A powerful gambling foe said Friday he plans a legislative hearing next month on a controversial plan to bring the lottery into Minnesotans' homes with the popular video game Nintendo.
State Sen. Charlie Berg said he wants to convince lottery director George Andersen it's a bad idea to make Minnesota the first state to let people play the lottery at home using Nintendo equipment."If he doesn't pay attention, we could limit the amount of (lottery) advertising we do, which would be very detrimental to them," Berg said.
Andersen said he welcomes a hearing on the play-at-home system planned for a six-month test by 10,000 Minnesotans beginning next summer.
Lottery vendor Control Data Corp. of Bloomington will begin demonstrating the game Sunday at a conference of the National Association of State and Provincial Lotteries in Washington, D.C., Andersen said.
Two supporters of some forms of legalized gambling on the Senate Gaming Regulation Committee headed by Berg said they oppose a Nintendo lottery because of its effect on compulsive gamblers and children. It's illegal for minors to buy lottery tickets.
"It's like showing a dirty movie on television and saying the kids can't watch it. . . . It's only going to train young people to prepare themselves for the lottery world," said Sen. Joe Bertram Sr.
"We know about closet drinkers. I hope we don't develop closet gamblers," said Sen. Don Samuelson.
Senate Majority Leader Roger Moe said he asked Berg to hold the hearing, tentatively set for Oct. 25.
"The whole intent is to try to stop this kind of experiment. I think it's out of place for our state, out of character to put legalized gaming in people's homes and then to use as the model a children's game," he said.
Legislators could remove the Minnesota State Lottery's authority to test the game by amending the state's lottery law before next summer.
Moe said he doesn't dispute assurances from lottery officials and Control Data that the game will have built-in safeguards to prevent children from gambling, including personal passwords for users.
Lottery players would select numbers using the control deck from a Nintendo video game and a Minnesota State Lottery cartridge to hook up via a modem to the lottery's computer system.
Participants would have to deposit up to $200 in advance and no credit would be extended. Any winnings would be credited to their account, but prizes of $1,000 or more would be claimed through a lottery office. There would be a $50 daily limit for at-home players.
"The question is if an adult is doing that at home what kind of example is that for a young child?" Moe said.
Children already are exposed to the lottery because adults watch lottery drawings at home on television and scratch off tickets in their presence, Andersen said.
Betty George, executive director of the Minnesota Council on Compulsive Gambling, isn't convinced children won't be enthralled with the new game.
"My fear is for adolescents who are already at four times the risk of adults of developing a gambling problem," she said.