The Fixed Point You Are Measuring From
Running Aces Casino & Racetrack sits at 21.5 straight-line miles from Minneapolis. That figure is a great-circle measurement between two documented coordinates, not a road distance. The road distance is always longer, and this article does not publish driving mileage or travel time for any route.
The venue's position is fixed at latitude 45.24452 and longitude -93.03379, in Columbus, Minnesota. Your starting point is the variable. Whatever city, airport, or neighborhood you begin from, the straight-line figure changes with it, and the road distance changes again based on the route the road network forces you to take.
What the Straight-Line Table Shows
Every pair below is a great-circle measurement between the venue's documented coordinates and the documented reference point. None of these numbers is a driving distance. None of them implies a travel time.
| Reference point | Straight-line miles | Measurement type |
|---|---|---|
| Minneapolis | 21.5 | great-circle |
| Milwaukee | 294.1 | great-circle |
| Chicago | 356.6 | great-circle |
| Kansas City | 431.8 | great-circle |
| Topeka, Kansas | 450.1 | great-circle |
| St. Louis | 479.8 | great-circle |
| Detroit | 536.8 | great-circle |
| Ford Field | 536.6 | great-circle |
| Tulsa | 647.7 | great-circle |
| Toronto | 681.5 | great-circle |
| Niagara Falls | 705.8 | great-circle |
| Oklahoma City | 715.3 | great-circle |
| Denver | 717.0 | great-circle |
| Buffalo | 720.4 | great-circle |
| Tunica | 733.7 | great-circle |
| Pittsburgh | 738.9 | great-circle |
| Syracuse | 849.4 | great-circle |
| Denton, Texas | 859.2 | great-circle |
| Dallas | 884.5 | great-circle |
| Shreveport | 884.0 | great-circle |
| Arlington, Texas | 893.5 | great-circle |
| Atlanta | 917.0 | great-circle |
| Washington DC | 928.6 | great-circle |
| Charlotte | 942.6 | great-circle |
| Lake George | 960.8 | great-circle |
| Philadelphia | 977.0 | great-circle |
| NYC | 1008.7 | great-circle |
| Manhattan | 1008.7 | great-circle |
| Rehoboth Beach, Delaware | 1023.5 | great-circle |
| Atlantic City | 1031.0 | great-circle |
| Lake Charles | 1037.5 | great-circle |
| Gulfport | 1047.7 | great-circle |
| Biloxi | 1048.7 | great-circle |
| New Orleans | 1067.1 | great-circle |
| Houston | 1077.6 | great-circle |
| Houston, Texas | 1077.6 | great-circle |
| Boston | 1110.2 | great-circle |
| Charleston Reddit | 1107.1 | great-circle |
| San Antonio | 1132.7 | great-circle |
| San Antonio, Texas | 1132.7 | great-circle |
| Phoenix | 1297.8 | great-circle |
| Henderson | 1309.0 | great-circle |
| Las Vegas | 1310.6 | great-circle |
| Bourbon Street | 1314.0 | great-circle |
| Orlando | 1318.4 | great-circle |
| Tampa | 1328.6 | great-circle |
| Laughlin | 1329.7 | great-circle |
| Seattle | 1396.4 | great-circle |
| Reno | 1415.2 | great-circle |
| Portland | 1430.7 | great-circle |
| Palm Springs | 1472.0 | great-circle |
| Temecula | 1512.8 | great-circle |
| Miami | 1522.4 | great-circle |
| Sacramento | 1524.9 | great-circle |
| Sacramento Airport | 1526.0 | great-circle |
| Modesto | 1530.5 | great-circle |
| Los Angeles | 1539.0 | great-circle |
| San Diego | 1548.9 | great-circle |
| LAX | 1550.7 | great-circle |
| San Jose | 1584.4 | great-circle |
| San Francisco | 1595.0 | great-circle |
| Daytona Beach | 1284.8 | great-circle |
If the pair you care about is not in this table, that specific straight-line distance is not one this article can measure. The venue's city and state remain the fixed reference: Columbus, Minnesota.
Why the Road Always Runs Longer
A great-circle line ignores everything on the ground. It passes over water, through hills, across property lines, and over roadless land without slowing down. A car cannot do that. The road network bends around lakes, rivers, wetlands, and the grid of existing highways, and every bend adds distance the straight-line figure never counted.
Minnesota's terrain and water features shape this difference. The area around Columbus sits in a landscape of lakes, wetlands, and river valleys, which forces road corridors into indirect paths. Crossing a state line adds another layer: the route must connect through existing border crossings and interchange points, not the shortest possible line.
This is why the same straight-line figure can produce very different road distances depending on where you start. Two reference cities at similar straight-line miles can sit on opposite sides of a water barrier or a different highway corridor, and the road distance diverges sharply.
Where the Venue Sits in the Region
Running Aces is in Columbus, Minnesota, a city in the northern exurban band around the Twin Cities. The documented coordinates place it north of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Among the reference points in the table, Minneapolis is the nearest at 21.5 straight-line miles, which makes the venue a short straight-line hop from the metro core but not necessarily a short drive.
Relative to other regional anchors, the venue sits west of Milwaukee, northwest of Chicago, and north of Kansas City on a straight-line basis. Those bearings come only from the coordinate comparison; they say nothing about which direction a road runs.
The venue's documented description identifies it as a 5/8 mile racino with a card room, opened in April 2008. Ownership is documented as tied to the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, a fact that appears in public reference sources covering the property's legal history. Facility figures like room counts, machine counts, and floor area change as properties are rebuilt and expanded, so treat any such number as a point-in-time figure from publicly published reference sources.
What to Confirm Before You Go
Because this article publishes no road mileage, no route numbers, and no travel times, the driving distance from your starting point is something you must measure yourself. Use a mapping tool with your exact origin address and the venue's city and state, Columbus, Minnesota. The tool will compute the road distance and the route the network allows.
Before traveling, confirm the venue's current operating status and any entry requirements through the property's own published channels. The venue's contact page and guest services line carry the current answer. If you are traveling a long distance, check road conditions and seasonal weather, which in Minnesota can change a route's practical difficulty even when the mileage stays the same.
FAQ
Does Running Aces have roulette?
This article does not answer that question. The documented facts here cover the venue's fixed location and straight-line distances only. Whether roulette is offered, and under what table rules, is a current-operations question that changes and must be confirmed through the venue's own published game list or guest services line before you travel.
How far is Running Aces from Minneapolis?
The documented straight-line distance is 21.5 miles, measured great-circle between the two coordinates. Road distance is longer and is not published in this article. To get the driving figure, enter your exact Minneapolis starting address and Columbus, Minnesota as the destination in a mapping tool.
Why is the straight-line distance different from the drive?
A straight-line measurement ignores terrain, water, and the road network. Roads must follow existing corridors around lakes, wetlands, and property boundaries, and must connect through established crossings and interchanges. Every detour the road takes adds distance that the great-circle figure never counted.
Play responsibly
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This article is general information about how these mechanics work. It is not legal advice and not a recommendation to gamble or to use any particular operator. Availability and legality differ by jurisdiction — check the rules that apply where you are.


