Call Arkansas Lawmakers to Ban Video Lottery by 5 p.m. Today

Arkansas Lottery, ,

CrowdA special session of the Arkansas Legislature will be held Monday and Tuesday of this week.

Lawmakers will vote on a bill that would keep the Arkansas Lottery from installing video lottery games in businesses around the state. This bill is being blocked by a few lawmakers on the House Rules Committee. Please call the members of the House Rules Committee by 8 p.m. Monday. Ask each member to vote for a law to ban video lottery games.

Below is a list of every member of the House Rules Committee and their phone numbers. Most of these numbers are cell phones, so you can Text as well.

Representative’s Name and Phone Number:

Chair: Stephanie Malone – 479-629-5119
Vice-Chair: Andy Davis – 501-837-5109
Tommy Thompson – 501-208-2007
Darrin Williams – 501-952-6733
John Edwards – 501-680-5248
James McLean – 870-613-0617
Deborah Ferguson – 901-486-8786
Ann Clemmer – 501-912-4892
John Vines – 501-624-1252
Kelley Linck – 870-404-2741
Andrea Lea – 479-967-4922
Duncan Baird – 479-263-9449
John Burris – 870-688-6181
Mary Broadway – 870-239-1747
Jeremy Gillam – 501-940-5757

The Lottery Commission has announced plans to allow businesses to install TV monitors where patrons could gamble on Keno and other games every few minutes. Currently the games could run 24 hours a day, and there is no limit on how much a person could wager and lose.

The Arkansas Lottery Commission will install these video gambling devices in communities across the state unless the Arkansas Legislature passes a law to prevent it. Companies that make money from the lottery are lobbying hard to keep lawmakers on the House Rules Committee from allowing a vote on this important law. Your call is vital to offset these powerful moneyed gambling interests. Please call the members of the House Rules Committee today, and ask them to vote for a law to ban video lottery games.

For more information, contact Jerry Cox at Family Council: 501-375-7000.

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Arkansas Lottery Lowers Scholarships, Approves New Hires, Advertising

Arkansas Lottery

Yesterday, the Arkansas Lottery Commission revised its projections for college scholarships, indicating that, with only days remaining in the state’s fiscal year, scholarship totals would come in around $80.5 million–roughly $9 million less than originally projected.

Lottery officials continue to say the goal is to “raise” as much money as possible for college students, but the Lottery’s actions tell a different story. For instance, at yesterday’s meeting the Arkansas Lottery Commission:

  • Hired an $89,000 public relations aid;
  • Authorized an extra $500,000 in lottery advertising;
  • Hired a security director with a salary of $98,500; and
  • Lowered scholarship projections for the year.

The Arkansas Lottery continues to cut scholarship projections, and yet it also manages to find money to hire employees and pay for advertisements the Lottery has done without for the past several months. I don’t think anyone really believes the lagging ticket sales the Lottery is experiencing are the result of not having a public relations person.

Additionally, the Arkansas Lottery Commission seems dead-set on implementing “monitor games” in Arkansas–despite objections from state legislators and the Lottery Commission’s own projections showing monitor games will not make the Arkansas Lottery a booming success.

So what is really going on down at the Lottery Commission?

Why Are Scholarship Funds Dropping at the Arkansas Lottery?

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Arkansas Lottery Looks to Hire $89K Public Relations Aide

Arkansas Lottery

According to a story in today’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the Arkansas Lottery Commission’s Personnel Committee has approved a proposal to hire a public relations and legislative liaison for $88,957 a year. The full commission will vote on the proposal later this month.

To be fair, the position is not a new one; Lottery Commissioner Julie Baldridge held the job before retiring in April of 2013, and it has been vacant ever since. But the Arkansas Lottery seems to have gotten along just fine without a PR person. Yes, ticket sales have continued to drop at the Arkansas Lottery, and scholarship projections have been cut time and time again, but you can’t blame that on poor public relations–although it might be the kind of thing a public relations aide could help gloss over.

In the face of lagging revenue, the Arkansas Lottery seems to be bent on using the same, tired strategy of rolling out more gambling, spending extra on advertising, and, now, hiring an $89,000 PR aide–presumably to boost the lottery’s image.

So far, those tactics haven’t delivered the “world class” lottery we were all promised back in 2009. Is there really any reason to think that strategy will work this time?

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