The city council has directed staff to repeal and replace Edina's current lawful gambling ordinance, a move that would allow ongoing charitable gambling in the city. Edina is one of the only major suburbs in the metro area that does not permit ongoing charitable gambling. The issue gained renewed attention last year when the Dina Education Fund asked the council to reconsider the policy to allow nonprofits to run charitable gambling such as pull tabs on an ongoing basis at specific locations. >> That is just one other way that we can tap into our community. It allows us to be able to not only support our local businesses that are craving the ability to be able to do this and bring more revenue streams into our local restaurants, also be able to offer our city another way to be able to bring in more funding. But for our local nonprofits to be able to feed back into our community, it allows our student groups to be able to get more funding. It allows us to be able to build up our revenue streams for things like our mental health programs, our student groups, our student athletes, um more upkeep in our student facilities, all of these things that every single year we run dry on. It's just one more way for us to improve every hornet every day. Charitable gambling is widely used across Minnesota as a way for nonprofits to support community programs and services. In fact, Minnesota is the largest charitable gambling state in the country. In 2024 alone, charitable gambling generated 2.3 billion in gross receipts and 712 million in net receipts after prizes were paid. Pull tabs make up most of that activity, accounting for about 96% of revenue, followed by bingo at just over 3% with raffles, paddle wheels, and tip boards making up the remainder. Under the direction from the council, staff will draft a new ordinance that would allow up to three premise charitable gambling permits in Edina. That ordinance will be brought back to the city council for consideration at a future meeting. >> In doing um my research, it really shows that uh most cities have probably no more than two or three premise permits. We don't know for sure what the need will be. So, it I think it makes sense for us to start out slowly and then ramp up as we see the needs of the community and the nonprofit uh organizations. This step opens the door for local nonprofits to explore a new fundraising option while allowing the city to carefully shape how charitable gambling would operate in Edina. Enough.