Regnat Populus (Editorial)

The Northwest Arkansas Business Journal has consistently opposed the idea of a state lottery for all the usual reasons: It is simply not the proper job of government to promote gambling, and particularly not a form of gambling that amounts to a regressive (albeit voluntary) tax paid primarily by the members of our society least able to afford it.

A majority of Arkansans used to agree with us on that. But after Nov. 4’s resounding approval of Amendment 3, which authorizes the Arkansas General Assembly to establish a lottery for the sole purpose of funding college scholarships, it’s clear that that prevailing attitude has changed.

Some hard-core lottery opponents are suggesting that the Legislature could be persuaded not to create a lottery. We aren’t that hard-core.

Arkansas’ state motto is still Regnat Populus, and the 62.88 percent of people who said yes to the Amendment 3 deserve to rule.

However, we do hope to persuade the Legislature to be very, very careful when crafting the legislation that will regulate this lottery.

A distinct advantage of being a late adopter is the opportunity to learn from other states’ mistakes.

The amendment that was approved was already vastly superior to previous proposals in that it limits the use of lottery proceeds to scholarships for Arkansas residents attending colleges and universities in Arkansas.

Lawmakers should take a Wal-Mart approach, demanding the lowest possible prices from the vendors who will line up to share in the proceeds.

A firm hand will be required to keep management fees, advertising costs and ticket-seller commissions from eating the seed corn of a more educated population.

Arkansas can also learn from the mistakes made in Tennessee, where hundreds of millions of dollars in lottery proceeds are sitting unused because the academic requirements for accessing those scholarships have been too strict. Students need to have some incentive to study, but setting the bar too high will certainly backfire.

The long fight to keep our state lottery-free has been lost.

Now proponents and opponents need to come together to demand that the new Arkansas Lottery deliver the most educational bang for the bucks that Arkansans will be handing over.