008, almost all gaming increases are related
to the economic downturn.

A recent push to build casinos and increase slot parlors at
race courses, particularly in the Northeast, echoes similar
moves elsewhere in the early 1990s when economic recession
hit.

States whose residents pop over the border to spend — and
generally lose — their hard-earned gambling cash, are looking
to increase betting opportunities in their own backyard to keep
the money in state.

This fall, the Massachusetts legislature approved three
casinos and one slots parlor in a bill under which 25 percent
of casino revenues and about 50 percent of slots revenue would
return to the state. In New Hampshire, a House legislative
panel last week voted to permit two casinos. The proposal still
faces several legislative hurdles.

Outside the Northeast, Minnesota lawmakers struggling to
find a way to provide public funding for two-thirds of a
proposed $1.1 billion Minnesota Vikings football stadium have
floated several options to expand gambling in the state.

They include permitting slot machines at horse racing
tracks, allowing electronic pull-tabs at bars and restaurants
and a private casino in downtown Minneapolis.

Illinois, which is among the most financially strapped
states, in May voted to authorize new casinos that could
generate up to $1 billion a year, including one in Chicago.
Governor Pat Quinn, worried about the states reputation for
corruption, has threatened to veto the plan unless it is
slimmed down and includes more oversight.

If the referendum passes in New Jersey as expected, it is
just a first step on the long road to making it legal to gamble
on professional, college or amateur sporting events by placing
bets at casinos and racetracks in the Garden State.

That kind of betting is outlawed by federal law except in
Nevada and Delaware. Passing the referendum would set the stage
for New Jersey to file a lawsuit to overturn the federal ban
within its borders too.

State lawmakers return to Springfield Tuesday to begin the final three days of their annual veto session.

Its OK to feel a sense of dj vu.

When they arrived to start the session two weeks ago, lawmakers faced dealing with issues like gambling expansion, budget balancing, pension changes and regional school superintendent pay.

When they return, they will face dealing with issues like gambling expansion, budget balancing, pension changes and regional superintendent pay.

Lawmakers are scheduled to be in session Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Heres where things stand as they head into the home stretch.

The budget

Working groups of House and Senate budget experts met several times last week to discuss options for plugging holes in the current state budget. That includes both finding money to avoid layoffs and facility closures ordered by Gov. Pat Quinn and to beef up spending on human-service programs cut last spring.

Some of the cuts were very severe, said Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, D-Chicago, chair of the House Appropriations-Human Services Committee. Were getting responses from providers about some pretty dire consequences.

So far, though, theres no agreement on what to do, or even when.

Its not soup yet, said Sen. Matt Murphy, R-Palatine, the Senate Republicans point person on the budget. There is an effort to try to prioritize (spending) within the spending limit that was set. Its a question of whether or not we will be successful or when.

Both Murphy and Feigenholtz indicated some budget decisions could be postponed beyond the veto session because it will take a supermajority vote to reallocate money now.

Quinn has urged lawmakers to sustain the $376 million in vetoes he made to the budget and redirect the money to other uses. However, $276 million of that was cut from Medicaid. Murphy and Feigenholtz both said those bills will have to be paid sometime.

It is reallocation of debt. It is not real money, Feigenholtz said.

We dont consider that real savings, Murphy said, noting that there are other areas in which to find money. Lawmakers actually put more money into the pension systems than was required this year, he said, and there is $54 million in violence-prevention funding thats been sitting unused. That alone would cover the cost of keeping state facilities open and avoiding layoffs, he said.

Feigenholtz said lawmakers are concerned about Quinns proposed facility closures that include the Logan Correctional Center and the Jacksonville Developmental Center, particularly since they do not seem well planned.

We are all concerned about doing it safely, she said.

Lawmakers will also be asked to consider a package of business tax breaks intended to keep Sears and two commodities exchanges from moving out of the Chicago area. The package could include a higher earned income tax credit for low-income wage earners and a higher income tax deduction. Funding would come from eliminating another business tax break.

Gambling

Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, said last week the Senate will take up a revised gambling expansion bill when lawmakers return. It will not be the framework for an acceptable gaming bill outlined by Quinn.

It will look a lot like the bill that we already passed, said Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, lead negotiator on gaming legislation in the House. What the governor proposed cannot pass.

Quinn said he was OK with five new casinos, but would not accept slot machines at horse racing tracks. The gambling expansion bill was never sent to Quinn for his signature, but he said he would veto the bill if it arrived on his desk as is.

