Local PF Banquets

waterdog09

waterdog09

Active member
Just as a heads up to anyone looking to attend a banquet this year or in the future. The state of MN gambling control board has started to come down hard on PF and other non-profit groups for how banquets are run, and the games offered. Basically, tying the hands of groups as to the games they can offer and how those games are run. Sad to say our banquet next spring will look very different and from the sounds of some of the other chapters that were at our district meeting they are in a bind because some of them have banquets in the very near future and are now scrambling to figure out what to do. So, for anyone attending an event in the future if things look very different you can thank the state for it and go easy on the chapter or event organizer because their hands are tied!
 
MN, the nanny state. Waterdog, you've still got a lot of time. Here's one good thing that might be a possibility. Contact a local legion or vfw and see if you can run the raffle through them. If they sell pulltabs, they have a gambling license, and you could run things through their license. I heard of a gun club in MN doing this exact thing.
 
Bob Peters said:
MN, the nanny state. Waterdog, you've still got a lot of time. Here's one good thing that might be a possibility. Contact a local legion or vfw and see if you can run the raffle through them. If they sell pulltabs, they have a gambling license, and you could run things through their license. I heard of a gun club in MN doing this exact thing.
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We already run our banquet at a Eagles club. Problem is the state of MN requires all non-profits to get their own gambling licenses for events like banquets. A lot of the new rules we need to follow have been around for years but never enforced and now they feel the need to come after non-profits like PF & DU, etc... So we have to abide by them or face civil and possibly criminal penalties if we are found breaking them. Needless to say, there were a lot of angry people at our district meeting.
 
The non-profits will need to band together and push for some legislative change. A couple key issues are: guests not being able to use debit cards for raffle tickets and the 50k cap on total prizes without a paid gambling manager. In between the advent of digital payment methods (Square, Venmo, etc.) and inflation, the landscape for fundraising has changed significantly, and the gambling laws in MN simply haven't kept up. This is not just a PF issue--DU and a local club I'm involved with are having all the same problems.
 
I went to your banquet last year. Too bad this is coming down the pike now. Especially when the purpose is to raise money for wildlife habitat.
 
nater said:
The non-profits will need to band together and push for some legislative change. A couple key issues are: guests not being able to use debit cards for raffle tickets and the 50k cap on total prizes without a paid gambling manager. In between the advent of digital payment methods (Square, Venmo, etc.) and inflation, the landscape for fundraising has changed significantly, and the gambling laws in MN simply haven't kept up. This is not just a PF issue--DU and a local club I'm involved with are having all the same problems.
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Exactly! We never have allowed the use of CC's for raffle tickets, but we did in the past allow CC's to be run for cash at the door. This is still a grey area but sounds like we can still do it?
 
waterdog09 said:
Exactly! We never have allowed the use of CC's for raffle tickets, but we did in the past allow CC's to be run for cash at the door. This is still a grey area but sounds like we can still do it?
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Using a CC to get cash at the door, then using said cash to buy tickets, does seem to be a reasonable workaround of the prohibition on using credit cards to gamble (directly). We had people use debit cards to buy tickets in advance. Gambling board said how do you know it wasn't a CC? And apparently we couldn't differentiate with our payment system. So had to refund EVERYONE that used a card, then have them mail in checks or pay cash/checks at the door for what they previously used a card for. It was a nightmare.
 
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