- Horse racing (1929), Greyhound Racing (1957), Racinos (2005), Lottery (2009)
- About $90 million per year
- $427 million including lottery, racing and casino games
- 18 for lottery and racing, 21 for casinos
- Arkansas’ smoking ban does not apply to gaming establishments
- Pari-mutuel racing is legal over the Internet in Arkansas
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- Legal Online Playing Casino In Arkansas Right Now
Although, online gambling is legal in Arkansas the state has not regulated it yet. If you want to gamble on casino games, horse and dog racing you can do so at two land-based establishments. To visit these casinos you must be prepared to do a bit of travelling since they’re quite far. Unlike Washington, which has created a law to restrict its residents from playing any form of internet gambling, Arkansas is not interested in prohibiting online gambling from its residents. Meaning it is perfectly legal for AR players to gamble at reputable online casinos operating legally outside of. There are several facets of Arkansas’ gambling statues that could pertain to online poker players playing on real cash Internet poker websites. However, the language of the gambling law as it stands in 2020 is noticeably vague, and can be interpreted one of several different ways.
Arkansas gambling has a long history in this state. Most of it revolved around Hot Springs. Arkansas casinos sprang up in the city during the Great Depression. Nearly a dozen gaming establishments operated in Hot Springs at one time. It rivaled Las Vegas in terms of casino gaming in the 1930s.
The post-war era was not kind to Arkansas’ gambling industry, which operated in a gray area. A conservative movement put an end to the casino industry that operated somewhere near an underground level in its final days.
Arkansas casino gambling was revived in the 2000s. A state lottery was also created during this era. Greyhound racing was established in 1957, although horse racing in Arkansas dates back to 1929. The legality of pari-mutuel betting varied in the years between. The two tracks that operate dog tracks are home to the only two casinos in Arkansas. As of today, online casino gambling is not legal in the state of Arkansas.
November 2018 Update
During this year’s midterm elections, voters approved casino legalization in four counties – Garland, Crittenden, Jefferson, and Pope. Over 54% of voters approved the measure. This will see the Oaklawn horse track located in Hot Springs and the Southland dog track in the West Memphis area allowed to offer casino gaming.
The state will now be able to offer casino games, keeping revenues from leaving Arkansas as players visit neighboring areas to gamble.
Arkansas Casinos Map & Guide
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Types of Arkansas Online Gambling Allowed
The only form of online gambling specifically legal in Arkansas is pari-mutuel betting. Internet bets are permitted on greyhound and horse races at sites like TVG and TwinSpires. Daily fantasy sports sites assert that their business is legal in Arkansas. Some legal experts refute this opinion. Arkansas has not issued an opinion on the daily fantasy sports industry so companies that include DraftKings, FanDuel, CBS Sports, and Yahoo continue to accept action from the state.
Types of Arkansas Live Gambling
- Slots: Yes
- Blackjack: Yes
- Poker: Yes
- Craps/Roulette: Yes
- Horses: Yes
- Lottery: Yes
Greyhound racing is the oldest form of legalized gambling in Arkansas. The state’s two tracks were permitted to offer slots, video poker, and table games that require skill in 2005. Games of chance were legalized in 2012. This includes craps, roulette, and real money keno. Video versions of these games were already available on the racino floors of Oaklawn and Southland.
Poker rooms at the state’s two racinos offer electronic tables distributed by PokerTek. These are known as PokerPro machines. This means there is no dealer. The cards are dealt by a machine. This gives players more hands per hour and saves on tips. There are two casinos in Arkansas, Oaklawn and Southland offer simulcast betting on horses and greyhounds. They also offer regular casino games like blackjack, roulette, and many different slot machines.
The Arkansas Lottery was created in 2008. Interstate lotto tickets are sold, as well as standard scratch-offs that are similar to pull-tabs.
Arkansas Gambling Laws
There are four forms of legalized gambling in Arkansas. Greyhound racing originated in 1957. Pari-mutuel wagering has been legal since that year. The racetracks were granted permission to add casino games in 2005. This was approved because Arkansas tracks lost business to casinos in Tunica County, Mississippi. Memphis is an equal distance from the Arkansas casinos and Tunica.
Slots, video poker, video table games, electronic poker tables and table games that require skill were the first games added to the state’s list of legalized gambling. Craps and roulette were added as approved games in 2012.
Voters approved a state lottery in 2008. The first tickets were sold the following year. Scratch-off and lotto sales are permitted.
