Being from Iowa (where gambling just exists on Indian reservations), we didn’t have such luxuries as pull-tabs and meat raffles in our bars. I used to live in Vadnais Heights, and we’d often pass by the Vadnais Inn on Rice St. and 694 and chortle at the giant “MEAT RAFFLE” sign out front.

Then this weekend I saw a similar sign at a different bar and decided I should do some digging on this strange MN tradition - or do you call it a sport? Read on…

There wasn’t an entry on Wikipedia, so after some quick investigation elsewhere - it turns out this is a bona fide past time!

Apparently Minnesotans love to gamble, and they love their meat. There was a NYT article just last month about Minnesotans and their meat raffles.

Kathie Jenkins at the Pioneer Press has a list of 15 local bars here that all have meat raffles every night. (Dusty’s Bar was named Best in Town by Citypages, fyi).

So now that I’m fully educated on the raffling of meat, I’m ready to compute my chances on “The Meat Raffle Probability Calculator”.

Craziness. I don’t know about you Minnesotans.

So I started a Wikipedia entry that I’d love some help filling out, as I’m definitely not the meat raffling connoisseur on the Metroblog here. Please help me update - here’s the link.

UPDATE: my pal at Monkeycube.com put together this meat raffle t-shirt, if you’re so inclined. Hilarious…

Related posts:

1. Bars Can Close Later for RNC: Meh
2. To a Deluxe Apartment, in the Sky
3. Meat that’s good and good for you.
4. Common Roots’ Saturday Profits go to Flood Relief
5. Nye’s Polonaise Room Makes Esquire’s Best Bar in America List