Minnesota Meat Raffle Rules Change August 1st: What It Means In St. Cloud

(KNSI) – Minnesota meat raffles can play for a lot more meat this fall.

A change in state law that took effect August 1st raises the maximum merchandise prize for a paddlewheel spin from $70 to $200 and lifts the top ticket price from $2 to $5. Cash prizes stay capped at $70. Lawmakers from both parties backed the change, largely because the old limits had not moved in more than 30 years while the price of beef and pork climbed.

The practical effect will be up to the bar and the charity running each game. At MT’s on 8th in St. Cloud, owner Colin Freihammer says he does not plan to make many changes right off the bat, but calls the higher ceiling a safety net worth having as meat gets more expensive.

Saturday afternoons are typically slow for a neighborhood bar. The raffle is how MT’s fills them. “It’s just to put butts in seats at the end of the day, and we, you know, you don’t want to change what works great. People love meat raffles. We keep having them.”

MT’s starts its season the first Saturday after Labor Day, September 12th, at 2:00 p.m., and runs every Saturday through the Saturday before Memorial Day. The meat comes from Maple Lake, and the bar adds $25 gift cards and drink specials.

The money from the MT’s raffle goes to the St. Cloud Youth Hockey Association, which uses it to hold down ice time, equipment and travel costs for families. Gambling manager Nikki Semenski, who has run the association’s charitable gambling for about 11 years, says the association supported the higher limits. “The big thing with people across the state is that meat prices are just getting so high, and so what we used to be able to afford for our meat raffles, it just doesn’t look like much anymore. So it’s nice to have the opportunity to increase those prize amounts.”

What that means for players walking in on a Saturday afternoon is mostly nothing, at least this season. “People really like our format there at MT’s, of how we do meat raffle. We get a pretty good turnout every Saturday. And I think they like the affordable price point of it being a dollar ticket. We’ll probably stick with the same for now. But it’s nice at least to have the option.”

Semenski says she expects the higher price point to be used more in bigger cities than in small towns, and sees it at MT’s as something to save for a special event. The raffle is not the association’s largest fundraiser, but raffle days bring in players who also buy pull tabs and e-tabs, which makes those Saturdays some of the group’s best. The association runs raffles at several other St. Cloud-area sites as well, staffed by volunteer groups, with that money going to other youth sports and school programs.

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