Seeing dollar signs at every turn of Mark Twain’s Mississippi River, a candidate for governor of the state of Minnesota is campaigning on the promise of bringing floating casinos to the Mississippi River. Hard pressed to find legitimate sources of revenue for poverty stricken states, many candidates are catering to gamblers and a state budget from their revenue.

The latest candidate to promote gambling for the good of the state is Rob Hahn. He is challenging Tom Horner and is running on the IP ticket. The area that he is projecting to legalize riverboat gambling to aide in generating revenue is that part of the Mississippi River that runs through St. Paul and
Winona.

Rob Hahn claims that his proposal would generate $600 million in revenue annually to be shared by the state, city and counties of Minnesota.

Hahn made his proposal to a meeting of the Red Wing business group and will make a speech at the state capitol on Wednesday, June 16, 2010.

His proposal drew criticism from Rep. Tim Kelly, Republican- Red Wing, who compared Hahn’s proposal to other proposals made to use gambling in casino games to make money for the state. Kelly opposes increasing gambling activities in the state as new gambling avenues would compete with the state’s Treasure Island which is currently the biggest employer in the county.