Charities may offer small-scale gambling to fund operations. This includes raffles and bingo.
The minimum gambling age in Arkansas for playing the lottery and greyhounds is 18 years. The Arkansas casinos and tracks at Oaklawn Park and Southland Park require players to be at least 21 years old.
List of Arkansas Casinos
Despite these Arkansas casinos being racinos, they still offer most of the games you would find at regular casinos. These games include blackjack, roulette, craps, slots, and even live poker. Below you can find the casino locations and websites, but if you want a more detailed route, you can use our Arkansas casinos map as a guide.
| Casino | Size | Address | Website |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oaklawn Racing & Gaming | 1,000 Slot Machines | 2705 Central Avenue | www.oaklawn.com |
| Southland Park Gaming & Racing | 630 Slot Machines | 1550 Ingram Boulevard | www.southlandpark.com |
Arkansas Gambling History
Arkansas was originally a state that looked the other way when it came to gambling. Arkansas casinos appeared in Hot Springs during the Prohibition era. Full-scale gaming operations that resembled establishments in Nevada were commonplace. The Baby Boom years put an end to this type of gambling in Arkansas. The last Arkansas casino in Hot Springs closed its doors in 1967.
The only form of legal Arkansas gambling after Hot Springs was shut down was greyhound racing until racinos were approved in 2005. Slots, video poker, and table games that require skill were first approved. This was expanded to games of luck in 2012. A state lottery was created through a statewide constitutional referendum in 2008.
Arkansas Casinos & Gambling FAQ
Is online gambling legal in Arkansas?
Off-track betting on greyhounds and horses is the only form of legal online betting.
Are daily fantasy sports contests legal in Arkansas?
Daily fantasy sports sites claim to fall under Arkansas’ skill gaming exemption. This point is debated among legal experts.
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Arkansas is one of just 11 states where live greyhound racing is still legal. Two of the last 21 greyhound tracks in the country are located in Arkansas.
Yes, but the rooms at Oaklawn Park and Southland Park use electronic tables.
Yes. Voters approved it in 2008. The first tickets were sold in September 2009.
Full-scale casinos operate in Arkansas.
Oaklawn Park and Southland Park are the state’s two casinos.
Poker, slots, video poker, craps, roulette, blackjack, keno, Three Card Poker, Four Card Poker, baccarat and Ultimate Texas Hold’em are among the legal games in Arkansas.
The minimum gambling age for Arkansas casinos is 21 years, and for lottery and racing is 18 years.
An Overview of Gambling Laws in the State Of Arkansas
When you look at the history of Arkansas in relation to gambling, it really makes you think about what could have been. Everything was in place for the complexes at Hot Springs to rival Las Vegas or Atlantic City as world class US gambling hub. Instead this State went in the opposite direction, banning virtually all forms of gambling for residents. There are two casino complexes nowadays, and a few bingo halls. This page gives you a detailed overview of the current gambling laws in the State of Arkansas.
You’ll find a fast-paced walk through the colorful history of gambling in Arkansas first below. Much of this involves Hot Springs and the Mob. After that there is a game-by-game overview of what kinds of gambling are permitted in this state – followed by a timeline and details of the legislation which affects gamblers today. At the end of this page you will find a summary and a look towards the future.
Arkansas Gambling Laws – A Brief History
Hot Springs, a federally protected reserve in Arkansas has a gambling history which ran from just after the Civil war right through to modern times. There are reports of gangsters fighting for control of the liquor and gambling in this town as far back as 1880. In the early 1900’s baseball training camps and tourism had seen this town expand – and the Oakland racetrack was a regular attraction.
By the late 1920’s Hot Springs had become a gambling hub, with 10 major and many minor casinos it was even bigger than Las Vegas at this time. This continued right through to 1947, when a grand jury indicted several of the major casino owners. This was the start of a lot of legal and regulatory issues for Hot Springs, who were caught up in the changing political mood of the post-war years.
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Finally, gambling in Hot Springs was shut down in 1967, it would be almost 40 years before any forms of gambling would become legal again. While the conservative members of the political divide will be pleased to see gambling ended in this way -progressive and neutral observers will look at the billions in tax revenues generated by Las Vegas and Atlantic City and think about what could have been for Hot Springs had the political mood been different.
More recently, skill games have been given an exemption – as have charity gambling games including Bingo and raffles. There is now a legal State lottery too.
