Gambling's Toll Obscured In Minn. Stadium Push
VADNAIS HEIGHTS, Minn. (AP) -- Backers of state funding for a Minnesota Vikings have keyed on taxes from expanded gambling as the likely financial centerpiece of their plan, but the social consequences of more gambling have not been a major focus of the debate.
The Vikings want to build a replacement for the Metrodome that's likely to cost more than $1 billion. With general tax increases off the table at the Capitol, several gambling proposals have taken center stage. Those include authorizing electronic pull-tabs at bars, allowing video slots at two horse-racing tracks, or approving a new downtown Minneapolis casino.
Suburban St. Paul resident Randy Ringaman lost nearly two decades of his life to compulsive gambling and attempted suicide in 2004. He says the state's appetite for gambling money reminds him of his own addiction.
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