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E-pulltabs still not available in Fergus
Published 11:27am Monday, December 10, 2012Part of the plan to pay for the new Minnesota Vikings stadium is a tax on new electronic pull tabs, but pulltab vendors around the state, including those in Fergus Falls, are not jumping on board as expected.
The Eagles, VFW, American Legion and Mabel Murphy’s offer pull tabs in Fergus Falls, but none have taken on the new electronic option.
“We have no intention of going to it,” said Eagles manager Denny Tysver. “It has been brought up at meetings, but it’s too new. The reports we have been getting are that it isn’t working right.”
The system has too many glitches, and the process of getting it started just isn’t worth it, he said.
“There’s so many weird things you have to do,” he said. “Individuals have to get the machines, and it’s just really weird. People like to go get them from a human rather than buying them from a machine.”
American Legion Post 30 gambling manager Kaye Lindstrom said she hasn’t heard enough information on the new system to make the leap to electronic pull tabs.
“We have had a couple presentations, and it’s something a lot more companies will get into,” she said. “We’re waiting to see what happens, and we’re waiting to learn more.”
Advocates for electronic pull tabs say this is a brand new form of gambling, and it will take a while for people to get used to it.
Harvey Belton, who manages the pulltab operation at Mabel Murphy’s, said the main reason he hasn’t embraced the new pull tabs is because he hasn’t heard much about it.
“Nobody approached Mabel Murphy’s or came to pitch the idea,” he said. “I’ve only heard what everybody else heard on TV. I really don’t know how it operates or anything. I would have assumed somebody would have been going around pushing them.”
One general conclusion for many is that electronic pull tabs don’t offer the comfortable, physical process of popping open tickets.
“People who play tickets like to go up to a person, buy tickets and have a little human contact,” Tysver said. “The people who come here have played them several times and like to play them the old fashioned way.”
Lindstrom said it’s a matter of people getting used to them and working out the issues.
“There’s definitely some potential in it,” she said. “We just have too many questions that need to be answered.”
