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With Recent Actions, Casino Battle Is Heating Up In Pope County, Arkansas

A petition seeks to put an amendment on the November ballot to change AR law to require a county’s voters to decide if they want a casino.
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J.R. Duren Avatar
1min read
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In 2018, when Arkansas voters approved an amendment to bring four casinos to four counties, it seemed that gaming was about to explode.

Six years later, three of those four counties have open and operating casinos (Saracen Casino all but $100 of that total.

Could this impact online casinos?

Online casinos are illegal in Arkansas. Typically, a state legalizes online casinos through its legislature. Elected lawmakers wrangle back and forth over online casino regulations, taxes, and other details, then eventually approve (or shoot down) changes to existing gaming laws that carve out a space for iGaming.

However, if Arkansas voters approve LVC’s amendment, future chances of legalizing online casinos get a lot trickier. Online casinos would most likely be approved at the state level and then undergo a vote in each county.

That may be a risk that online casino operators are unwilling to take.

About the Author
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J.R. Duren

Contributor

J.R. Duren is a news specialist for PlayUSA and has covered all forms of gambling for more than a dozen states for Catena Media since 2015. His past reporting experience includes two years at the Villages Daily Sun and a stint as a writer for CBS News. He is a first-place winner at the Florida Press Club Excellence in Journalism Contest. J.R. currently lives in Jacksonville, Florida.

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