Arkansas casino petitioners run against the clock
A campaign to get the casino industry legalised in Arkansas has taken 180 workers to gather signatures before the deadline.
US.- Over 500 paid workers (combined) have been involved in three different campaigns to legalise casinos in Arkansas and raise the minimum wage. However, the current 180-worker campaign is running out of time to submit the 84,859 signatures by Friday and it’s unclear whether they will make it on time.
“When you start as late as we do, it’s just very difficult or impossible to collect signatures without existing infrastructure,” autor of the proposed amentment David Couch said. The campaign supporting his proposal has not only employed hundreds of people but also spent six figures on a statewide television ad calling for voters to sign the petition.
“This year we’re going to be turning in signatures,” Arkansas Term Limits chairman Tom Steele said. “The problem is we’ve got signatures coming in from so many places, we don’t have an accurate count of exactly where we are.”
The proposal’s promoters should have all signatures gathered by Friday in order to get the casino industry expanded into a Hot Springs horse track and West Memphis greyhound track that already offer video poker and other electronic games. The proposal would also legalise casinos in Pope and Jefferson counties.
