Apparently, tomorrow the Racing Commission of Arkansas will vote on casino rules. You might have heard that We the People voted to allow casino gambling in November. Since then, folks have been scrambling to come up with rules and guidelines for them. And the commission could vote to approve them, or not, or amend them, or something this week.
Can we slow everything down a bit? Because this would seem to be important. Too important to rush it.
A couple of concerned citizens and a law professor from Des Moines made the papers last week, and made our email this week, with some good points. The main one being: What's the big hurry?
There are some questions that need to be answered. Some of them were raised by Keith C. Miller of Drake University, some of them by local lawyer Scott Trotter, some by other citizens who have concerns about legalized gambling in Arkansas. Better said: More legalized gambling in Arkansas.
• What about sports books and college football/basketball/baseball games?
Will it be legal to bet on Arkansas Razorback football games at one of these Arkansas casinos? Apparently other states have made it illegal to bet on state schools. Will casinos take bets on ASU, SAU and Harding? And could anything good come from it if they did?
Shouldn't the state at least prohibit taking bets on college games? And if not all college games, then at least colleges in Arkansas?
• Could anybody get around these rules by going on the Internet?
What kind of Internet presence will these casinos have? And would somebody from, say, Mississippi be allowed to place a bet on the UALR game--at one of these Arkansas casinos--as long as they did it via computer or cell phone?
• Would casinos allow machines on the premises that would allow folks to take money off a credit card?
Holy cow, we didn't even know that was an option until Professor Miller's comments made the paper. For those of us who don't hang out at casinos and never really did, do casinos allow folks to take money off their credit cards at the pay-out counter, or whatever they call the payout counter? The state of Arkansas doesn't allow folks to buy lottery tickets with credit cards; surely the state will outlaw them at casinos.
• Will the casinos start business as soon as some outfit is given a license, or will the casino have to wait until it's actually built? Could those tribes or organizations that win the right to build casinos start right away, with a simple website? That doesn't seem like something the people approved.
• Should there be an appeal process for disputes? (Answer: Yes.)
These are only a few questions. Our correspondents and the professor have others.
It would seem that the process could slow down. Arkansas is new at this. The folks putting together the casinos are not. We'd hate to lose our shirts to the casinos before the first card is dealt.
Editorial on 02/20/2019