Lottery puts spotlight on casino taboo

LITTLE ROCK Instead of fighting over whether a state-run lottery would open Arkansas' door to casinos, both sides may want to ponder another question: So what if it did?

The debate over the proposed lottery amendment has highlighted the last gambling taboo in a state that seems to have embraced wagering in just about every other fashion while still maintaining its Bible Belt status.

Though the state has long resisted expanding into lotteries and casinos, there's no shortage of gambling. Video poker games, some with real chips. Virtual blackjack tables featuring video images of dealers standing in for the real thing. Bets on which throughbred or greyhound can run around a track the fastest. Tuesday night bingo at the local Moose Lodge.

But casinos still hold an especially low esteem in the state, so much so that advertisements against the proposed lottery amendment barely try to tackle the lottery head-on.

"What they do in Vegas needs to stay in Vegas," an announcer says in an ad for the Arkansas Family Council, which is opposing the lottery. Flyers by the group show images of dice, poker chips and a roulette wheel.

Even Lt. Gov. Bill Halter has addressed the criticism directly, telling viewers in a television ad that his lottery proposal would bring millions of dollars in scholarships, but no casinos.

Halter has accused opponents of raising the casino image as a scare tactic to mislead voters who would otherwise support a lottery amendment.

Cox has tried to argue that the amendment would legalize casinos, but an Arkansas Supreme Court ruling that said the lottery could remain on the ballot didn't address that issue.

The fact that the debate over Halter's amendment has now shifted to casinos shows how much the resistance to lotteries has been whittled away over the years.

That was demonstrated last week, with a poll from the University of Arkansas showing that 65 percent of respondents supported the lottery measure.

Instead of focusing on the traditional arguments against a lottery claims that it's essentially a tax on the poor who play the games foes are painting the measure as Arkansas' slide into a heartland Las Vegas.

Any slide may have started long before Halter started touting his lottery proposal.

Even though voters rejected casino initiatives in 1996 and 2000, they approved charity-run bingo games and raffles in 2006. Gambling long has been allowed at the Oaklawn Park horse track in Hot Springs and at Southland Park, a greyhound track in West Memphis. Video blackjack, poker and other electronic games of skill were added to the tracks in late 2006.

Some of the casino-like games feature real cards and dealers, and Southland has increasingly presented itself as a gambling alternative to nearby Tunica, Miss., casinos. Its president's business card could double as a playing card.

The casino argument may backfire on lottery opponents. Jerry Cox, the Family Council's president, says he would oppose a lottery amendment even if it specifically defined the games. But his focus on casino gambling sends an inherent message lottery tickets are OK, but casinos are another thing.

Other groups that have come out against the lottery say they're worried that the argument against a lottery is being drowned out by that message.

"We think the casino argument, while it's something that needs to be talked about, is not the major issue in this debate," said Rich Huddleston, director of Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, which argues that a lottery would hurt low-income families.

Hendrix College political scientist Jay Barth says he thinks a lottery measure worded similarly to Halter's may have been able to pass 15 or 20 years ago but said it would have faced more opposition than it does now.

Promoting casinos would still be a politically risky move, but a lottery doesn't have the same effect on voters that it once did.

"I think why it's not even a close call at this time is just, the times have changed and Arkansans are less wedded to some of those traditional mores," Barth said.

DeMillo covers Arkansas government and politics for The Associated Press.