On June 24th, 2009, Governor Mike Beebe said that he believes that Arkansas' lottery games should be pretty consistent with what the state voters thought they were approving when they passed a constitutional change in November 2008 to make a state-run lottery to finance college scholarships.
Ernie Passailaigue, who will begin on July 1st, 2009 as executive director of the state's lottery, has stated that he is interested in including games like keno, Texas hold'em, and horse racing game among the games that the lottery offers.
When asked for his reaction on Passailaigue's statements, Gov. Beebe said that he thinks that the lottery should be consistent with what the voters thought they were deciding on and he does not remember any talks about keno. Governor Beebe voted against the constitutional change creating the state lottery but did not speak out against it before the election.
The governor's comment was similar to the comments made by Jerry Cox, the executive director of the conservative Family Council, which actively criticized the lottery. Cox said that he does not think that most people voted for scratch-off tickets and video lottery machines but rather for traditional lottery.
House Speaker Robbie Wills, a Democrat from Conway said that whether you call it Keno, Mega Millions, Aces Wild 21 and others, lotteries generally involve a player choosing the number that they want and waiting if those numbers will come up.
Wills, who sponsored the proposal this year that installed the groundwork for the lottery, stated that he has seen scratch-off lottery in other states like Tennessee and Oklahoma with names like Instant Keno. He added that whether they utilized scratch-off tickets and video monitors, the players are not really enjoying casino games but are just choosing lottery numbers.
Wills said that the Arkansas' "antiquated" law prohibiting keno is not an issue because the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery Act was worded to give the Arkansas Lottery a greater discretion regarding the types of games offered to players, "at the recommendation of anyone".
Wills added the whole controversy was really about the terminology. If the games had names like "fast win", then there will be no problem at all. Lt. Governor Bill Halter, who proposed the constitutional change creating the lottery, said that he believes
Arkansas' lottery should feature the same types of games as those featured in other states that have lotteries. Halter spokesperson Gary Hoffman said that the office of the lieutenant governor receives a lot of calls from individuals asking when they can play powerball. Hoffman added that they have not received any inquiries about keno yet.
[05-07]
John Sullivan
