Charitable Gambling Taking Big Hit with Closed Bars
UNDATED -- Nonprofits that rely on charitable gambling to raise money have been hit hard by the closure of restaurants and bars to dine-in customers.
Allen Lund in the Executive Director of Allied Charities of Minnesota. He says not being able to sell pull tabs for nearly two months is going to be a very big hit.
We're talking $7 million a month that we are not able to put into our communities, that is a tremendously large number. And then we send into the state almost $10 million a month in taxes.
Lund says, besides paper and electronic pull tabs, charitable gambling also includes other games like bar bingo and meat raffles.
He says he remains hopeful that the Governor will allow bars and restaurants to open up again soon.
We believe the bars, the state, the restaurants, and the charities can all work together to get us back into business and we do hope that it's next week.
Lund says the Gambling Control Board is putting together a list of what will need to happen for charitable gambling to safely open up again moving forward.
No matter what Lund says he believes it will take a long time for the revenue from charitable gambling to get back to what it was before COVID-19.