If people believe in themselves, it's amazing what they can accomplish."
-- Sam Walton
What’s the point?
Ballot measures proposed for legalization of casino gaming in Arkansas do not deserve the support of voters.
Branson businessman Bob Womack apparently believes in himself.
Womack and another Missouri businessman, Jim Thompson of Blue Eye, formed a group called Arkansas Wins in 2016 and tried hard to convince Arkansas voters to support their measure two years ago to legalize casinos in the state.
It was an awful proposal, at least for the people of Arkansas. It would have amended the state Constitution to give three limited liability companies -- all controlled by Womack and Thompson -- the monopoly on casino gaming in the state. The casinos would have been in Boone, Miller and Washington counties.
Thankfully, the Arkansas Wins in 2016 proposal was thrown off the ballot by the state's Supreme Court, which said the ballot titled was insufficient for voters to know exactly what it was they were casting ballots on.
Womack, in 2018, is back, apparently still believing strongly that Arkansas residents should hand him the reins to legalized casinos. This time, the group is called Arkansas Wins in 2018 Inc. How original! Boone and Miller counties are in still in the mix, but this year's election proposal dropped Washington County. It also added Benton and Pulaski counties as future locations for casinos.
The proposal was submitted to the Arkansas Attorney's General's Office, which is responsible for reviewing it and certifying its propriety for the ballot. Once that office has signed off, its sponsors will have to gather 84,859 valid signatures of registered voters by July 6 before it can appear on the November General Election ballot.
Just as in 2018, proponents have it all figured out: They just want the public's stamp of approval to they can put the Arkansas Wins in 2018 money-making machine into the state Constitution. It would specifically create casino sites on 247 acres in Benton County, 62 acres in Boone County, a 35-acre area in Miller County and about a 200-acre area in Pulaski County, home of the state's capital.
The other few details include a governor-appointed five member commission to regulate casinos; a 20-percent annual tax on gaming receipts; and an earmarking of 70 percent of state revenue generated from casinos to a state highway fund and the rest to other programs and local governments.
In short, they're trying to dangle a carrot in front of voters, highway supporters and local communities. Will potentially improved highways and a little local cash be enough to entice voters to say yes?
We hope not.
And that also goes for a separate, competing proposal from a group called Driving Arkansas Forward. A spokesman for that group called the Arkansas Wins plan "an assault on Arkansas from the same out-of-state group that has tried and failed before.
Driving Arkansas Forward's plan would create an "Office of Casino Gambling" within the state Department of Finance and Administration to regulate the facilities and would tax them on a range of 12 to 22.5 percent, depending on how much they earned. It would likewise reserve more than 50 percent of the state's tax revenue to state highways and other state programs.
It is hard for us to imagine supporting any measure to add Arkansas to the list of states that allow casinos. Yes, we know the economic and tourism arguments, but just take a look at any state that legalized casinos and you'll soon find they're a panacea. Those states still have plenty of issues facing them, and Arkansas will, too, if and when casinos start popping up.
Wouldn't it be nice, however, if some proponent of casino gambling requested a ballot measure that, plain and simple, authorized casino gambling, established a regulating body within state government and left it to the state to figure out who should get licenses? Instead, the proposals made clearly try to favor one group of business people over others, with land deals nobody want to reveal any details about.
Arkansans do not need to codify a monopoly into their state Constitution.
Here's what we recommend: The people of Arkansas should believe in themselves and reject all casino measures brought forward by well-funded initiatives.
Commentary on 04/10/2018