When it comes to gambling — online and offline — Minnesota is on the conservative side. The state’s legal body in charge of regulating the industry is the Minnesota Gaming Control Board. It allows limited forms of gambling that are regulated.
The list of activities that made it to the small list of Minnesota’s legal gambling includes charitable events with games of chance, as well as tribal casinos and a couple of racetracks. Funnily enough, those racetracks are allowed to offer poker games. Lotteries are also allowed although they differ greatly from what other states usually offer.
Online gambling, as well as sports betting, are excluded from the list of allowed activities, as are commercially operated casinos. We do know however that there are talks of some legislators willing to legalize sports betting online and offline. These are currently projects, not bills. It will take the state a while before any of these initiatives can turn into signed laws.
The residents of the state are allowed to own slot machines at home — not in commercial sizes, of course, but with a recreational or decorative purpose. While being very conservative towards most forms of gambling, Minnesota surprisingly requires slots owned by individuals to be at least a couple of decades old. Many other states, even more liberal, usually have a threshold of at least thirty years.
