Governor says he won’t veto, sign gambling bill

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Thursday, March 17, 2005 | 10:19 a.m.

LITTLE ROCK -- Gov. Mike Huckabee said Wednesday that patrons of the state's horse- and dog-racing tracks should be allowed to wager on electronic games of skill if voters near the tracks say it's OK.

Huckabee, a Southern Baptist minister, said he would neither sign nor veto a law to let voters near Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs and Southland Greyhound Park at West Memphis decide whether to allow expanded gambling. He said he feared a veto, even though neither chamber approved the bill by a veto-proof margin.

"It doesn't help the legislative process to veto a bill just to have it overridden," Huckabee said outside a restaurant near the Capitol.