Arkansas bill to keep lottery winner names secret fails

Mar 18, 2019, 10:06 am (10 comments)

Arkansas Lottery

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — An effort to keep the identities of some lottery winners secret has failed in the Arkansas House.

The proposal to allow winners of more than $500,000 in the state lottery to keep their identities confidential failed in the House on a 39-30 vote last week. The sponsor of the measure said the bill was aimed at protecting lottery winners' safety.

The measure was opposed by media groups who said keeping the information secret would prevent the public from knowing if there was any misconduct in the state lottery.

The bill is among several proposals to scale back Arkansas' public records law that legislators are considering.

AP

Comments

hearsetrax's avatarhearsetrax

Roll Eyes

lejardin's avatarlejardin

Opposed by media groups, what a crock.  Anything for a story, pathetic.

music*'s avatarmusic*

Arkansas voters and those who play the Lottery will have the opportunity to elect representatives who will do their bidding. A vote is a powerful tool. Patriot

LottoLucy's avatarLottoLucy

Quote: Originally posted by music* on Mar 18, 2019

Arkansas voters and those who play the Lottery will have the opportunity to elect representatives who will do their bidding. A vote is a powerful tool. Patriot

You are absolutely right.  If lottery players could some how organize as a group and cohesively put pressure on both their representatives AND their state lottery offices you would see these “no anonymity” rules drop pretty quickly.  Get everyone to write.  Work actively to get candidates elected who are for the people not special interest groups.  It will never happen but just imagine if you could get everyone in the state to not buy a ticket for a certain draw.  THAT would get the lottery’s attention and they might be more willing to work towards what their players want.

As I said it will never happen.

ronki

What a bunch of MORONS

Coin Toss's avatarCoin Toss

From the OP;

The measure was opposed by media groups who said keeping the information secret would prevent the public from knowing if there was any misconduct in the state lottery.

Yo, Arkansas media groups, do your homework. There is more misconduct in the states that do no allow winners to be anonymous than states that do.

grwurston's avatargrwurston

Quote: Originally posted by Coin Toss on Mar 18, 2019

From the OP;

The measure was opposed by media groups who said keeping the information secret would prevent the public from knowing if there was any misconduct in the state lottery.

Yo, Arkansas media groups, do your homework. There is more misconduct in the states that do no allow winners to be anonymous than states that do.

Keeping the information secret would prevent the public from knowing if there was any misconduct in the state lottery.

The public would only know of misconduct in the lottery if the media reported it. If they didn't...

That said, If something "funny" was going on, savvy players would pick up on it way before anyone else, including the media. We've done it before.

Coin Toss's avatarCoin Toss

States and countries that allow winners to remain anonymous don't have any problems with it.

Technut's avatarTechnut

Arkansas Legislators are just puppets to the media. They don't care about the safety of large jackpot winners. They want stories like JP winner murdered to get prize. just bunch of low lifes.

occasion's avataroccasion

Quote: Originally posted by LottoLucy on Mar 18, 2019

You are absolutely right.  If lottery players could some how organize as a group and cohesively put pressure on both their representatives AND their state lottery offices you would see these “no anonymity” rules drop pretty quickly.  Get everyone to write.  Work actively to get candidates elected who are for the people not special interest groups.  It will never happen but just imagine if you could get everyone in the state to not buy a ticket for a certain draw.  THAT would get the lottery’s attention and they might be more willing to work towards what their players want.

As I said it will never happen.

This. I wish people in California would do something like this: stop buying tickets for a few weeks, or for months if necessary, would make them change the law immediately. I'd totally be part of it. No idea how to organize something like this though.

End of comments
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