By Rob Moritz
Arkansas News Bureau

NORTH LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Lottery Commission on Thursday unanimously approved a plan to use vending machines to sell lottery tickets.

The panel acted over the objections of opponents who warned at a public hearing before the vote that the devices could spur underage gambling. Approval came after commission members made minor changes to a proposed set of rules outlining how the vending machines will work.

Jerry Cox, director of the Christian conservative Family Council, which has led the opposition to lottery vending machines, said he was not surprised by the commission’s decision.

“Since they have already purchased 100 of these machines we felt it very likely that they would find a way to approve them,” Cox said.

Family Council, he said, will take its fight to next week’s meeting of the legislative committee that oversees the lottery program. If that panel fails to stop the vending machine plan, Cox said his group would go to the Legislature next year with legislation to ban the devices from Arkansas.

“This fight against the lottery machines is not over,” he said.

Before the commission’s vote, about 100 people attended a hearing called to gather public comment on the plan. Of the 23 people who spoke, 21 voiced opposition to using vending machines to sell lottery tickets.

Some quoted scriptures and evoked responses of “amen” in denouncing gambling in general.

Carolyn Ann Smith of southwest Little Rock said she and her husband have seen the affects of the lottery in the poor area of town where they work.

Smith called the games a “poor man’s tax and the stupid man’s tax,” and worried that lottery officials would exacerbate the problem by targeting low-income areas with lottery vending machines.

Reg Hamman of North Little Rock said there was reason why there are no machines that sell alcohol.

“The reason we don’t have those is that we cannot trust young people under the age of 18 to make wise, intelligent decisions,” Hamman said. “A vending machine is not going to protect a young person.”

Tara Bond of Sherwood said she began smoking at 13 and would purchase her cigarettes at a nearby hotel.

“It was that easy,” she said, adding it took her nearly 10 years to stop smoking.

“The government enabled my addiction by allowing the vending machines,” she said.
“You will be doing the same with the lottery ticket vending machines.”

State Lottery Director Ernie Passailaigue told the commission before the vote that state law forbids the sale of lottery tickets to people under 18 and that the machines would not give underage people access to lottery tickets.

Passailaigue said vending-machine sales will be more secure than over-the-counter sales because a sales clerk might be fooled by a fake ID, but the machines will not be.

He also said the machines are programmed to take Arkansas driver’s licenses and state identification cards. They also may take out-of-state driver’s licenses. If they don’t, that person will have to get a clerk to approve the purchase.

Before their vote, the commission agreed to make two small changes to the proposed rules that outline how the lottery machines will work.

Commissioner Patty Shipp noted that the proposed rules only said the vending machines must be capable of validating a player’s age. That wording was changed to say specifically that a government-issued identification card was needed to buy a ticket through a vending machine.

The second change, requested by Commissioner Mike Malone, changed the rules so the vending machines must be placed in an area the store that is staffed. The rules originally read “normally staffed.”