Gambling measure certified in Arkansas for Nov. ballot

Peggy Harris

Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2000 | 10:34 a.m.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Gambling proponents have collected enough signatures to put a casino measure on the Nov. 7 ballot, the secretary of state's office said.

State workers counted 80,901 valid signatures of registered voters -- well more than the 70,601 required, secretary of state spokesman Jonathon Runnells said last week.

In all, the office checked 125,315 signatures submitted by Arkansas Casino Corp., which is heading the campaign and wants to run casinos in six counties.

The secretary of state's office certified the proposed constitutional amendment for the ballot. Gov. Mike Huckabee and several church-related groups are opposed to the measure.

The proposal would legalize casino gambling in Boone, Crittenden, Garland, Miller, Pulaski and Sebastian counties. It also would create the Arkansas Gaming Commission to set up and operate a state lottery and to regulate charitable bingo.

"We're all very excited," said Glen Hooks, a spokesman for Arkansas Casino. With the certification, the group will launch an advertising campaign soon and educate Arkansans about the measure, he said.

Hooks said the proposal would replace the tax Arkansans pay on food with a tax on casinos and would set up a scholarship fund from lottery proceeds to allow high school graduates wishing to attend college to do so in Arkansas.

Anti-gambling groups have fought previous efforts to expand gambling, which now is limited to pari-mutuel wagering at Oaklawn Park thoroughbred track in Hot Springs and Southland Greyhound Park at West Memphis.

The head of the Arkansas Committee for Ethics Policy said Friday that the organization would mobilize volunteers from hundreds of Arkansas churches to defeat the measure.

The same group used legal challenges to knock casino gambling amendments off the ballot in 1990 and 1994 and helped defeat a casino gambling initiative at the polls in 1996. The measure garnered just 39 percent of the vote.

"We thought that resounding victory would have put an end to it," said Larry Page, the committee's director. "Maybe this year if we win again convincingly that will be the final nail in the coffin."

Besides the negative social and economic implications of gambling, Page said his group also plans to label this year's initiative as bad public policy.

"The question is, how stupid do they think Arkansans are?" he said.

Page said the measure would allow Arkansas Casino to become a monopoly over which the state, with the exception of auditing its profits, would have no oversight or regulatory authority.

Page also criticized a provision requiring the casinos to pay taxes on 15 percent of their net profits.

"Any clever accountant can get that net way down, and by the terms of the amendment, they are exempted from all other fees or taxes. (The tax percentage) couldn't be raised absent another constitutional amendment," Page said. "They're not going to be able to defend the public policy implications of this."