DC Lions want to remain as charitable gambling group

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

Gambling was once again at the forefront of the Deer Creek City Council. 

During its regularly scheduled meeting on Monday night, the Deer Creek City Council heard from Wet Woody’s Pub and Grub owners Rod and Cathy Woodward concerning a request to change their current gambling provider from the Deer Creek Lions Club to T.I.P. Gaming. The request came one month after the Deer Creek Lions Club brought a concern to the Deer Creek City Council that they may be forced out of providing gambling at the local establishment if they did not agree to provide weekly bingo games, in addition to their current meat raffle every Saturday night and pull tabs. 

While the Deer Creek Lions Club reportedly agreed at its most recent meeting to provide weekly bingo on a trial basis just a few weeks ago, the Woodwards still made a request to change gambling providers.

The Woodwards said they are concerned the Deer Creek Lions Club may never provide bingo at their bar, even though it was approved by the club. Instead, they want T.I.P. Gaming to provide gambling services for bingo, pull tabs and meat raffles as they can provide the services immediately. 

“They said they would give it six months and if it is not making any money they wouldn’t do it (anymore),” said Rod. “We don’t know (when they will start), we don’t have a date.”

Without a firm timeline as to when the trial will start, Rod said he feels like the Lions Club could be stringing him along and will not provide bingo to his bar. Instead, he asked the city council to consider allowing him to change gambling providers that would force the Deer Creek Lions Club to leave his establishment in favor of a group from T.I.P Gaming. 

“We really are appealing to you guys to look at this hard and hopefully expedite (the process),” he said of his preferred organization to run his gaming.

At last month’s city council meeting, members of the Deer Creek Lions Club informed the council that providing bingo services would take time as there is paperwork that needs to be filed with the State of Minnesota and equipment that must be ordered before it can start. The Deer Creek Lions Club has provided charitable gaming at the Deer Creek bar/restaurant for a number of years and has stated they would like to continue doing so into the future. 

After making his appeal to the city council, the Wet Woody’s Pub and Grub owners left the meeting while the council continued discussing the next steps forward. Last month well over a dozen members of the Deer Creek Lions Club asked the city council to let them continue to provide pull tab and meat raffle gaming in the bar as they weighed whether their organization has the ability to provide bingo services on a weekly basis. They also raised several concerns they had with the way they have been approached by the owners of Wet Woody’s Pub and Grub and the demands they have made in how the Lions Club provides gambling at the establishment. 

In order to switch gambling providers, a city council must approve the change which then is voted on by the county. 

Since a large amount of the proceeds from gambling is donated back to the community and various causes in town, whereas just 10 percent of proceeds from an outside organization who provides gambling services in a community must be donated back to the community and various causes, and citing a long history of a solid partnership between previous bar owners and the Lions Club, several members of the city council expressed hesitation to make such a big change so quickly.

“I think the most unfortunate aspect of this whole thing has been we have had one or two bad apples who have upset this whole system that has worked from the start,” said councilman Danny Hendershot. 

Councilman Jayme George said he has lived in Deer Creek his entire life, and up until a year ago, the partnership between the bar and the Deer Creek Lions Club has worked well. He said the local non-profit and bar owners may need to find different people to communicate with one another, or sit down and work out their differences, so both sides can find a way to work together. 

  “They have a great establishment over there, I really like Rod and Cathy, they are great people,” said George of the Wet Woody’s Pub and Grub owners. “I don’t know if personally I can vote to abolish (the Deer Creek Lions from the bar).”

Hendershot echoed George’s remarks concerning how many more people are in town to eat and drink at the bar in the heart of downtown Deer Creek.

“Rod and Cathy are doing a bang up job. There are actually people in town and that is great, but I am not going to turn my back on the Lions Club that has been here since 1976,” he said.

George went a step further and said many of the projects that have been completed in the community, whether it was with town festivals, building projects or community needs have been assisted by the Deer Creek Lions Club, and quite a bit of that money was raised by charitable gambling.

“You add up the contributions to this town and the stamps the Lions have in not only structures being built throughout the town and there aren’t too many they haven’t helped out,” he said. 

Many of the council members continued to ask throughout the discussion what changed so quickly between the two sides and expressed a desire to see them work out their issues and continue to allow the Deer Creek Lions Club to offer charitable gambling at the bar, especially if the Lions Club was willing to offer bingo on a trial basis. 

“If they are agreeing to a trial, why would they not go ahead and do a trial, and if it does not work out we can discuss it,” said councilwoman Nicole Helmrichs. 

Deer Creek Mayor Troy Beiswinger said his impression from the owners of Wet Woody’s Pub and Grub was that they felt the Deer Creek Lions Club would not provide bingo as the bar owners are requesting. 

Councilman Bob Lund said it may just come down to having a few members of the Deer Creek Lions Club, as well as the Wet Woody’s Pub and Grub owners to come together with an impartial person in the middle to work out their differences.

“You two (Wet Woody’s) want to come over and talk, lets find two (Lions Club members) over here and talk. Lets see what your differences are,” he said. 

In other news

• Heard from Morgan Salo from Bolton and Menk about the water tower rehabilitation project. Salo said the water tower was filled on October 27 and bacteria samples would be taken over the course of last week. Once the water tower is up and running, which was expected to take place once the water samples are approved, the project will be substantially completed. He said there were a few things with site restoration that needed to be completed but that would likely take place next spring.