Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Mall of America may double in size-if Minnesota approves a casino

Across the border in Minnesota, the Mall of America has rolled out an expansion plan which would double the size of the mall, with one condition: Minnesota has to approve a casino for the mall expansion. Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty has already suggested that the state partner with three northern Minnesota tribes to take advantage of the opportunities in the Twin Cities.

There are two morales to this story. First, another large casino in Eastern Minnesota is going to apply pressure to Wisconsin tribes to improve their own casinos or lose business out of state, which means we haven't seen the last of Governor Doyle's expansion of gaming. The second is no politician (outside of maybe Scott McCallum) is ever going to seriously try to halt casino expansion as long as they can cut their state in on a bigger and bigger piece of the pie. Politicians love the additional money too much.

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