In terms of legal gambling, Arkansas is best known for the Oaklawn Park horse racing track in Hot Springs and also for a dog track in West Memphis. Yet the real story of gambling in Arkansas involves wide-open illegal casinos in Hot Springs (in Garland County) that operated for over a century with connections to many of the leading mobsters in the land. In the mid-1950s, reform governor Orval Faubus sought to close down the gaming. Local Garland County judges overruled his efforts, however, and Faubus dropped the issue. After a staunch antigambling Baptist minister was elected to the legislature, the issue was reopened. He pushed a resolution demanding that the governor shut down the casinos. In 1963 the governor responded. After he did so, the citizens of Hot Springs circulated petitions to legalize casinos. The question was put on the ballot in 1964. The campaign for casinos was led by the local chamber of commerce; however, it was opposed by both Faubus and his 1964 opponent, Winthrop Rockefeller. Arguments that the state could experience a financial windfall from casinos fell on deaf ears, and the voters defeated casinos by a vote of 318,000 to 215,000. The doors of the casinos have been closed since then, but the casino proponents keep trying to win public support. In 1984, another petition was presented to the voters. Again, Garland County residents led the campaign. The state’s young governor, Bill Clinton, opposed it. His wife, Hillary, led the campaign against casinos with a statewide speaking tour. Voters said no by a 71 percent to 29 percent margin. In 1996, voters said no again by the same overwhelming margin. This time, the appeal had been not to produce state revenues but rather to meet the competition from riverboat casinos in surrounding states. The dreams of returning to the glory days of gangsters and excitement in Hot Springs remain, but all the gambling is confined to the short racing season each summer.
A proposal was put forth in the 2000 election that would have allowed six counties to have local option votes on casino gambling. The voters of Arkansas defeated casinos one more time.
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