Will the Lottery Be Selling Tickets to University Students Saturday?

Arkansas Lottery

Will the Arkansas Lottery be selling lottery tickets to university students this Saturday? That’s a question raised by a press release from Lottery officials.

Earlier this year the Arkansas Lottery secured funding to do promotional activities on college campuses in Arkansas. We asked, at that time, if the Lottery meant to sell lottery tickets to students. Yesterday, Lottery officials elaborated on their plans, saying that this weekend “[s]tudents, parents, faculty, alumni and football fans attending select home games can stop by the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery pre-game celebration area for games, giveaways and information about the scholarship program.”

Now, one has to ask just what types of “games” and “giveaways” they mean. Will they include lottery tickets?

This is important, because research consistently indicates teens and young adults are among those most prone to develop gambling problems.

Lottery officials may think that if they get college students to start buying lottery tickets now, those students will be lottery “customers” for years to come. However, micro-targeting teens and young adults is irresponsible. It has the potential to create more gambling addiction and could lead to ruined lives, down the road.

We’ll probably know more about the Lottery’s intentions after Saturday. In the meantime, we will continue to monitor this situation.

Photo Credit: “Gameday2” by Rmcclen at en.wikipedia – Transferred from en.wikipedia by Ronhjones. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

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ASU Faces Threat of Legal Action for Censoring Players

Religious Freedom,

Last week we wrote how a threat from the Freedom From Religion Foundation led Arkansas State University to stop its football players from wearing cross-shaped stickers memorializing two of their late teammates.

The school’s actions were unnecessary, and now the university is facing the threat of a lawsuit for infringing the players’ freedoms of speech and free exercise of religion.

Attorney Hiram Sasser of Liberty Institute based in Texas is representing an ASU football player who wishes to remain anonymous due to fears of retaliation from school officials. Sasser sent a letter to the school, saying,

“In an attempt to placate the unfounded complaints of activists with a lengthy track record of bullying and intimidating schools across the country into driving any apparent religious reference from public sight, ASU ordered the members of the football team to remove only enough of the stickers to remove the religious viewpoint from the stickers. ASU allowed a portion of the stickers with the initials of the fallen teammates to remain by physically trimming the student’s memorial into a straight line (removing the vertical line that once formed a cross).

“ASU’s actions in defacing the students’ memorial stickers to remove their religious viewpoint is illegal viewpoint discrimination against the students’ free speech. As these stickers were designed by and adopted by the students on their own, they constitute protected student speech.”

Sasser writes if the school does not cease censorship of its students by today, further action will be taken.

The irony is if ASU had simply sided with its students, none of this would have happened.

Groups like Freedom From Religion Foundation, the ACLU, and others often do not actually follow through on threats of legal action over things like these memorial crosses, because they know their odds of winning are slim. And when they actually do file a lawsuit, they often lose.

If ASU had stood up for its students, the controversy probably would have evaporated in a short time. If someone did file a lawsuit over the crosses, Hiram Sasser or our friends at Alliance Defending Freedom likely would have helped represent ASU in court. Instead, ASU officials caved to a couple of complaints, and now they face the very-real threat of legal action.

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Important Meetings in Little Rock, Conway, Jonesboro This Week

Religious Freedom,

Last week we told you about some very important meetings happening around the state.

There is still time to register for the meetings in Little Rock, Conway, and Jonesboro this week. The meetings are free and include a free meal for all participants. Details are below.

Meeting Details

(Free meals provided for all participants)

Little Rock
Thursday, September 18, 7:30 AM – 9:30 AM
Embassy Suites Little Rock
11301 Financial Centre Pkwy.
Little Rock, AR 72211
Click Here to Register

Conway
Thursday, September 18, 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM
Central Baptist College
1501 College Avenue
Conway, AR 72034
Click Here to Register

Jonesboro
Friday, September 19, 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM
RidgePointe Country Club
2510 Ridgepointe Drive
Jonesboro, AR 72404
Click Here to Register

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