Issue 5, Arkansas Wins....Loses
Issue 5, the casino amendment, is all but dead. Last week, the Arkansas Supreme Court issued a ruling and held that the issue would not reach voters, because the ballot title was legally insufficient. Even though you are probably still seeing those crazy ads on television, and fliers in the mail, it appears that the effort to install casinos in Arkansas will have to wait. In this case , Petitioners, the Committee to Protect Arkansas' Values/Stop Casinos Now, argued to the Arkansas Supreme Court that Issue 5 should be rejected because the ballot title was misleading. Among its concerns, was a provision in the title that purported to allow the new casinos to "accept wagers on sporting events" and offer " any game, device, or type of wagering permitted at a casino operated within. . . Nevada". This language was problematic because Federal law expressly prohibits sports books and sports gaming, subject to just a few well- known exceptions . When testing a bal