Wintry mix spreads across Minnesota

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Every Friday night at Hi-Stakes Café in Spring Lake Park, the paddle wheel starts spinning at 4 o’clock. Regulars line up, tickets in hand, hoping to win big at the meat raffle. It is, by any measure, a fun evening out. 

Laurie Billman has been coming for years. She likes that the game starts early. It means she still gets some errands done. She’s already won a pork tenderloin. 

“I love to cook on the grill,” Billman said. “My guy is in line right now. He won once and I won once.”

It’s a scene that plays out in neighborhood bars from Moorhead to Mankato and beyond. Meat raffles are a tradition in Minnesota and Wisconsin — part neighborhood social, part grocery store run, part fundraiser. 

The money raised at Hi-Stakes goes to the Spring Lake Park Lions Club, one of more than 1,100 charitable gambling organizations licensed to operate across Minnesota’s 87 counties. 

State lawmakers are working now on a bill that would raise the ceiling on meat raffle prize amounts from $70 to $200. In the closely divided Legislature, supporters say it is one of the few things legislators seem to agree on, a rare moment of bipartisanship. 

Backers point out that the law governing prize amounts has not changed in nearly 40 years and is in dire need of an update. They say that without changes to the law, charitable gambling organizations like the Spring Lake Park Lions Club will struggle to keep revenue flowing. 

The steaks — and the stakes — have never been higher. 

“Last year we gave almost a half-million dollars to the community that we do business in — to the schools, youth sports, to food shelves, Alexandra House, Rise Industries. All the great programs we run in Anoka County,” said Amanda Jackson, who’s managed charitable gambling for the Spring Lake Park Lions Club for more than two decades.  

She told a state Senate committee recently that the meat raffle is what brings people through the door. 

“Players come early, enjoy food and drinks, play a few pull tabs and join in on several rounds of the raffle and with any luck at all they head home to grill up some fabulous meat,” Jackson said. 

The prizes, however, have been quietly shrinking. Jackson submitted photos to lawmakers showing meat prizes growing smaller compared to 2016, 2020 and 2023.  

“It’s becoming very difficult to get two steaks in a single pack," Jackson told lawmakers. 

The current prize limits are badly out of step with rising prices, said Rachel Jenner, executive director of Allied Charities of Minnesota. 

“So now organizations are struggling to assemble prize packages that feel exciting and worthwhile to their players, while staying within the legal prize limit,“ Jenner said. “What we can purchase now is significantly less.” 

Beyond raising the prize values, the bill authored by state Sen. Zach Duckworth, R-Lakeville, would also let organizations raise the cost of a raffle ticket from $1 or $2 to as much as $5. 

“I have the big, beautiful meat raffle bill,” he told fellow legislators. He described the three-line bill as “short and sweet.”

Supporters say the ripple effect reaches far beyond the charity. Bars like Hi-Stakes depend on the Friday and Saturday night crowds that the meat raffle reliably delivers. It’s also good for local businesses.  

“We love having our product in front of more people,” said Josh Von Bank, co-manager of Von Hanson’s Meats in nearby Blaine, the shop that supplies the weekly Lions Club order.  

“Everybody gets something out of the meat raffle,” he said. “If you don’t have community, why are you in the spots that you are?”

For Lori Billman, the meat raffle is also about her family and community. 

“It raises money for charity, yes. And it’s fun to do with family. And then I like to cook — I have a bunch of children, so I’ll cook them up a nice meal and bring a cooked meal to them.” 

Editor’s note: This story comes from the Upper Midwest Newsroom, a public media collaboration between Wisconsin Public Radio, South Dakota Public Broadcasting, Prairie Public in North Dakota, and Minnesota Public Radio News made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

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At the Capitol, there is rare, bipartisan support for a bill to update the state’s charitable gambling law and allow higher ticket prices and prize values for meat raffles, a local bar life tradition that’s part neighborhood social, grocery store run and fundraiser. 

When it comes to meat raffles, Minnesota lawmakers have no beefs

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