While Saracen Casino in Pine Bluff is looking to challenge a rule to allow online gambling in Arkansas, rival Oaklawn fears the change would severely impact brick-and-mortar visitors
Pine Bluff’s Saracen Casino Resort is looking to amend the legislation in Arkansas that currently prohibits online gambling.
Rival casino Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort located in Hot Springs firmly opposes the change, claiming it would have devastating effects on the number of visitors to land casinos as well as state taxes.
Saracen Casino wants the Arkansas Racing Commission to give the green light to online casino gambling in the state that only allows online sports betting at the moment.
The operator envisions bettors using their smartphones to play a variety of casino games including slots, craps, and blackjack.
The respective games are now limited to the small number of brick-and-mortar casinos operating in the Bear State.
Saracen is already busy developing a prospective mobile casino app called “Play Saracen” and has expressed hope that the arguments they will bring to the commission will mirror the successful the “Let’s go from the four walls of the casino to the four borders of Arkansas” argument they used with sports betting.
Chief marketing officer Carlton Saffa wants to make the deal even more appealing by proposing the creation of a 50/50 drawing online, with 50% of the generated funds reaching NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) funding to recruit athletes for state universities.
The NIL program was launched in 2021 and, ever since, it has given athletes at universities across the country the right to profit from their own name, image, and likeness.
The online program also features affordable pay-by-the-course tuition for all US residents.
According to Saffa, the legalization of online casino gaming in Arkansas would represent an “incredible bonus” that could help “raise hundreds of thousands of dollars a week to fund the NIL needs at every college” in the state.
The same decision would also prevent Arkansans from using illicit gambling apps while marking a crucial milestone for the “expansion of gaming in Arkansas.”
Accordingly, the commission should take its time making a decision and not rush into it “without understanding its impact” on the state.
In the meanwhile, Saracen’s immediate competitor, Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort, has expressed its firm opposition to the legalization of online gambling.
Oaklawn officials believe online gambling would trigger a serious drop in the number of visitors to land casinos.
As for the raffle funding for NIL programs, casino officials think this could lead to a decrease in the money generated by the state’s scholarship lottery.
In an op-ed published in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Oaklawn’s president, Louis Cella, expressed his view that online gambling in Arkansas would lead to “less discretionary funds to spend” within local communities which would, in turn, generate a decline in “sales tax collections for public services.”
In less than a year after its official launch, sports betting in Arkansas handled more than $124 million in total bets.
Saffa added, “Their objections are really a smokescreen based upon a fear of competing.”
Saffa called the Pine Bluff venue “the new kid on the block” that is “not afraid to innovate and to hustle.”
The chief marketing officer further added that provided the rule change will not be heard at the commission, Saracen will proceed to bring the matter in front of the state legislature in January.
