LITTLE ROCK — A group opposed to expanding gambling in Arkansas filed a challenge Monday to a proposed ballot initiative that would authorize casino-style table games in four counties in the state.
The group, Stop Casinos Now, alleged in a petition filed with the secretary of state’s office that the plan envisioned in a proposed constitutional amendment by Nancy Todd’s Poker Palace LLC would be illegal and misleading.
The secretary of state’s office is currently reviewing signatures on petitions submitted by Todd to certify the proposal for the November general election ballot.
“There is a provision that allows for this type of challenge … and what we did is we sent it to the attorney general,” said Alex Reed, spokesman for Secretary of State Mark Martin.
Reed said the secretary of state will make his decision on the challenge by Stop Casinos Now after receiving a recommendation from Attorney General Dustin McDaniel’s office. Until that recommendation, the signature verification process will continue, Reed said.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
A spokesman for attorney general’s office, which approved the popular name and ballot title of the measure before supporters could begin gathering signatures, declined comment Monday afternoon.
The proposal would authorize Todd’s company to operate casino-style table games and up to four casinos in Crittenden, Franklin, Miller and Pulaski counties.
In the challenge, Stop Casinos Now, a coalition of law enforcement, community leaders and elected officials opposed to casinos in Arkansas, argued the proposal did not properly inform voters that it would repeal the state’s ban on monopolies.
One of the primary backers of Stop Casinos Now is Delaware North, owner of Southland Greyhound Park in West Memphis, which operates electronic games of skill.
“The Todd amendment was conceived on the faulty premise that a private entity should be granted an unregulated monopoly over casino gaming in the state of Arkansas,” Stop Casinos Now said in the 26-page challenge.
Todd said Monday that the challenge was “ridiculous,” but it was expected.
“This group brings insider special interest treatment to a whole new level,” she said about Stop Casinos Now and Delaware North. “Their only goal is to make sure the people of Arkansas are not able to exercise the right to vote on this important issue.”
Todd said it was “ironic we only get a challenge when our signatures have been approved for submission in the secretary of state’s office. If these are such big issues with the amendment one would think they would have brought them up when we first filed.”
She also questioned the argument that the proposed amendment would create a monopoly “when anyone in the country can come into the state the next election cycle and try to un-do what we pass in this year.”
Last week, the secretary of state disqualified another casino proposal, saying the measure by Texas businessman Michael Wasserman to run casinos in seven Arkansas counties did not meet signature requirements.