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Arkansas Lottery Worth Betting On

Last updated Saturday, August 9, 2008 3:08 PM CDT in Columns

By Bob Caudle
THE MORNING NEWS

Right now, that's $25 million Arkansas dollars that are crossing the state line to help people in the state to the north.

Jim Scroggins, lottery director for the state of Okla-stinkin'-homa, estimates his state's lottery sales to Arkansans would drop by about $10 million if Arkansas passes its lottery.

For those of you who are numerically challenged (like me), that's somewhere in the neighborhood of $35 million we could keep in-state - and that's a pretty good neighborhood.

In addition to keeping state lottery money in-state, Arkansas has the chance to take money away from neighboring states if the odds are good enough.

According to lottery officials, (you know it's a gamble listening to them) the Okla-stinkin'homa lottery has some of lowest odds of any state lottery, figures show. Okla-stinkin'-homa currently pays out 54 percent on its instant games and 52 percent for online games, the lowest rate in the country. Mis-ery pays out 68 percent of its lottery proceeds in prizes.

Arkansas, hopefully, can set its payout high enough to attract, at least, buyers from Okla-stinkin'-homa. If we can't beat'em on the football field, we might be able to out-gamble them.

Under Halter's proposal, the Legislature would establish rules and regulations governing how the Arkansas lottery is run. That, in itself, is a gamble. It's always 50-50 on whether the Legislature can get anything right.

There's also the possibility of "leasing" the administration of the lottery out to private entities. Other states are doing it and still others are looking at the idea.

Basically, the state hires a private firm to administer the running of the lottery.

That adds to the costs, but it keeps elected public officials from confusing lottery money with their expense accounts.

According to a report in The Morning News, seven other states besides Arkansas have no lottery. Among neighboring states, only Mississippi (spit) does not have a lottery. Mississippi (spit) does allow casino gambling.

Critics of an Arkansas lottery say Halter's proposal is too vague and would put the state directly into the gambling business, using the well-worn excuse that a lottery would be: "Encouraging the very poorest people of this state to gamble away their money so upper and middle class kids can use the money to go to college."

Halter said Arkansans statewide have told him they are "tired of the power of narrow special interest groups to deny the majority of Arkansans the opportunity to decide issues."

Meanwhile, a faith-based group, United Methodists Against Gambling, has registered with the state Ethics Commission as a ballot question committee to raise money for a campaign against the lottery proposal.

Let the Bible-beating begin.

I need to make a clarification on an item in a column I recently wrote about Springdale mayoral candidates.

In the column, I'd said that candidate Jim Reed got out of a car in a circus, looked around, and didn't know where he was.

I have since seen that Reed drives a pickup truck, and saw him get out of it.

However ... he still didn't know where he was.

Bob Caudle is a writer for the morning news who writes a humorous commentary on local, state and national issues. His column appears every Sunday. He is an equal opportunity insulter.

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