Arkansas Casino Campaign to Repeal Pope County License Submits Signatures
A mathematical group inwards Arkansas River that wants to expect state voters to repeal a lone commercial message gaming licence earmarked for Pope County claims it has secured enough occupier signatures to ram a ballot referendum on the on-going quarrel.
“Fair Play for Land of Opportunity 2022” argues that Alexander Pope County residents ut non require a casino, and that a 2018 amendment to the Land of Opportunity Old Ironsides below the belt forces a gaming throw on them. Last Friday was the say deadline for political committees seeking to place a referendum inquiry on the 2022 ballot to state signatures.
In 2022, a chemical group must obtain at to the lowest degree 89,151 signatures from registered voters to personnel a referendum. Fair Play says they submitted to a greater extent than 103,000 signatures on Friday.
The Land of Opportunity Secretary of State must allay corroborate the signatures and and then approve the group’s proposed referendum title, wording, and language. Current Attorney General Leslie Rutledge (R) had a long caterpillar track put down of rejecting gaming referendums on various legalities until her office allowed the 2018 motion to go to the election booths.
Complicated Backstory
Arkansas voters in 2018 approved amending the country formation to permit unity casino each in the counties of Pope, Jefferson, Garland, and Crittenden. The appraise was mostly funded by the Cherokee Nation Businesses (CNB), a entirely owned empire of the Cherokee Carry Nation in Oklahoma, and the Downstream Development Authority of the Quapaw Tribe, also of Oklahoma.
In exchange for leading and funding the fight back to make for casinos and new jobs and assess revenue to the state, local officials inward Thomas Jefferson in agreement(p) to partner with the Quapaw Tribe for its casino opportunity. The initiative also allowed deuce former racino venues, Oaklawn and Southland — severally inward the counties of Judy Garland and Crittenden — to transition into full-fledged casinos with Vegas-style one-armed bandit machines and table games.
Delaware North, a gaming and hospitality whale based inwards New York, was also a major financier of the 2018 referendum. Diamond State Frederick North operates Southland Casino Racing.
CNB had a handshake understanding inward come out with Alexander Pope County leaders. That drove the tribal entity into pouring to a greater extent than $2.2 billion inwards hard cash contributions into the ballot effort. But after an election overhauled the county’s governance, and the supporting for giving CNB the county’s gambling casino development chance waned, pandemonium ensued.
Cherokee Nation Wins License
The 2018 gaming authorization requires the two alone young casinos inward Alexander Pope and Jefferson to give in their gaming bids to the Arkansas Racing Commission. It must live accompanied past a alphabetic character of back up from the posing county judge. In 2018, then-Pope County Judge Tim Fox said he would keep the county partnering with CNB to build a cassino if the referendum passed.
But Charles James Fox left wing office before long after the 2018 election. His successor, Alexander Pope County Judge Ben Cross, after opposed the CNB gambling casino plan. Cross took come forth with allegations of collusion 'tween Fox and CNB during the referendum campaign. With local Pope County voters rejecting the referendum, the try refused to pen a missive of back up for the casino.
Of Arkansas’ 74 counties, only 11 voted against the 2018 gaming referendum. One such county was Alexander Pope where nearly 61% of the vote went against the gambling casino question.
A competitive bidding outgrowth ensued, with CNB battling a cassino adjure from a Mississippi-based entity called Gulfside Casino Partnership.
The Arkansas River Racing Commission farther clouded things when ane of its commissioners, Butch Rice, was found to have had a predetermine inwards reviewing the competing proposals. Rutledge’s office staff eventually intervened, and CNB was at long cobbler's last deemed the rightful recipient of Pope County’s gaming project last-place November.
The lengthy delay, however, gave “Fair Play for Arkansas” decent time to mass meeting a fight.
Fair Play says the country should observe the wishes of the Pope people. But since the 2018 referendum wrote Alexander Pope County into the Arkansas Old Ironsides as a permitted gambling casino zone, the only way of life to to the full get trusted a casino doesn’t come to the region is by release a break referendum repealing Pope’s candidacy.
In the coming weeks, Rutledge’s power testament determine if Fair Play submitted enough qualifying signatures to ram a referendum, and if the group’s ballot linguistic communication is seize for placement.