We cannot pass a gaming bill (in the House) that leaves out slot machines at race tracks, Lang said. I think the governors attitude about slots at racetracks is a slap at the agricultural community.

Lang said the revised gaming bill may require some adjustments to the fairgrounds. The original bill allowed slots at the Illinois State Fairgrounds with the revenue to be used for capital improvements there. Lang said that if the new bill deletes slots at the fairgrounds, a provision will be included to pay for capital improvements on the grounds, possibly through a grant from gaming revenue.

With Quinn threatening to veto a bill that contains slots at tracks, lawmakers will have to pass an expansion bill with a veto-proof majority. Lang said he thinks that is possible because many lawmakers are upset with the governor.

The threatened closure of facilities and the desire of the governor to leave agribusiness out of the gaming bill have left some legislators pretty ticked off, he said. You saw in the Com-Ed bill what happens when legislators get angry.

Lawmakers quickly and decisively overrode Quinns veto of a bill giving Commonwealth Edison and Ameren financial incentives to upgrade their infrastructure.

Regional superintendents

Its now been four months and counting since regional school superintendents received a paycheck from the state. During that time, three have left the job and another is headed out the door. Several assistant superintendents, whose salaries were also eliminated by Quinn, have left.

A bill is pending to pay regional superintendents with money from the personal property replacement tax. It had an inauspicious debut. It failed on an initial vote, but it may be reconsidered this week.

Madison County regional superintendent Bob Daiber believes misinformation about the bill is partly to blame. Some local governments that now share in the personal property replacement tax thought the regional superintendent bill would take away all of their money and lobbied against it. Regional superintendents have been out trying to convince lawmakers that wont be the case. They need to secure 71 votes in the House for the bill to pass. It got only 59 on the first try.

Daiber said late last week that the regional superintendents have make progress securing the necessary votes, but they didnt have them yet. The bills sponsor, Rep. Frank Mautino, D-Spring Valley, could not be reached for comment.

Lawmakers do not believe overriding Quinns veto of the salary money is a realistic option. Quinn could still refuse to release the money, putting regional superintendents right back where they are now.

Pensions/state employees

A plan to change pension benefits for current state employees could still come up, although an increasing number of lawmakers have doubts it will surface during the veto session. The plan would require employees to either pay more to keep their benefits, accept a less lucrative plan and pay less, or join a 401(k)-style plan.

Sara Wojcicki Jimenez, spokeswoman for House Minority Leader Tom Cross, R-Oswego, said Republicans plan to file an amendment to the bill next week. She declined further comment.

A study conducted by actuaries for the Teachers Retirement System determined the plan is flawed and could actually cost the state more money rather than save on pension costs.

Lawmakers could also consider a resolution sponsored by House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, that would set limits on union pay raises that could be negotiated by the Quinn administration next year. Madigan said that will essentially give lawmakers a voice in the upcoming negotiations, talks from which they are usually excluded.

The resolution, if adopted, says the General Assembly will not fund wage or benefit increases beyond an amount to be set by the House Revenue Committee.

Committee chairman Rep. John Bradley, D-Marion, said he and the ranking Republican on the committee, Rep. David Harris of Arlington Heights, will determine that number next week.

Well sit down in a bipartisan manner and try to arrive at a reasonable amount, Bradley said. I dont know how long it will take to come up with that number. I dont know if well get a vote next week.

The resolution, which must be approved by both the House and Senate, is not binding on Quinn.

He can choose to ignore it, but it probably will not go over too well, Bradley said.

Clean coal

Lawmakers could vote again on legislation that would enable construction of a $3.5 billion clean coal technology plant in Taylorville. The bill was defeated on an initial vote during the first week of the veto session.

Cullerton is sponsoring the bill. A spokeswoman said Friday a decision hasnt been made about trying another vote. A spokesman for Tenaska, the company that would build the plant, could not be reached for comment.

Doug Finke can be reached at 788-1527.

With Pennsylvania on pace to next year overtake New Jersey as the busiest gambling mecca in the East, Atlantic City casinos are trying to lure gamblers back with attractions that cant be found in the Keystone State.

You want blackjack at poolside? Done.

You want to gamble while buying shoes? No problem.

Editors Note: Information is coming in slowly as we try to start this column, but for our first installment, State Senator Jamie Eldridges office has graciously provided us with the details of what he voted for and against last week. 

