The heads of Alatus LLC will try to lobby legislators to step around decades-old gambling agreements in the state and pass a bill that would allow them to build a casino on the troubled Block E site in downtown Minneapolis.

Fearing that next year’s legislative session would be complicated by another budget deficit, Gov. Mark Dayton spent much of the fall pressing legislative leaders to cobble together enough votes to pass a publicly funded stadium for the Minnesota Vikings by Thanksgiving.

Like any expanded gambling proposal, the push for a high-end casino nestled on the troubled downtown Minneapolis Block E site faces a host of obstacles in passing through a historically reluctant Legislature.

Gov. Mark Dayton’s crusade to get a Minnesota Vikings stadium bill passed before Thanksgiving has been turned on its head by a series of objections from legislators about the financing of the project and the timeline for a special session.

A steady downpour didn’t keep Indian gambling workers from flocking outside the state Capitol in St. Paul last April. At least 1,500 people gathered outside on the building’s steps, some arriving by the busload from reservations hours away. Clad in raincoats and shielded by a canopy of umbrellas, workers thrust signs into the air that read, “Rural jobs count too” and “Don’t gamble with my job!”