Last week the Eureka Springs city council voted to approve a semi-permanent public drinking district.
The ordinance allows public drinking downtown at certain times.
Watch the video below to learn more.
The Arkansas Lottery has a habit of relying heavily on scratch-off tickets and routinely rolls out new lottery games — some of which cost as much as $10 or $20 per ticket.
However, something that doesn’t get talked about very much is the fact that the Arkansas Lottery also routinely discontinues scratch-off tickets — some of which may still have a million dollars or more in outstanding prize money.
For example, the Arkansas Lottery quit selling its Big Multiplier scratch-off tickets on February 5 of this year. Players have until May 5 to redeem winning tickets purchased on or before February 5.
The Arkansas Lottery decided to quit selling Big Multiplier tickets despite the fact that there are more than $1.8 million worth of prizes remaining from this line of scratch-off tickets — including one jackpot ticket worth $250,000.
These winning tickets either were never sold or — if they were sold — have not been claimed yet.
In other words, by discontinuing the Big Multiplier game before all the winning scratch-off tickets were sold or redeemed, the Arkansas Lottery could avoid paying out as much as $1.8 million in prizes.
The Arkansas Lottery likewise decided to discontinue its Cash Time scratch-off ticket in February despite the fact that nearly 30% of its winning tickets were not sold or have not been redeemed yet.
All told, Family Council has identified more than a dozen lines of instant tickets that the Arkansas Lottery is in the process of discontinuing, with approximately $8.6 million in prize money unpaid from these lottery games.
As of last week, they are:
| Lottery Game | Total Prize Money | Prize Money Remaining | Percent Unawarded |
| Win 10X | $2,655,804 | $291,182 | 11.0% |
| Hit 100 | $1,371,832 | $299,051 | 21.8% |
| 20X Payout | $2,192,510 | $630,196 | 28.7% |
| Cash Time | $1,034,531 | $298,666 | 28.9% |
| 10X Payout | $1,511,540 | $410,931 | 27.2% |
| 500 Loaded | $8,865,180 | $333,275 | 3.8% |
| 5000 Taxes Paid | $1,045,550 | $209,281 | 20.0% |
| Big Multiplier | $11,135,545 | $1,841,335 | 16.5% |
| 50K Blowout | $22,698,830 | $1,596,490 | 7.0% |
| Cash Multiplier | $6,426,935 | $763,520 | 11.9% |
| Fast Cash HD | $6,194,695 | $382,250 | 6.2% |
| 10X Bonus Crossword | $4,923,492 | $219,994 | 4.5% |
| $50 or $100 | $8,259,950 | $174,900 | 2.1% |
| 100,000 Taxes Paid | $6,063,064 | $557,565 | 9.2% |
| 200,000 Taxes Paid | $9,227,220 | $601,785 | 6.5% |
In other states, lotteries have drawn flak for discontinuing scratch-off games before selling all or most of the winning tickets.
Some have questioned whether those lotteries simply did not want to pay money for big prizes.
The Arkansas Lottery already spends more money on prizes than most lotteries.
However, many people may be surprised to learn that a state-run lottery can avoid paying prizes to players by simply cancelling lottery games before all the winning tickets are sold.
Last week Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge’s office filed arguments asking the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals to let the state enforce three pro-life laws the legislature passed last year:
These laws passed with overwhelming support from state lawmakers, but abortionists filed a lawsuit last June to have the laws overturned.
As a result, U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker issued an injunction blocking the state from enforcing the laws. Attorney General Rutledge’s office has asked the Eighth Circuit to vacate Judge Baker’s injunction.
In last week’s arguments, the A.G.’s office noted that Judge Baker’s injunction “prohibited Arkansas from pursuing three goals: reducing brutal, late-term abortions; outlawing discriminatory abortions that devalue people already living with Down Syndrome; and protecting women from incompetent abortion practitioners.”
As I’ve said many times, I don’t know of any attorney general in America who is doing more to fight for the right to life than Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge.
Her team has tirelessly defended good laws like these, and I am confident that Arkansas will win some big, pro-life victories in federal court.