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Supplemental Budget:

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The Senate voted unanimously Thursday to pass a spending bill that allocates $153 million for state budget accounts and adds $350 million into the rainy day fund. Highlights of this supplemental budget include:

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-$6.2 million to assist communities affected by the ice storm from March of 2008, and $2.8 million to assist communities affected by last year’s flooding.

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- $12 million for trial court administration, with language delaying any court closures or relocations until the new civil court administrator is appointed.

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- $9.5 million to temporarily expand the state’s Low Income Housing Tax Credit.

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- $8.2 million for the DTA clothing allowance, which will allow DTA to continue to provide a full $150 clothing allowance to children in extremely poor families.

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- $7.8 million to address other human service cuts from last year’s budget, including funding to mitigate cuts to rape crisis centers, the Department of Children and Families, and the Department of Youth Services

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- $6 million to ensure that the state maintains its policy of 10 day bed holds for MassHealth nursing home patients.

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Senator Eldridge voted YES on the supplemental budget.

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Expanded Gambling:

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The Senate continued debate on the expanded gambling bill yesterday. Amendments voted on by the Senate include:

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-          AMENDMENT 102, ADDITIONAL FUNDING FOR COMMUNITY MITIGATION – This amendment, which was offered by Senator Eldridge, would have raised the tax rate on casinos from 25% to 30%, and dedicated the extra funding to community mitigation. The amendment failed, 9-27. Senator Eldridge voted YES.

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-          AMENDMENT 166 – CATEGORY 2 LICENSES: This would have removed the license for a slot parlor in the casino bill. The amendment failed, 12-24. Senator Eldridge voted YES.

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-          AMENDMENT 37 – JOBS INCENTIVE TAX CREDIT: This amendment would create a tax credit for employers who have a net increase in jobs created over the course of a calendar year. Such employers are thus entitled to a deduction in liability otherwise imposed by Chapter 62B, Section 2. To defray the potential cost of the tax revenue not collected by the state, 10%  of category 1 gaming revenue currently slated to be spent by the Economic Development Fund would be deposited in the General Fund. This amendment failed, 4-32. Senator Eldridge voted NO.

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-          AMENDMENT 40 – STABILIZATION FUND: This amendment would delay the transfer of state revenues from category 1 gaming to the various funds provided for in Section 59. Rather than transfer the revenue to the funds immediately, as the bill does, this amendment provides that the funds go into the Stabilization Fund (Rainy Day Fund) until all 4 of the gaming establishments have been in operation for 5 years. This amendment failed, 4-32. Senator Eldridge voted NO.

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-          AMENDMENT 87 – SALES TAX REDUCTION: The bill as being considered provides that a combined 12% of the state revenues from category 1 licenses shall be transferred to a newly created Economic Development Fund and the newly created Local Capital Projects Fund.  That money instead will be placed in the General Fund, and used to help ensure revenue neutrality when reducing the state sales tax, currently at 6.25%, to 5 percent. This reduction will take place in a two-step process, with the first reduction cutting the sales tax to 5.625 percent, and then another reduction to 5 percent. This amendment failed, 9-27. Senator Eldridge voted NO.

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New Jersey voters should approve sports betting in the states casinos and racetracks.

ALTHOUGH VERY few New Jersey voters will be motivated enough by this years state legislative elections on Tuesday to actually go out and cast their ballots, one question on the ballot should compel voters to rethink that decision. This year, voters are being asked to allow the Legislature to legalize sports betting at the states casinos and racetracks.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Raymond Lesniak, D-Union, essentially puts New Jerseys name on a waiting list should the federal government decide to lift a ban on sports betting in most states. The ban could be lifted by congressional action or through a decision on a federal lawsuit. Today, sports betting is legal in Delaware, Montana, Nevada and Oregon, and, of course, takes place illegally throughout the country.

Surprisingly, there has been very little publicity about the ballot question. Interests on both sides of the issue, including the state Chamber of Commerce, Atlantic City Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Casino Association of New Jersey and the New Jersey Thoroughbred Breeders Association (which represents the interest of the horseracing community in the state) have done little in the way of publicizing the ballot question. Neither have opponents of legalized gambling, including the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling/Stop Predatory Gambling, which argues that legalized gambling exploits individuals and the communities in which it exists.

Lesniak has spearheaded the relatively quiet effort to approve the question, and last week the issue received a halfhearted endorsement from Governor Christie, who said he was going to vote for the measure, and then follow the voters directive.

