TEXAS HOLDEM ONLINE POKER

A welter of gambling bills — for a so-called "racino" at Canterbury Park, for a huge Las Vegas-style gambling and entertainment complex at the Mall of America and for a north suburban casino to help poverty-stricken northern Indian tribes — all seemed dead in the Legislature on Saturday night.

But gambling will be an issue in many House campaigns this fall, and those bills are likely to resurface in the Legislature next year.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty said in January that non-Indian Minnesotans want a "better deal" out of Texas Holdem Poker gambling. Since then, his staff has engaged in secret talks with representatives of the tribes that currently have a monopoly on casino gambling.

Those talks have been delayed because some of the Ojibwe tribes are in the middle of tribal election campaigns that will be decided in June.

Success by Pawlenty in persuading the tribes — especially the Mdewakanton and Prairie Island Sioux communities that operate hugely profitable casinos in Prior Lake and Red Wing — is the one thing that might keep an influx of new bills seeking private casinos from dominating next year's legislative session.

Pawlenty and his chief of staff, Dan McElroy, have talked vaguely about what they hope to get out of the tribes: a deal, similar to the one Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle negotiated, under which the tribes would make substantial payments to the state in return for a guarantee of a continued Indian monopoly.

Doyle's deal, which he struck without legislative approval, was struck down last week by the Wisconsin Supreme Court. But Pawlenty insisted he can legally get what he wants.

If the tribes do not reach a deal with Pawlenty, the owners of Canterbury Park, the owners of Caesars Entertainment in Las Vegas and all the other Texas Holdem Poker gambling entrepreneurs hoping to cash in on Minnesotans' love for gambling will be at the Capitol next year.

If that happens, look for gambling money to flood into legislative campaigns.

Records for last year showed that tribes made 23 percent of the total donations to the Senate Democratic-Farmer-Labor campaign committee. And people associated with Canterbury or other gambling companies donated about 3 percent of the money collected by the House Republican campaign committee.

The Canterbury Park racino plan passed the House last year, and revenue from it was built into House Republicans' budget-balancing plan this year. But Senate DFLers never accepted it.

Some Republicans, who oppose almost any other expansion of Texas Holdem Poker gambling, supported the Canterbury plan because the racetrack already has pari-mutuel betting and high-stakes poker games.

The Caesars Entertainment proposal for a Mall of America casino was the biggest and the most lucrative gambling plan that legislators considered this year. Backers said it would yield an upfront licensing fee to the state of up to $200 million and up to $250 million a year in new gambling taxes.

One of the special attractions of a Mall of America location is the possibility that many of the gamblers would be tourists spending their vacation money, rather than Minnesotans losing their mortgage payments.

But Bloomington legislators vehemently opposed the plan, saying it would destroy the mall's family atmosphere.

In the last week of the session, Senate Tax Committee Chairman Larry Pogemiller proposed a new Indian-operated Twin Cities casino. The proposal probably would yield at least $100 million a year for the state, and it would benefit poor northern tribes that have missed the gambling boom that produced earnings reported at $1 million a year for each member of the Mdewakanton tribe.