Agenda - Council Work Session - 04/03/2007

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3 - CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION Topic Report: Charitable Gambling By: Heidi Nelson, Interim City Administrator Diana Lund, Finance Officer Background: Currently, the city has three charitable gambling organizations within the city. They include the Ramsey Lions, Climb Theater and Anoka Ice Arena. The City of Ramsey last updated the ordinance for charitable gambling in 1994. Staff is requesting consideration of revisions to the ordinance to reflect the current economic trade area and business volume in Ramsey. Staff has met with representatives of the Ramsey Lions Club with regard to their concerns about the broad definitions of trade area and location of the entity conducting charitable gambling business in the city. The specific areas of proposed changes include: . Ramsey's ordinance does not require the physical site for the organization headquarters or the registered business office to be located in the City. Given the growth in the Ramsey community and organizations over the past 13 years, Council may consider revising the ordinance to require the organization be from Ramsey (or a smaller defined regional area). This would be consistent with our neighboring community of Andover; Anoka recently removed this requirement from their code. Council could consider grandfathering in those organizations that currently hold a license but are not located in Ramsey or could review those applications at such time they are up for renewal. . In the current ordinance, the trade area is defined very broadly. Given the growth in the Ramsey community since the ordinance was last revised, Council may consider reducing the trade area to those communities that are more reflective of to day's trade area, such as Ramsey, Anoka, and Bums Twp. The current ordinance includes Ramsey, Anoka, Andover, Bums Twp., Elk River, and Dayton. . Currently, the city collects 3% of net profits to the city's Lawful Gambling Fund. In a review of percentages collected by other communities, most are in the 10% range. Staff would recommend consideration of an increase to 5%.