FAYETTEVILLE — Stop into the Fayetteville Visitors Bureau on the downtown square and you can rent a bike, buy a Fayetteville T-shirt or get some thoughts on upcoming events.

Soon, visitors may be able to add buying a Powerball ticket to that list.

The visitors bureau is moving forward with filling out the appropriate paperwork to allow it to sell Arkansas lottery tickets.

“We haven’t completed the application yet,” said Allyson Twiggs Dyer, director of the Fayetteville Visitors Bureau. “We have a couple more things to iron out before we submit it.”

The idea of having the visitors bureau serve as a retail location came up during the October meeting of the Fayetteville Advertising and Promotion Commission where commissioners were open to A&P Director Marilyn Heifner exploring what options were available to allow the tourism body to serve as a retail location.

“I don’t see why not to do it,” said Tim Freeman, chairman of the Fayetteville Advertising and Promotion Commission. “It’s something that’s sponsored by the state of Arkansas.”

A retail application is first submitted to the Arkansas Lottery

Commission, then a lottery sales representative is sent to the visitors center to conduct a site survey, Heifner said.

Heifner plans to ask for a formal vote of the advertising commission at its November meeting. Lottery ticket sales locations earn 5 percent commission on ticket sales and 1 percent commission on prize amounts for tickets sold at that location.

The state law enabling lottery ticket sales speaks primarily to who cannot serve as a retailer. The usual list of suspects prevented from selling the tickets includes persons related to members of the lottery commission, anyone convicted of illegal gambling activity or anyone operating a business to sell only lottery tickets. But the retailer rules do not speak directly to the question of public agencies selling tickets.

However, some publicly funded organizations already have restrictions against what they view as gambling.

“As afar as I know, there are no plans to sell lottery tickets on campus,” said Scott Flanagin, director of communication and outreach at the University of Arkansas.

As a matter of policy, gambling is not allowed on the UA campus, o◊cials said. And selling lottery tickets could be interpreted as gambling, Flanagin said.

“It would depend upon how it’s defined because you cannot gamble on campus,” Flanagin explained. “There is policy and provision against that.”

Kit Williams, Fayetteville’s city attorney, isn’t entirely comfortable with the visitors center serving as a retail location for lottery tickets.

“One of the problems I would have is that their building was bought and paid for with tax revenue, and their employees are paid with tax revenue, and should they be competing with private business?” Williams said.

The purpose of the visitorscenter, Williams said, is to promote and help to accommodate tourism. Selling lottery tickets, he said, would diverge from that path.

“If you look at the powers of the A&P Commission, it doesn’t say they can sell lottery tickets,” Williams said.

But, like any convenience store, more low-cost items for purchase at the visitors center could almost certainly result in more customers coming through the door.

“I think you’d get a lot more foot tra◊c from people who work on the square,” Freeman said.

The Arkansas Scholarship Lottery Act was decided by statewide vote a year ago. The money it generates will be used to fund college scholarships.

News, Pages 1 on 11/04/2009

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