E-pulltabs expand to MSP airport

Electronic pulltabs have made their debut at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

The first machine went live last week, and electronic pulltabs will expand to at least six establishments at the airport in the months ahead.

Setting up shop in a highly regulated and corporate location like the airport should help prove their viability to businesses that have not traditionally hosted gambling, said Jon Weaver of Express Games, the state's largest distributor of the new gambling devices.

"We're learning lessons out at the airport," Weaver said. "We'll learn things about marketing, about training and about accounting from these corporate concessionaires that are valuable lessons for us and will make our system better in the long run."

Weaver said that sales fell on a per-machine basis after the games made their debut but have stabilized. He said that was a good sign for future growth.

"We're very excited about where we see our numbers right now," he said. "We still need to improve wherever we can."

Electronic pulltab proceeds are earmarked to help pay for the Vikings stadium but have fallen short in initial returns.

Weaver said gamblers spent about $1.6 million on his games in January. The electronic pulltab games were initially projected to be taking in more than $100 million a month in bets.

E-pulltabs are expected to grow by more than a billion dollars, to a market near the estimated size of the state's tribal gambling operations.

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