Who profits from e-pulltab device manufacturing and leasing? The stadium bill says that the devices will be leased to bars. I asked Rep. John Kriesel, the gambling bill’s author, who would benefit from this government created business. He never addressed this. Someone’s going to make millions off this, but the public has no idea who. I bet Rep. John Kriesel and others know. Why haven’t they told us?
"Follow the money" always is a sound way to begin analysis, yet it's been ignored by politicians and press.
Bars traditionally do cash business without credit card nuances and receipts being given. It allows a lot of pocket diversion that taxing authorities have to deal with. Pulltabs, traditionally done, seem to offer the same problem. Tracking and accounting and fair taxing of profit streams.
Presumably the e-bingo and e-pulltabs are intended to glom up the funnel, and keep things on the up-and-up. Okay, but how will the thing be bid and policed? Who gets what? Do the lottery management folks get to set things up via rule-making or is there a need for further express instructions and specifications from the legislature?
Who makes money off the thing and how much, before any barfly bets? That's uncertain, and open to abuse if the lawmakers and press are as inattentive to the question post-passage of the stadium bill as they were in hand-waving that income streams would be sufficient, or not, going into the process of granting Wilfare.
Do we need a barfly bingo sentinel? A czar of the bars? I have in mind a person for such sentinel duties, (depending on how local elections work out).
So, when do we see an answer: Whose pocket is lined in the process, before any e-pulltab is e-pulled in the bar? Who owns and profits from the infrastructure, i.e., how will that be fairly determined - with competitive bidding the only thought but with it unclear as to what firm(s) participate in and/or dominate such a niche market?
Was the bill aimed in the minds of some at some kind of corporate welfare beyond Wilfare?
We need to stay vigilent. The devil most likely will be in ensuing details.
___________UPDATE__________
One presumes that the new business will be dominated by the firm(s) presently supplying lottery betting distribution infrastructure, from printing and delivery of scratch gambling cards to the centralized database administration connected to from the remote networked terminals that log and dispense each and every gambling Hot Lotto and Mega Millions ticket. How concentrated is this industry, who dominates, how much lobbying for e-bingo/e-pulltabs came from there, and which legislators have been getting campaign contributions from these interests - consistently and/or recently?
It's all kept dark, murky and not up-front for citizens' review and contemplation. We are in effect told, "Nothing here to see, move on, don't block or obstruct traffic ...".
Reader comments are welcome if they can shed any light on the questions.
__________FURTHER UPDATE_________
Is the intent of the bill to remove the paper and cardboard pulltab operations from Minnesota's bars, allowing e-versions only, nothing else? There are a host of questions related to this possibility. And, do the bar owners prefer the paper/cardboard system as more flexible in accounting dimensions than an e-system would be? Would the bar owners want and be lobbying for parallel options, for bar-to-bar choice, or will it be a highly regulated thing where the "liberty" of the bar owners will be constrained?
Lots of interesting questions. Add to it, which legislators have bar ownership in the close family, and how did they vote?