Mixed Results For Racing, Gaming Initiatives

• Email
• Print
• Tweet

While the presidential race was too close to call, that was not the case with gaming-related referendums in three states. In Massachusetts, dog tracks apparently scored a victory as a referendum to ban greyhound racing was headed toward defeat. In other gambling issues, Arkansas voters rejected casino gambling and in Maine a proposal to permit video lottery terminals at tracks failed.

According to the Boston Globe, the greyhound racing ban failed by a margin of 51%-49%, with 1,626 of 2,111 precincts reporting.

"I think we've won,'' Glenn Totten, a political consultant hired by track owners to lead the fight against Question 3, told the newspaper. There is a very sincere sense of relief,'' said Totten as a election night gathering of hundreds of Raynham-Taunton Greyhound Park employees wound down early this morning. "These folks were petrified they were going to lose their living,'' he said.

Opponents of greyhound racing had sought support for the referendum by focusing on the issue of how the dogs are treated.

The Herald reported that track owners went into Election Day with a lead in the polls after a multimillion-dollar television advertising blitz and grassroots campaigning by track employees fighting for their jobs.

Victory, however, did not come easily, with the racing ban riding high in the polls just a few weeks ago.

Meanwhile, in Arkansas, with 99% of the vote tallied, the question of whether casino gambling should be legalized was being voted down by a 63.7%-36.3% tally, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

The petition measure would have allowed the Arkansas Casino Corp. to establish casinos in Arkansas, authorizing it to set up one each in Boone, Crittenden, Garland, Miller, Pulaski and Sebastian counties. The measure would forbid state regulation of the casinos and guarantee little taxation of the casinos. Casinos would have to pay 15 percent of their net revenue for a special gambling tax but would be exempt from all other taxes.

In addition, the amendment also would set up a state-run lottery, legalize charitable bingo, and set limits on casino taxes and on spending lottery revenue, and hold out the idea of removing the sales tax from groceries and financing a college education for each year's graduates of Arkansas high schools.

In the other major referendum on the ballot Tuesday, by a margin of 60.1%-39.9% (with 95% of the vote tallied), Maine voters said no to permitting video lottery machines at certain horse racing tracks, with 40% of the profits are used for property tax relief.

• Email
• Print
• Tweet