...about the effect of the smoking ban on charitable gambling.

Most pull tabs are sold in bars, and a Minnesota Gambling Control Board study released in March showed gross receipts for lawful gambling decreased more than $40 million in the last three months of 2007 compared to the same period a
year earlier. The ban took effect Oct. 1, 2007.

Updated data through the first seven months of 2008 show gross receipts down 13.7 percent, according to the gambling board. Ultimately, that could amount to a decrease of $95 million to $105 million a year, according to a March 31 Star Tribune news report.

She asks whether it was the intent of smoking ban proponents to starve the charities, and if not what should be done.

Labels: economics, Minnesota