UM gets off the fence
11-10-2008By TONY HILLIARD
Roger Glover and Scott Trotter, I apologize. I, like many Methodists, have sat on the sidelines of the Lottery Amendment debate watching you carry the fight for us, letting you do all the heavy lifting and taking all the shots without my ever lifting a finger. I didn’t pay attention or take a stand. I didn’t really look at the proposed amendment or the issues you’ve already raised.
Part of me felt a lottery to fund college scholarships might not be such a bad thing, so I sat on the fence when others around me spoke up in favor of the lottery proposal. Then last week Lt. Gov. Halter came and spoke to my Rotary Club on hislottery proposal. To prepare for the meeting I took 10 minutes to read the Ballot Title and research what the Arkansas Supreme Court said about lotteries. I was stunned. In that short period of research the obvious flaw in the ballot screamed out at me. Even if you generally supported lotteries, this proposal has the very real potential to put the most addictive forms of gambling in every convenience store in Arkansas.
Roger, you called this proposal a “sucker bet.” Now I understand. The Arkansas Constitution currently prohibits “Lotteries.” The Arkansas Supreme Court was asked to determine if slot machines and other gambling devises were legal. The Court defined “lottery” in our state constitution as any game of chance whereby consideration is given for the chance to win a prize of some value. In other words, slot machines, by the Supreme Court’s very broad definition, are a form of lottery. Scott, you pointed out that Attorney General Dustin McDaniel warned Lt. Gov. Halter that just because the lottery proposal eliminated the prohibition on lotteries, it would not change the court’s definition of lottery. The legislature would not be limited to make the lottery consist of just a pretty girl pulling numbers from a machine following the Monday evening news to see who won that week’s contest.
I asked Bill Halter if he had a response to your observation about the lack of definition of the term “Lottery.” He shot back that no state is going to get into the casino business. I pointed out New Hampshire, for example, owns all the liquor stores in that state, so a state having a monopoly on all the slot machines was not out of the question. He retorted that the argument was just being made by people who would oppose a lottery in any form and that no one has shown any of the statelotteries have the same type of detrimental effect as the casinos. That is not true and did not address the question or the problem.
When I co-chaired the United Methodist Against Gambling Expan-sion with Scott in 1996, we saw the horrible price for gambling with slot machines representing the most notorious and addictive mode of gambling. At least, the casino proposals limited the slot machines to a few casinos. This proposal does not.
Here is my prophecy if the Lottery Amendment passes based on the experiences of other states: The lottery program will initially operate with a pretty girl pulling numbers out of a machine every Monday night and bring in several million dollars to fund scholarships. However, like all other states with lotteries, the lottery revenues will slow down but the demand for the scholarships will not shrink. To encourage more betting, the lottery commission, as other states have done, will authorize the company operating the lottery to drop the percentage of the revenues going to scholarships and begin using more “creative” forms of a lottery such as the “instant win” games used in other states. Soon, however, as other states have experienced, the convenience stores will begin complaining they are losing other sales because of the lines to buy the lottery tickets. To help the convenience store owners, the lottery company will purchase machines that allow the player to put in his money, pull the handle and see instantly if he won, just like a slot machine, in every convenience store in Arkansas. The lottery machines will be as addictive as any slot machine and even more dangerous because the lottery machine will be staring right at the gambling addict every time he buys gas for his car.
As seen by the “games of skill” operating in Hot Springs and West Memphis, the legislature will expand gambling if given a chance, so my prophecy above, based on the experiences of other states, seems very likely. We already know the United Method-ist stand against gambling and why. When families lose their homes or can’t eat because Dad spent all their money on the lottery slot machines, we are the ones that must help, not Lt. Gov. Bill Halter.
Roger Glover has warned us, this amendment is a sucker bet. I’m off the fence and taking a vocal stand in my community. Obviously, the only way we will defeat this proposal is if more people become informed and take a stand, explaining why they oppose this amendment to their neighbors and friends. We must stand united, United Methodists!
Roger, Scott, I’m sorry it took me so long to get off the fence.
[Tony Hilliard, an attorney from Pine Bluff, is the spouse, brother and son of United Methodist pastors.]
