Who will come out a winner in a high stakes reshuffling of Minnesota's gambling industry? The northern tribes are a safe bet. The northern tribes--White Earth, Red Lake and Leech Lake, could use some luck. Far away from the Twin Cities, they represent some of the lowest income people in the state. They have not benefited from the lucrative casino operations closer to the metro area. Gov. Tim Pawlenty's visit to White Earth last week to talk with leader there about gambling seems to have set off a chain reaction, starting with the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe. MPR's Annie Baxter has that part of the story:

The Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe is holding firm on its stand not to share casino revenues with the state. Mille Lacs' tribal chair Melanie Benjamin gave her State of the Band address on Tuesday, praising the band for protecting its "economic livelihood" from Gov. Pawlenty and the Legislature. But Benjamin made another announcement that still keeps the band involved in the casino profit-sharing debate.

In August, she wrote the governor a letter, offering a few proposals for how the band could make economic contributions to the state. Since then, her relations with the governor have soured. But Benjamin still wants to pursue some of the ideas she had floated with him, including the idea of a charitable foundation. In her 'State of the Band' address, Benjamin elaborated the concept.

"I have sent a proposal to the Band Assembly that outlines a plan to partner with other metro-area tribes to create a foundation. The purpose of the foundation would be to provide grants to those Lakota and Ojibwe tribes in rural Minnesota whose people are not doing as well as some of us," she said.

Benjamin's plan is counter to a proposal that's been kicking around the Capitol for a few years Pawlenty may be getting ready to sign on to. It would allow for the construction of a new casino in the north metro suburbs. The state lottery would operate the casino and the state and the northern tribes would split the profits. The political advantage to the plan is that some urban DFLers in the Senate support it.

That may be one reason why the northern tribes don't like the last minute suggestion by Melanie Benjamin. Here's another quote from Baxter's story:

So the Mille Lacs Band's announcement raises a question: Is the band offering financial assistance to the northern tribes in order to thwart their deal with the state?

"Absolutely. It isn't even a suspicion. I'd say it is the reason," says Erma Vizenor, chief of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, one of the tribes that met with Gov. Pawlenty. Vizenor says she's not enthused about the Mille Lacs Band's plan to lend a hand.

"We want to earn our own revenue. We don't to take what we regard as charity from other tribes," she said.

And while the tribes are having political issues, how about things back at the Capitol? The gambling issue there is creating allies...against gambling. This is from MPR's Michael Khoo:

A coalition of anti-gambling groups has re-emerged in response to Gov. Pawlenty's recent overtures to the tribes.

Citizens Against Gambling Expansion -- CAGE -- includes religious leaders and conservative think-tanks who oppose increasing the availability of casino gambling.

It's not often that the Joint Religious Legislative Coalition joins forces with the Taxpayers League. But they've revived the CAGE alliance first created during earlier gambling debates. They're calling for a halt to any new casino proposals. Brian Rusche, the executive director of the religious coalition, says gambling creates more problems than it solves.

"It necessitates more losers than winners. It produces nothing of value. It creates no new wealth. So from a faith perspective, it's corrupt. It's empty. We should not go down this road," he said.

Rusche cited studies that show gambling increases the incidence of divorce, bankruptcy, child abuse, and violent crime.

Both Khoo and Patrick Sweeney in the Pioneer Press point out that the new group and its president Jack Meeks get some funding from tribes that own big casinos. Sweeney bears down on it:

Top House and Senate Republican leaders, who support putting a state-sponsored casino at the Canterbury Park racetrack, questioned the propriety of Meeks taking money from the tribes while trying to keep the state from getting a share of the profits from Minnesota's huge gambling industry.

"If he was a politician, I would say it's hypocritical," House Speaker Steve Sviggum, R-Kenyon, said of Meeks. "I would say it's just a little disingenuous."

Referring to Meeks and others associated with the anti-gambling group, Sviggum said, "They're being paid and supported to take a position. It would have a lot more credibility if Indian gaming money wasn't there to provide the result Indian gaming wants."

Senate Minority Leader Dick Day, R-Owatonna, a longtime supporter of putting a state-sponsored casino at the Canterbury Park racetrack, accused Meeks and the group of being "front men" for Indian casinos.

For a while it looked like the gambling issue was moving to the back burner. Now once again it looks like the hottest game in town. But there's one big question left to be answered. If the Legislature approves some new form of casino gambling (and that's still a big if) how would the state spend the revenue? Gov. Pawlenty has said he doesn't want to use the money to balance the budget. He says it should fund "extras" for the state. But he hasn't defined that, and the prospect of more money for things like schools, health care, and all the other good things the state does could be very tempting.