New Jersey voters should approve this measure.

Sports betting is a burgeoning industry, and if New Jersey is unwilling to compete for gaming dollars, neighboring states will. Objections to legalized sports betting tend to center on three areas: advocacy for addicted gamblers, moral objections and the impact of legalization on sport. Those who advocate for compulsive gamblers say that widespread availability of legalized gaming venues increases both the number of potential compulsive gamblers exposed to gambling, and increases availability to those already addicted to gambling. But the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey takes no formal position on the ballot issue.

In some political cultures, there is an objection to the morality of gambling. But in a state that already has various forms of legalized gambling including lottery, casinos and racetracks, it would seem that that train has already left the platform.

Finally, those opposed also point to the possibility that sports betting will taint professional and college sports, with bets driving sports outcome. Noting the impact of sports betting on the 1919 Black Sox scandal, and point-shaving by college sports teams in more recent times, opponents argue that legalizing sports betting will have a deleterious impact on sport.

Part of the ballot question seeks to address these concerns — if the measure is approved, any law would ban acceptance of bets on any college sports that takes place in New Jersey or in which teams from New Jersey are participating. The reality is that, in the dozens of cases of allegations of points shaved or betting by collegiate athletes, nearly all have occurred in illegal gambling settings. If anything, legalized sports betting would take what already occurs around water coolers at the office, in bars and online, shed light on it, and perhaps smoke out some of the potential corruption associated with illegal wagering.

In Nevada, where sports betting is a large sector of the gaming industry, $2.4 billion was bet on sports book in 2009; it climbed to $2.76 billion the next year, a 12.5 percent increase. The house take on sports bets is comparatively low: about 5 percent of all bets (around half of its take on table games), with the remains being doled out to winners.

But in New Jersey, the potential revenue generated by sports betting would come in various forms: increased revenue seen by casinos and racetracks will be taxed, as will those winnings, which now are just being passed across the bar. And creating a sports betting industry in the state would create jobs — so essential to so many right now. Sports betting also could provide part of the equation in terms of revitalizing tourism in the state, particularly during big sporting events like the Super Bowl.

In 2009, a Fairleigh Dickinson University Public Mind poll found that 63 percent of New Jerseyans approved of legalized sports betting in Atlantic City casinos and racetracks. Yet last month another FDU poll indicated that only 11 percent of New Jerseyans knew a great deal about Tuesdays ballot question. So if you are one of the many voters underwhelmed at this years largely non-competitive legislative elections, go out and vote for the sports betting ballot question.

Brigid Callahan Harrison is professor of political science and law at Montclair State University, where she teaches courses in American government. She is a frequent commentator in print and electronic media on state and national politics.

ST. PAUL, Minn. The drive by the Minnesota Vikings to line up state money toward building a new football stadium regained momentum Thursday, just several hours after it seemed to fall apart for the year.

Gov. Mark Dayton, who a day earlier had proclaimed the effort in limbo, met with state lawmakers who support the stadium subsidy. The teams lead allies in the House and Senate said they would introduce a detailed stadium proposal soon with tax proceeds from some type of gambling expansion as the likeliest chief funding source then air it in public hearings, with a goal of passing a plan before the regular legislative session starts in late January.

I would hope this would all be wrapped up and put away and done, and in a bipartisan spirit, before session starts, said Sen. Julie Rosen, R-Fairmont, the lead Senate supporter. Dayton said hed let lawmakers take the lead on the issue for now; despite Rosens optimism, House Speaker Kurt Zellers reaffirmed in an interview on WCCO-AM that he was not in favor of a stadium session.

Rosen and her House colleague, Rep. Morrie Lanning, said the main sticking point to introducing a stadium bill is nailing down funding sources. Dayton and lawmakers have agreed to not use any state general fund dollars, and the prospect of participation from a local government host site went out the window earlier in the week because too few lawmakers opposed exempting such participation from a voter referendum.

That leaves the Vikings preferred approach, a $1.1 billion stadium in a suburban area north of the Twin Cities, lacking a $350 million chunk that the prospective Ramsey County hosts promised to raise via a half-cent sales tax hike. Three other sites in downtown Minneapolis are also under consideration. The Vikings have committed to spending $407 million and possibly more on the site in Arden Hills, which team owners prefer over the Minneapolis options.

