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Bill to Block Minnesota's Gambling Ban Introduced by Rep. GarofaloWed, May 6th, 2009 @ 12:00am Minnesota State Representative Pat Garofalo (R-Farmington) introduced a bill this past Monday which would prevent Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS) from requiring Internet service providers (ISPs) to block state residents from accessing online poker and Internet gaming sites, without prior legislative approval. The bill comes in response to the letter sent by a division of the DPS (that enforces gambling and alcohol laws) last week that instructed eleven ISPs to block access to a 'black list' of nearly 200 gambling websites. Though Garofalo's bill would stop the Department of Public Safety from blocking access to websites without prior legislative approval, the DPS would still be able to recommend legislation to authorize investigations or enforcement actions. "Demanding that a private-sector Internet service provider block access to websites is not a proper function of our state government," said Rep. Garofalo. "I'm certainly not condoning online gambling," added Garofalo. "But I have serious concerns about government banning access to web sites. This is the kind of thing they do in communist China, not the United States of America. Besides, how about we focus on balancing the state's $6.4 billion budget deficit and not harassing Minnesotans anymore than Democrat legislative leaders are already trying to do."
Minnesota currently has legal forms of gambling, including lottery, pari-mutuel racing, pull-tabs, card rooms and 16 Indian casinos. Some industry observers have questioned whether the purpose of the online gambling ban was to protect these existing sources of revenue for the state. Read Related Articles:
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