Johnson County casino bill gets pushed back

The House Rules Committee decided not to recommend the bill that would authorise a casino to be developed in the area, at least for now.

US.- The unwanted casino project for Pope County in Arkansas continues to be vacant as the House Rules Committee in Arkansas decided not to recommend House Bill 1593 last Thursday. The bill, which has been pushed back yet again, was introduced by State Representative Aaron Pilkington in order to get Pope replaced with Johnson County in the casino amendment that allowed the gaming venue.

“Because there’s so many casino bills out right now, I think the committee didn’t feel comfortable moving ahead,” Pilkington said as he showed his surprise on the decision: “We were unaware that this was going to happen, we thought we had the votes,” he detailed.

Johnson County Judge Herman Houston spoke before the committee in order to support the casino proposal and said his “main purpose being (at the Thursday meeting) is jobs.” He also stated that the area “needs a shot in the arm and hopefully with business or something like this, it would help us attract other things.”

“We will continue to work on this legislation see if there’s any changes we can make to maybe combine our legislation with other people’s legislation or maybe work to create a new bill so it will be a little bit of a process,” Pilkington said as he remains hopeful: “I think next time we’ll have the votes,” he added.