How did pulltabs become so popular in Minnesota?

A pulltab seller sat inside a plexiglass booth, often called a “jar bar.” A steady stream of customers purchased the games, which support Minneapolis youth hockey.

Groups pooled money to buy rounds of tabs — which is the custom — then opened them and discarded the losers into plastic baskets. Winners traditionally share the proceeds with their group, often buying a pitcher and tipping the seller.

The wood-paneled tavern owned by the husband-and-wife team of Doug Flicker and Amy Greeley was designed to evoke the small-town bar that Flicker’s uncles once ran in Pierz, Minn., south of Brainerd. It is one of the 3,026 permitted locations that host pulltabs across Minnesota.

For the couple, hosting nightly pulltab events was part of getting the vibe of the place right.

“You get the pulltab regulars, like you do up north, too. Folks sitting at the bar or in a booth, and there are just like, stacks and stacks of the pull tabs piling on the table,” Greeley said. “We’re pretty pleased with it. We think it adds quite a bit to the bar.”

The state last year issued charitable gambling permits to 1,144 nonprofit organizations, including veterans groups, fraternal groups like the Elks or Lions, youth sports, firefighter relief groups and others. Each organization has a gambling manager, who supervises operations. Sellers are employed by the groups, not the bar.