While gambling is completely illegal under the Arkansas State codes, the penalties look the same as they were in the 1960’s. If convicted you face a ‘heavy’ fine of between $10 and $25 for most gambling offenses.
Arkansas Gambling Laws – What Forms of Gambling Are Currently Legal
Casino Games: No, there are a few ‘games of skill’ which are quasi-casino games at both the Oaklawn Park racetrack and Southlands Racetrack loosely based on Blackjack and Video Poker. Hot Springs, where Oaklawn is situated had the potential to be as big as Las Vegas at one point in its history. Today AK residents need to cross into Mississippi to find real casino table games and slots.
Online Casino Gambling: No, Online gambling is not explicitly banned under the Statutes – though considered illegal under current general guidelines.
Live Poker: Yes, though limited to the Southlands racetrack, they have just 6 tables that cover cash games and tournaments. Poker home games are not allowed in Arkansas, though the State code does indicate that the maximum fine for gambling is only $25.
Online Poker: No, there is no regulation or moves towards this at the moment. Like most states the AR code does not explicitly ban online poker, though it is assumed that their blanket ban on games of chance for money does encompass this.
Sports Betting: Yes, only legal at the tracks, where bets are Pari-Mutuel and based on greyhound and horse racing only.
Lottery: Yes, Arkansas run a ‘scholarship lottery’ which includes several different draws as well as scratch-card type games. The profit from this lottery is used to offer college scholarship to talented students who might not otherwise have been able to afford them.
Bingo Games: Yes, there are bingo halls in this State, these are regulated under the ‘Charitable Gambling’ legislation which covers both bingo and raffles for non-profit organizations.
Arkansas Gambling Laws – Timeline of Key Statutes
Here are the key laws which govern gambling in AR. For this State they center on the 1967 law. The main statutes covering gambling make a clear distinction between individuals gambling and those running gambling houses or organizing the events (or owning gambling machines). The core offense involves betting, which includes both ‘hazard or skill’:
If a person bets any money or any valuable thing on any game of hazard or skill, upon conviction he or she is guilty of a violation and shall be fined in any sum not less than ten dollars ($10.00) nor more than twenty-five dollars ($25.00). (From: 5-66-113)
There is no explicit reference in the Arkansas law to gambling online. This is common as the laws pre-date the internet. It is assumed that the current laws cover this, though there has been no legal test of this assumption to date. With the track-record of banning almost all forms of gambling, the status-quo is presumably preferable to a test case which is likely to yield negative results.
Note that unlike in the legislation of other states, there is no distinction between games where the house makes a profit and social games. This is one of the few States where home poker games are against the law.
Timeline of gambling legislation:
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1967: Current laws enacted, Hot Springs gambling finally closed down, though the heyday was already passed for this town by this point.
2005: The ‘Games of Skill’ legislation enabled expanded gaming opportunities at the major racetracks – that now have 100’s of machines each. Act 1151 of 2005 put into place a regulation framework which covered electronic games based on skill – which has lead the racetracks to come up with innovative live dealer + electronic screen hybrids.
2007: There were carve-outs for charitable gambling games in the ‘Charitable Bingo and Raffles Enabling Act (2007 number 338). There a strict licensing rules in Arkansas for these games, as well as strict definitions – here is their definition of bingo:
[su_quote]“”Game of bingo” includes only a game in which the winner receives a preannounced, fixed-dollar prize and in which the winner is determined by the matching of letters and numbers on a bingo face imprinted with at least twenty-four (24) numbers, with letters and numbers appearing on objects randomly drawn and announced by a caller, in contemporaneous competition among all players in the game;”[/su_quote]
2009: Lottery begins, after becoming legal one year earlier, this is known as the ‘scholarship’ lottery and the funds go to subsidize education.
Arkansas Gambling Laws – Summary and Look into the Future
The ‘what could have been’ story with Hot Springs makes fascinating reading, with colorful mob characters that belonged to that era. Nowadays, this state are progressively allowing more gambling for their citizens. Charity and Skill gaming make a good starting point, with the increased tax revenues from these games likely to be filtering through to State budgets soon – there may be an appetite for further relaxing of the rules.
Based on their history of legislating gambling, I can’t see Arkansas regulating gambling online any time soon. In the meantime, the liberal gambling laws of neighboring Mississippi will continue to be a big draw.
Useful Resources:
General Overview from State Site
Charitable Gaming Laws
Oaklawn Site
Games of Skill Legislation
Hot Springs History
Searchable Code of AR Legislation
Legislation at US-Gambling Law