The Vikings have sought a replacement for the Metrodome for most of the last decade, saying the downtown Minneapolis venue is no longer sufficiently profitable. Team officials have refrained from directly threatening to leave Minnesota if they dont get a new stadium, but Dayton and other supporters have said they take such a scenario seriously.

Lanning said several options under discussion to expand the states menu of gambling offerings appeared to be the likeliest way for the state to raise stadium funds.

It seems to me that the only way were going to be able to get the support we need for a facility like this, and get the revenue we need, is through gaming being some part of it, said Lanning, a Republican from the northwestern Minnesota city of Moorhead. Were in the process of evaluating these proposals, but I frankly dont think we can put a deal together unless theres gaming revenue thats a part of it.

Supporters of expanded gambling have tried and failed to gather legislative approval for at least as long as the Vikings have chased funds for a new stadium. More gambling has been a tough sell at the Capitol, with opposition from some who call it socially destructive and from Minnesota Indian tribes who see unwanted competition for their casinos.

For the state to pay for a new Vikings stadium with predatory gambling dollars means the state will be preying on the citizens its supposed to be protecting, said Tom Prichard, executive director of the Minnesota Family Council, a conservative advocacy group.

But Dayton, too, has said recently that gambling tax revenue looks like the best source, specifically singling out electronic pull-tabs an updated version of an old game of chance played in the states bars and restaurants. The Minnesota charities that profit from pull-tabs, along with the eating and drinking establishments that host them, have sought for several years the authorization to upgrade to the more slot machine-like electronic tabs.

It seems to me reasonable people can come up with something that allows all of us to come away with a win. I think its doable, King Wilson, executive director of Allied Charities of Minnesota, said of tying new gambling tax proceeds to stadium construction.

Allied Charities represents about 3,200 licensed charitable gambling sites whose proceeds traditionally help fund everything from veterans organizations to youth sports leagues. The group has offered paper pull-tab games since the mid-1980s, but its long wanted to offer an electronic version to attract new and younger customers and help a bar and restaurant industry battered by the recession.

Also still under discussion is a longstanding proposal to allow two Twin Cities horse-racing tracks to offer video slot machines, and a more recent bid by a Minneapolis developer to build a casino downtown. But either proposal would face much stronger opposition from the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association, which represents 11 casino-owning state tribes.

Its a different story with the electronic pull-tab proposal. The associations director, John McCarthy, said the group does not support it, but wouldnt actively oppose it.

We dont see anything new there other than a different way to present the pull-tabs than theyre already selling, he said.

Dayton said Thursday that a senior member of his staff had been in touch recently with lobbyists for two tribes that operate lucrative casinos in the state.

Certainly, the incarceration of former captain Salman Butt and fast bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir sent shockwaves through the relatively parochial acres of international cricket.

A victory, any victory, in the battle against spot-fixers and match-fixers is always to be welcomed.

Yet the bitter truth is that the court case which brought the conviction of the Pakistan trio took us nowhere near to the criminal gangsters who organise the corruption of cricket and many other sports. It took us not a step closer to a solution to the serious threat to worldwide sport caused by the existence of vast illegal betting markets in Asia.

Butt, Asif and Amir were small fry in the problem of the fixing of sports events. So was the agent, Mazhar Majeed, also convicted in their case following a newspaper sting.

There was no substantial evidence about the gangsters who mastermind betting scams in sport, only oblique mentions of a Mr X in Dubai and testimony from Amir that he had been warned to stay silent.

These were referred to in court by the judge, Mr Justice Cooke, who said: ?The reality of those threats (against Amir) and the strength of underworld influences who control unlawful betting abroad is shown by the supporting evidence in documents from the anti-corruption unit of the International Cricket Council (the world governing body).?

Cricket is but one of many sports at risk of destruction by the cancer of gambling corruption. Football, tennis, snooker and sumo wrestling have all had recent major scandals.

Listen to Jacques Rogge, president of the Olympic movement, who fears this threat is even greater than doping and performance-enhancing drugs.

?Each instance that comes to light undermines confidence in sport, which can lead to spectator apathy and drops in attendance, TV viewing and sponsorship,? he

Miami (FL) at North Carolina O/U 48.5

Miami head coach Al Golden pointed to alack of continuity and injuries as the two main reasons for last weeks defensive letdown at Virginia Tech. After being held to a field goal by Clemson, the Hokies racked up 482 yards at 7.7 yards per play en route to a 38-35 win. At 0-2 in ACC play, Saturdays game against North Carolina is critical for the Hurricanes.