Lottery Proponents Don’t Understand Meaning of “Success”

Arkansas Lottery

How do you define a “successful” state lottery?

Is it the lottery that sells the most tickets? The lottery that has the highest gross revenue? What about the lottery that awards the most scholarships? Or the lottery that does the least amount of harm to the local economy?

I would argue there really is no such thing as a “successful” state lottery, because lotteries pull money out of the local community and drag the economy down. That said, however, I really don’t think lottery proponents have a clear understanding of what a “successful” state lottery is, even under their own terms.

When the Arkansas Lottery was pitched to voters, proponents promised it would be a “world class” lottery “for education.” It would “generate” money for college scholarships and help more Arkansans go to college.

They even named it the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery. So in theory, the way you measure the Arkansas Lottery’s success is by the amount of scholarship money it pays out, right?

But that’s not the way lottery officials seem to measure its success at all. They are focused almost exclusively on gross ticket sales. This was underscored by a lottery consultant from Philadelphia who told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, yesterday, “Our objective … is to think about how we can get as many people to play the lottery as possible and spending really small amounts of money. We believe there is an opportunity for strong long-term sustainable, responsible growth.” (more…)

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We Need to Get Rid of 30,000 Voter’s Guides — No Matter What!

Arkansas Voter's Guide

I have a really great problem that I need your help solving: We have roughly 30,000 printed copies of the 2014 Arkansas Voter’s Guide sitting in our office, waiting to be mailed out all over the state, and we need people to send them to.

We are already in the process of mailing about 20,000 copies of the guide to our friends and various churches all over Arkansas. However, we would like to give away at least 50,000, total.

Do you have friends or family members who could use the Arkansas Voter’s Guide? What about your church, Bible study group, Sunday school class, or civic club?

The Arkansas Voter’s Guide is a free service we are happy to offer. It is the only nonpartisan, statewide guide that tells voters where their candidates stand on a variety of issues that matter to them. Because it is nonpartisan, churches can distribute the guide without running afoul of any campaign laws or tax regulations.

You can order copies of the Arkansas Voter’s Guide today by calling our office at (501) 375-7000 or going online at www.ArkansasVotersGuide.com.

We have 30,000 copies of the guide sitting in our office, but they won’t be there for long. Demand is high, so order copies for you, your family, your friends, and your church right away!

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ASU Football Team 1-0 on Religious Liberty

Religious Freedom,

We have been following the story out of Jonesboro surrounding ASU’s decision to ban its football players from wearing crosses memorializing two students who died in the past year.

University officials told the football players they had to remove the cross-shaped decals bearing the initial of the two students from the backs of the players’ football helmets. One player, however, contacted attorneys at Liberty Institute who sent a letter to the school explaining the rights of the students.

ASU has since released a statement about the controversy, and while the university seems to be standing by its initial actions, it has agreed that the players may place NCAA-compliant decals on their uniforms memorializing their teammates.

In other words, the crosses can come back.

Attorney Hiram Sasser who represented the unnamed ASU football player released a statement, saying,

“The University officials and the Arkansas Attorney General did the right thing restoring the religious liberty and free speech rights of the players to have the original cross sticker design if they so choose and we commend them for doing so.”

When it comes to First Amendment freedoms, the ASU Red Wolves are undefeated this season.

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