Group In opposition to Arkansas On line casino in Pope Submits Referendum Signatures
A bunch in Arkansas that wishes to ask state voters to repeal a lone business gaming license earmarked for Pope County claims it has secured sufficient resident signatures to drive a poll referendum on the continued quarrel.
Volunteers of “Honest Play for Arkansas 2022” submit resident signatures to the state on July 8, 2022. The group desires to re-ask state voters about whether or not they assist permitting a on line casino to be inbuilt Pope County. (Picture: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
“Honest Play for Arkansas 2022” argues that Pope County residents are not looking for a on line casino, and {that a} 2018 modification to the Arkansas Structure unfairly forces a gaming undertaking on them. Final Friday was the state deadline for political committees searching for to put a referendum query on the 2022 poll to submit signatures.
In 2022, a bunch should get hold of at the very least 89,151 signatures from registered voters to drive a referendum. Honest Play says they submitted greater than 103,000 signatures on Friday.
The Arkansas Secretary of State should nonetheless validate the signatures after which approve the group’s proposed referendum title, wording, and language. Present Lawyer Basic Leslie Rutledge (R) had an extended monitor document of rejecting gaming referendums on numerous legalities till her workplace allowed the 2018 movement to go to the election cubicles.
Difficult Backstory
Arkansas voters in 2018 accepted amending the state structure to allow one on line casino every within the counties of Pope, Jefferson, Garland, and Crittenden. The measure was largely funded by the Cherokee Nation Companies (CNB), an entirely owned conglomerate of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma, and the Downstream Improvement Authority of the Quapaw Tribe, additionally of Oklahoma.
In change for main and funding the combat to carry casinos and new jobs and tax income to the state, native officers in Jefferson agreed to accomplice with the Quapaw Tribe for its on line casino alternative. The initiative additionally allowed two former racino venues, Oaklawn and Southland — respectively within the counties of Garland and Crittenden — to transition into full-fledged casinos with Vegas-style slot machines and desk video games.
Delaware North, a gaming and hospitality big based mostly in New York, was additionally a serious financier of the 2018 referendum. Delaware North operates Southland On line casino Racing.
CNB had a handshake settlement in place with Pope County leaders. That drove the tribal entity into pouring greater than $2.2 million in money contributions into the poll effort. However after an election overhauled the county’s governance, and the assist for giving CNB the county’s on line casino improvement alternative waned, chaos ensued.
Cherokee Nation Wins License
The 2018 gaming authorization requires the 2 solely new casinos in Pope and Jefferson to submit their gaming bids to the Arkansas Racing Fee. It have to be accompanied by a letter of assist from the sitting county choose. In 2018, then-Pope County Choose Tim Fox stated he would assist the county partnering with CNB to construct a on line casino if the referendum handed.
However Fox left workplace quickly after the 2018 election. His successor, Pope County Choose Ben Cross, subsequently opposed the CNB on line casino plan. Cross took difficulty with allegations of collusion between Fox and CNB through the referendum marketing campaign. With native Pope County voters rejecting the referendum, the choose refused to jot down a letter of assist for the on line casino.
Of Arkansas’ 74 counties, solely 11 voted in opposition to the 2018 gaming referendum. One such county was Pope the place practically 61% of the vote went in opposition to the on line casino query.
A aggressive bidding course of ensued, with CNB battling a on line casino bid from a Mississippi-based entity known as Gulfside On line casino Partnership.
The Arkansas Racing Fee additional clouded issues when one in all its commissioners, Butch Rice, was discovered to have had a bias in reviewing the competing proposals. Rutledge’s workplace finally intervened, and CNB was in the end deemed the rightful recipient of Pope County’s gaming undertaking final November.
The prolonged delay, nonetheless, gave “Honest Play for Arkansas” sufficient time to rally a combat.
Honest Play says the state ought to respect the desires of the Pope individuals. However for the reason that 2018 referendum wrote Pope County into the Arkansas Structure as a permitted on line casino zone, the one option to totally be sure a on line casino doesn’t come to the area is by passing a separate referendum repealing Pope’s candidacy.
Within the coming weeks, Rutledge’s workplace will decide if Honest Play submitted sufficient qualifying signatures to drive a referendum, and if the group’s poll language is acceptable for placement.
