Nancy Todd's Arkansas Casino Proposal Faces Significant OppositionLawsuit Will Decide Whether Initiative Stays On November Ballot |
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An earlier report stating that a constitutional amendment referendum for Arkansas casinos was dead turned out to be a bit premature.
Poker pro Nancy Todd’s ballot initiative was originally rejected by state Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, after Chuck Lange, chairman of the Stop Casinos Now Committee challenged the petition.
Todd needed a total of 78,133 signatures and obtained over 80,000. However, the Arkansas Board of Elections ruled that only 23,000 of the signatures were able to be verified. After a one-month grace period, Todd was able to add another 121,000 signatures.
McDaniel then challenged the wording of Todd’s proposal, forcing her to revise the amendment. Now, Todd has sued state officials to keep the proposal on the November ballot.
McDaniel continues to argue that the proposal contains vague or misleading wording and believes state justices should remove the filing from the ballot.
Todd’s proposal would bring casinos to Crittenden, Franklin, Pulaski and Miller counties and would repeal a state law that allows a Hot Springs horse track and West Memphis dog track to offer electronic gambling.
Representatives for each county have had mixed opinions concerning gambling expansion, but have been mostly supportive of any idea that can boost tourism and draw tourism dollars from the border states, specifically Missouri, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Louisiana, which all have casinos of their own.
