By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — Gov. Mike Beebe said Wednesday he believes Arkansas’ lottery games should be consistent with what voters thought they were approving when they passed a constitutional amendment in November to create a state-run lottery to fund college scholarships.
Ernie Passailaigue, who will start July 1 as executive director of the state’s lottery, has said he is interested in including games such as Texas hold ’em, horse-racing games and keno among the lottery’s games.
Asked by reporters to comment on Passailaigue’s statements, Beebe said Wednesday, “I think the lottery should be consistent with what the people thought they were voting on, and I don’t remember any discussion about keno.”
Beebe voted against the constitutional amendment creating the lottery but did not speak out against it before the election.
The governor’s comment Wednesday was similar to statements by Jerry Cox, executive director of the conservative Family Council, which actively opposed the lottery.
“I don’t think most people voted for scratch-off tickets and video lottery-type terminals,” Cox said Tuesday in an interview with the Arkansas News Bureau. “I think they were voting for what most people would call a traditional lottery.”
Other state officials said the controversy is much ado about nothing.
“Whether you call it Keno, Pick Six, Lotto, Multi Match, Mega Millions, Power Ball, Texas Hold ‘Em, Aces Wild, 21 or Thelma and Louise, lotteries involve a player picking numbers (or having numbers assigned to them) and the lottery operator announcing the winning numbers,” House Speaker Robbie Wills, D-Conway, said in a blog post Wednesday.
Wills, who sponsored legislation this year that laid the groundwork for the lottery, said he has seen scratch-off lottery games in other states, including Oklahoma and Tennessee, with names such as Instant Keno, Blackjack, Bingo, Slots and Poker. Whether they use scratch-off tickets or video monitors, the players are not really playing casino-style games but are simply picking lottery numbers, he said.
In a separate post, Wills said Arkansas’ “antiquated” law banning keno is not an issue because the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery Act was worded to give the Arkansas Lottery Commission wide discretion regarding the types of games offered, “at the recommendation of just about everyone.”
Wills said the controversy was really about terminology. If the games had names such as “quick draw” or “fast win,” then “we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” he said in the blog post.
Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, who proposed the constitutional amendment creating the lottery, said this week through a spokesman he believes Arkansas’ lottery should offer the same types of games as those offered in neighboring states that have lotteries.
“The lieutenant governor’s office receives lots of calls from people asking when they can play Powerball. We haven’t received any calls about keno,” Halter spokesman Garry Hoffmann said in a written statement issued Tuesday.
