Over in West Memphis, at Southland Park, they spend hours in the dark, pawing at metal, making money for someone else at no small risk to their health. But the greyhounds, their trainers say, are better off than those gamblers.
Interesting. A friend today received a mailer urging people not to sign petitions being circulated by Nancy Todd to amend the Arkansas Constitution to allow her to open "poker palaces" and casinos in Pulaski, Miller, Crittenden and Franklin counties.
The New York Times reports today on a gambling development directly relevant to Arkansas. After a decade in which more than half the greyhound tracks in the country have closed, many of the remaining operations have survived thanks to the model used at Bluffs Run.
The reporting in the Democrat-Gazette yesterday and today on Lottery Commission Chairman Dianne Lamberth instilled little confidence in lottery operations.
This is rich. Roby Brock reports that, due to "emergency" cirumcstances, the state Racing Commission has allowed the Southland racino in West Memphis to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
I've commented a couple of times on Rep. Anne Clemmer's proposed constitutional amendment to require that 35 percent of lottery sales be spent on college scholarships.
I cheer the news, reported by Roby Brock, that legislation is coming to eliminate most of the exemptions in the law that banned smoking in most public places.
The slot-fed gambling machines and poker and black jack tables at Oaklawn and Southland parks have attracted a total of almost $95 miillion a month in wagering the first nine months of this year, or more than $1 billion in gambling on an annualized basis.