Vegas Style Video Poker Could Be Coming To Arkansas
A representative of a casino games company says his firm will try to bring video poker to Southland Greyhound Park in West Memphis and Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs.
Bill Bartholomay with WMS Gaming of Waukegan, Ill. says he hopes the Arkansas Racing Commission will allow his company's video poker games, marketed under brand names including "3-Way Action Poker" and "World Series of Poker" to be placed at the racetracks.
"We will hopefully place games as soon as the two facilities are ready to start ordering. Any new market is an exciting market," he said. "We're glad to participate in it."
Video poker, the game that critics describe as the crack cocaine of gambling, has been at the center of the public debate over expanded gambling at the tracks since the issue arose in the Legislature last year.
But the measures that voters in Hot Springs and West Memphis approved in November make no reference to video poker. Rather, the law refers to "electronic games of skill" without defining them, leaving the regulations to the Arkansas Racing Commission.
Eric Jackson, general manager of the horse track at Oaklawn, wouldn't say if he wanted video poker at the park.
"I think it's premature for anybody to talk about specific games before the state gets further along in the process of making rules and regulations," he said.
Southland president Barry Baldwin wouldn't say definitively if video poker is on its way. "Video poker is an electronic game of skill," he said. "Any game first has to be approved by the commission. And we're not quite to that stage yet. We're getting closer."
A consulting company hired by the commission, Gaming Laboratories International, has drafted regulations, and the commission heard comments on the proposal from game machine manufacturers and others Thursday.
Commission attorney Byron L. Freeland said the commission plans to consider adjustments and is likely to approve final regulations at a meeting next Thursday at Southland Greyhound Park.
Most of the comments Thursday dealt with technicalities that would affect game companies.
Bartholomay came to the meeting, as did representatives of Reno, Nev.-based games manufacturer IGT.
LaVonne Whitley, the company's director of regulatory compliance, said IGT will wait for the commission to set standards. Video poker is part of the company's lineup, she said.
Manufacturers would submit proposed games to the commission for approval and Gaming Laboratories International would test them to see if they qualify as "electronic games of skill," Freeland said.
The games would be set to pay out 83 percent, Freeland said. In other words, players as a whole would lose 17 percent of the money they put in.
Commissioners would determine how many machines to allow, commission member Cecil Alexander said.
June 30, 2006
Posted By Larry Rutherford
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com
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