The Duluth, Minnesota city council will vote this week on City Councilor Howie Hanson’s resolution to open a city-owned casino at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center. The resolution is in response to the city’s recently passed street fee, which would replace the million in annual payments the city received from the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa’s downtown casino, and used toward street maintenance. The tribe stopped paying rent to the city in 2009; the case is winding its way through the courts.
“They called that the street fee. I call it the casino revenue replacement fee,” Hanson said. He hopes the city can work out a deal with the tribe by the end of the year. But if that’s not possible, the resolution urges the state legislature to change gambling laws to allow city-owned casinos. “The responses that I’m getting from legislators, from people all over the state is almost deafening in terms of its time might be here,” Hanson said.
Hanson said a casino in DECC’s Pioneer Hall could generate more revenue than the Fond-du-Luth casino revenue-sharing arrangement. “Imagine if we could set aside $6 million every year, if we could set aside $8 to $10 million to fix our streets,” Hanson said.
Fond du Lac Band Chairwoman Karen Diver said, “The gaming market is already saturated by existing mature operations. Mr. Hanson’s idea is not new and has been part of the city’s past rhetoric.”
