By John Brummett

I see that Gov. Mike Beebe told a reporter that the new lottery ought to resemble what the people thought they were voting for last year. I see that the governor says he doesn’t remember anyone talking about these quick-draw numbers games at restaurants and bars and such falling loosely under the brand name of Keno.

Ernie Passailaigue, the well-paid lottery director, has mumbled something about how we might, in time, have a little Keno-like dish in our lottery buffet.

With all due respect, and the respect our governor is due is considerable, I must say this: I don’t much give a hoot what the governor says or thinks about the lottery.

That’s because (1) he was against the lottery all along, and (2) he has tried to minimize the lottery’s importance because he resented it on account of its not being his idea, but Lt. Gov. Bill Halter’s, and (3) the dad-gummed politicians are supposed to stay out of the lottery, anyway.

Halter seems to get that message. I see that a popular if liberal blogger went ballistic about Passailaigue’s suggestion of a Keno-like component, warning that we were about to become a nasty statewide casino. This popular if liberal blogger formed a strange-bedfellow alliance with the church people. Then he called Halter, as the “father of the Arkansas lottery,” seeking a similar and validating view.

Halter begged time for a written statement, and, in that statement, conspicuously avoided taking a position on a Keno-like component.

(I keep saying Keno-like component because Keno is a brand name, not the common name of a generic game. Generally, we’re talking about being in a beer joint in a booth, maybe, and electronically picking some random numbers for a small fee, and, in a few minutes, finding out whether your numbers have matched others to net you a few winning bucks. It would not be the main part of our lottery. Powerball and basic scratch cards — there’s your revenue flood gate.)

Halter’s press aide subsequently told me it’s too early to talk about the specific elements of our lottery and that the politicians weren’t supposed to be making those decisions. Anyway, this press aide said, Halter is confident that everything will turn out fine so long as we have vigorous public dialogue and transparency, both of which we are indeed currently enjoying in heaping servings.

For the record: Who knows what the people thought they were voting on? The amendment specifically referred to “lotteries” and left the implementation to the Legislature. Buying numbers on a chance they’ll match up with winning numbers — that’s a lottery. The Legislature, in that implementing bill, specifically outlawed a few blatant casino-type games, but not necessarily a Keno-like component.

What I rather suspect Arkansas voters wanted was to be able to play a lottery without having to go out of state and to raise some money to help their kids go to college.

That brings us to the central point: Arkansas has a chance to have a wham-bam, kick-tail lottery. This is for three reasons:

(1) We’re late to the game and we can learn from things that haven’t worked in 42 other states.

(2) Our constitutional provision is highly general, as is our implementing statute, meaning we have a chance to make our lottery fluid to maintain competitive edges. I can show you an article in the Tulsa World in which Oklahomans are worried sick because their lottery payoffs are embedded in law and they think Arkansas, by having a Lottery Commission able to make changes on the fly, is going to offer a better deal and siphon off practically every lottery dollar in 50 miles of the state line.

(3) We have an abundance of border states from which to draw players if we avail ourselves of our fluidity and keep our lottery vibrant.

If a Keno-like component is a part of that, fine by me. And my opinion counts as much as the governor’s.

John Brummett is a columnist and reporter for Stephens Media’s Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock. E-mail: jbrummett@Arkansasnews.com