PR and a long fight for a casino permit

Natalie Ghidotti of Ghidotti Communications in Little Rock has been in the news lately.

For one thing, she bought the old Kirkpatrick Creative building as her agency's new home.

More importantly, her work for Catoosa, Oklahoma-based Cherokee Nation Entertainment brought her into the political spotlight. She is often heard speaking against Arkansas Issue 2, a controversial item on the Nov. 5 ballot. The initiative would revoke Pope County's casino license and require statewide voter approval for any new casino license.

Cherokee Nation Entertainment secured the Pope County casino license this year and plans to build a $300 million casino, hotel and resort in Russellville. The tribe purchased 325 acres for the Legends Resort & Casino project and projects an economic impact of $5 billion over 10 years.

The 50,000 SF floor plan calls for 1,200 slot machines, 200 hotel rooms and a 15,000 SF multipurpose room.

The company entered into a nearly $39 million economic agreement with the county, District Judge Ben Cross said Arkansas business. But if votes on Issue 2 are counted, the project could fail.

Ghidotti began doing public relations work for CNE after the company purchased the Gold Strike Casino Resort in Tunica, Mississippi, for $450 million in cash. This deal closed in February 2023.

“Then they brought us in to help with some of their properties in Oklahoma,” Ghidotti said. “Then we looked at the Pope County thing, which has been going on for six years.”

That “stuff” was the chaos surrounding the issuance of a gambling license for the state’s fourth casino near Russellville. After years of litigation and two Arkansas Supreme Court rulings that voided licenses previously issued by the Arkansas Racing Commission, CNE is eager to move forward.

Proponents of Issue 2 say that even though Arkansans voted to pass a constitutional amendment to allow casinos in Crittenden, Garland, Jefferson and Pope counties, it will impose the arcade requirement on Pope County. Pope County voters voted against the casino amendment 60% to 40% in the November 2018 election.

Ghidotti said public sentiment has changed over the years, noting that the county judge and a majority of the Pope County Quorum Court have supported CNE's plans.

She also believes the ballot question is misleading, which led her to serve as co-chair of a ballot committee dealing with Issue 2, “Investing in Arkansas.”

Proponents say Issue 2 allows for “local control” over gambling, but that doesn’t mean residents of Garland, Crittenden and Jefferson counties can vote to close the Oaklawn, Southland and Saracen casinos.

And voters in other counties cannot vote to approve local casinos. This would require another constitutional amendment, which would be ratified in another nationwide referendum.

“The only thing Issue 2 does is remove Pope County from the list of places that can have a casino in Arkansas,” Ghidotti said. “And it terminates the license that the Cherokee Nation currently holds.”

Ghidotti noted that the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, which has a casino in Pocola, Oklahoma, on the Fort Smith Line, is funding the Issue 2 effort.

That's true, according to campaign finance reports from the Arkansas Ethics Commission. As of June, the Choctaws had donated $5.3 million to Local Voters in Charge, the election committee that supports Issue 2.

“Only one person in Pope County donated money to this group, $100,” Ghidotti said. “That doesn’t indicate local control.”

Ghidotti acknowledged that Cherokee Nation funded Businesses Investing in Arkansas. The tribe had donated a total of $2.8 million to the voting committee as of Aug. 27. She makes no secret of it, but Ghidotti says CNE came to Arkansas to do business, play by the rules, build something and employ a lot of people.

“The Choctaw want to change the Arkansas Constitution to protect their casino in Oklahoma,” she said. “The 'local control' argument is a pretext for this.”

(Disclosure: Ghidotti is a former employee of Arkansas Business Publishing Group, the company that publishes this paper. Her account executive, Lance Turner, was the former editor of Arkansas business.)

Hans Stiritz, spokesman for the local board of elections, said he and many other Pope County residents believe the final decision on casino development should rest with that county's voters.

“When you boil it down, it’s really quite simple,” he said in a telephone interview. “It’s not the politicians, it’s not the lobbyists; It has to be the decision of local voters.”

Stiritz said he voted against the casino amendment, Amendment 100, in 2018 and felt gambling was being forced on him and his neighbors. “Pope County voted against Amendment 100 by the largest majority of all county votes against it. What Issue 2 is trying to address seems to be just common sense and justice.”

He noted that voters in the other three casino counties all approved Amendment 100.

In 2018, Crittenden County and Garland County already had gambling at the Oaklawn thoroughbred track and the Southland greyhound track. Amendment 100 was written to add Pope and Jefferson County as gambling sites, but why these two counties?

The amendment itself offers no explanation. “The best question about why Pope County and Jefferson County are in this should be asked of the people who funded the campaign to add Amendment 100 to the Constitution,” Stiritz said.

Last week, Arkansas Secretary of State John Thurston asked the Supreme Court to block the counting of votes on Issue 2. He argued that signatures for the initiative should be disqualified because, in his view, paid canvassers were not properly certified.

Cherokee Nation Entertainment is expected to respond to documents filed in the case by September 26, after the press time of this issue. “I think there's some more legal information that needs to be filed, but essentially it's before the Supreme Court and it's been challenged on the ballot,” Stiritz said. “We’re just waiting for the outcome of the Supreme Court.”

What if the votes aren't counted? “Of course there would be disappointment there,” he said. “We have worked for six years to make Pope County’s voice heard. No community, no district should be forced out of the casino discussion. This is a situation that needs to be corrected.”