By Rob Moritz
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — A Texas businessman who has spearheaded more than one aborted effort to establish casinos in Arkansas vowed Thursday to put a proposed constitutional amendment before voters next year.
“It will be on the ballot,” Michael Wasserman said a day after Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel certified a revised version of his ballot initiative to run casinos in seven Arkansas cities.
The proposal drew immediate opposition. The political arm of the conservative Family Council announced it would campaign against the measure if it gets on the 2012 general election ballot.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Wasserman, of Gainsville, Texas, said casinos would generate millions of dollars and provide jobs to help the state’s economy.
“If we create destination resorts, it’s going to bring people from Texas and all of the surrounding states,” he added.
Under the proposal, Wasserman’s Arkansas Hotels and Entertainment Inc. would operate casinos in Boone, Crittenden, Garland, Jefferson, Miller, Pulaski and Sebastian counties.
The proposal would declare all constitutional provisions and laws that conflict with casino amendments inapplicable, but would not supersede amendments authorizing charitable bingo and the state lottery.
To get the proposal on the November 2012 general election ballot, Wasserman and his supporters must submit valid signatures of at least 77,133 registered voters to the secretary of state’s office by July 6.
Jerry Cox, president of the Family Council Action Committee, said Thursday the group opposes the proposal because gambling hurts the economy.
“Casinos absorb the money that people would otherwise spend on everything from groceries and gasoline to new cars and houses, and when that happens, local businesses suffer and so do the folks working for them,” Cox said.
He noted that local voters approved expanded gaming at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs and Southland Greyhound Park in West Memphis in 2006, and voters statewide approved a state-run lottery for college scholarships two years later.
“The lottery has been rolling out a steady stream of new games left and right since its establishment,” Cox said. “And now we have a wealthy businessman from out of state trying to set up a gambling monopoly and fleece the people out of their hard-earned money.
“Where does it end? At what point will we have ‘enough’ gambling in Arkansas?”
Wasserman said his proposal would not create a monopoly because electronic games of skill are already available at Oakland and Southland. Many Arkansans still travel to Oklahoma, Mississippi and other states to gamble in casinos, he said.
Wasserman has had two previous versions of the proposed casino amendment certified by the attorney general. He said a death in his family kept him from working on the proposal two years ago and he was unsuccessful in gathering enough signatures for a revised initiative last year.