Councilman drops casino petition effort

PINE BLUFF — Alderman Bruce Lockett, who was leading a petition drive to get a referendum on the ballot to make Saracen Casino Resort, currently under construction, a non-smoking facility, has given up his effort.

Lockett said Wednesday night the time frame he had to gather 2,000 signatures and the need to educate people on the dangers of secondhand smoke in the workplace made it too difficult to gather the needed signatures.

Lockett said he gathered about 500 signatures.

“We don’t have sufficient numbers to turn in,” he said. “We didn’t have time to educate people and the issue was that we were trying to educate people on the dangers of smoking in a casino in a time frame where there was no open casino. Many people were so excited about the casino that it just really drowned out the message.”

Lockett said he hasn’t given up on trying to make the casino smoke free, but he said he’ll pull back from efforts to drum up voter support in favor of trying to educate people on the benefits of smoke free workplaces, and possibly persuade the casino owners to consider making Saracen Casino Resort the only one of four casinos in Arkansas that don’t allow smoking.

“I really think there are enough people who don’t smoke but like to gamble that doing that would be a draw for them,” he said.

The proposal, had it made it to the ballot and been approved by voters in Pine Bluff, would have included the casino property in the city’s workplace smoking ban and was opposed by Downstream Development Authority, the Quapaw Nation entity that is building the casino. The General Assembly, in the 2019 legislative session, exempted casinos from the state’s clean indoor air statutes.

Carlton Saffa, spokesman for Saracen Casino Resort, said he bears Lockett no ill will, despite being on the opposite side of the issue.

“I like him, I consider him a friend,” Saffa said. “I respect him a lot and I respect his position. We just happen to disagree on this subject and I look forward to finding some places where we can agree in the future.”

Saffa said not having the smoking issue to contend with for the time being will give casino officials a bit of breathing room to focus on operational issues.

“We are pleased that he’s suspended his effort,” he said. “It’s one fewer thing for us to monitor. We have 900 more employees to hire and our focus has been on growing the payroll and the employment base and the opportunities. We believe a smoking ban would have been harmful to our business and this is just a little more attention we can focus to building our business.”