349.18 Premises used for gambling.
Subdivision 1. Lease or ownership required. (a) An organization may conduct lawful gambling only on premises it owns or leases. Leases must be on a form prescribed by the board. Except for leases entered into before August 1, 1994, the term of the lease may not begin before the effective date of the premises permit and must expire on the same day that the premises permit expires. Copies of all leases must be made available to employees of the board and the division of alcohol and gambling enforcement on request. A lease may not provide for payments determined directly or indirectly by the receipts or profits from lawful gambling. The board may prescribe by rule limits on the amount of rent which an organization may pay to a lessor for premises leased for lawful gambling provided that no rule of the board may prescribe a limit of less than $1,000 per month on rent paid for premises used for lawful gambling other than bingo. Any rule adopted by the board limiting the amount of rent to be paid may only be effective for leases entered into, or renewed, after the effective date of the rule.
(b) No person, distributor, manufacturer, lessor, or organization other than the licensed organization leasing the space may conduct any activity other than the sale or serving of food and beverages on the leased premises during times when lawful gambling is being conducted on the premises.
(c) At a site where the leased premises consists of an area on or behind a bar at which alcoholic beverages are sold and employees of the lessor are employed by the organization as pull-tab sellers at the site, pull-tabs and tipboard tickets may be sold and redeemed by those employees at any place on or behind the bar, but the tipboards and receptacles for pull-tabs and cash drawers for lawful gambling receipts must be maintained only within the leased premises.
(d) Employees of a lessor may participate in lawful gambling on the premises provided (1) if pull-tabs or tipboards are sold, the organization voluntarily posts, or is required to post, the major prizes as specified in section 349.172; and (2) any employee of the lessor participating in lawful gambling is not a gambling employee for the organization conducting lawful gambling on the premises.
(e) A gambling employee may purchase pull-tabs at the site of the employee's place of employment provided:
(1) the organization voluntarily posts, or is required to post, the major prizes for pull-tab or tipboard games as specified in section 349.172; and
(2) the employee is not involved in the sale of pull-tabs at that site.
Subd. 1a. Storage of gambling equipment. (a) Gambling equipment owned by or in the possession of an organization must be kept at a permitted premises owned or leased by the organization, or at other storage sites within the state that the organization has notified the board are being used as gambling equipment storage sites. At each storage site or permitted premises, the organization must have the invoices or true and correct copies of the invoices for the purchase of all gambling equipment at the site or premises. Gambling equipment owned by an organization may not be kept at a distributor's office, warehouse, storage unit, or other place of the distributor's business.
(b) Gambling equipment, other than devices for selecting bingo numbers, owned by an organization must be secured and kept separate from gambling equipment owned by other persons, organizations, distributors, or manufacturers.
(c) Paddlewheels must be covered or disabled when not in use by the organization in the conduct of lawful gambling.
(d) Gambling equipment kept in violation of this subdivision is contraband under section 349.2125.
(e) An organization may transport gambling equipment it owns or possesses between approved gambling equipment storage sites and to and from licensed distributors, if the invoices or true and correct copies of the invoices for the organization's acquisition of the gambling equipment accompany the gambling equipment at all times and are available for inspection.
Subd. 2. Exceptions. (a) An organization may conduct raffles on a premise it does not own or lease.
(b) An organization may, with the permission of the board, conduct bingo on premises it does not own or lease for up to 12 consecutive days in a calendar year, in connection with a county fair, the state fair, or a civic celebration.
(c) A licensed organization may, after compliance with section 349.213, conduct lawful gambling on premises other than the organization's permitted premises for one day per year for not more than 12 hours that day. A lease for that time period for the exempted premises must accompany the request to the board.
Subd. 3. Proceeds from rental. Rental proceeds from premises owned by an organization and leased to one or more other organizations for the purposes of conducting lawful gambling shall not be reported as gambling proceeds under this chapter.
Subd. 4. Prohibition. (a) An organization may not pay rent to itself or to any of its affiliates for use of space for conducting lawful gambling.
(b) An organization may not pay rent for space for conducting lawful gambling from any account or fund other than the organization's separate gambling account.
Subd. 5. Certain agreements prohibited. An organization may not enter into or be a party to a lending agreement under which any of the organization's receipts from lawful gambling are pledged as collateral for a loan.
HIST: 1976 c 261 s 8; 1984 c 502 art 12 s 12; 1986 c 467 s 18; 1987 c 327 s 17,18; 1989 c 334 art 2 s 27,28; 1990 c 590 art 1 s 31; 1991 c 233 s 109; 1991 c 336 art 2 s 26,27; 1994 c 633 art 5 s 74-76; 1996 c 467 s 6; 1997 c 129 art 2 s 15; 1998 c 322 s 4
Official Publication of the State of Minnesota
Revisor of Statutes