House Bill 1044 would have allowed higher education or non-profits to hold raffles to pay athletes for using their name, image or likeness.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — House Bill 1044 known as the Arkansas Sports Raffle Act was stopped in the House on Wednesday afternoon.
After a lengthy day of testimony for those both for and against the bill, the bill would have allowed Arkansas universities to hold raffles for several different purposes including name, image and likeness also known as NIL.
House district 81’s State Representative RJ Hawk presented the bill to the House Rules Committee.
The bill that would allow Arkansas’s universities to be added to the list of over 50 universities that already do raffles for NIL or other projects at sporting events.
“I labeled the state’s right that there’s almost 50 of them that are doing this, and it’s an arm or arms race, no matter what school you’re at, whether you’re in the Southeastern Conference, whether you’re in the Big 12,” Rep. Hawk said.
Although Hawk believes that the bill would have been a positive thing for student athletes, that sentiment was not shared by all who testified at the hearing.
“Saracen is not against NIL. The reason we oppose this bill was because it didn’t do nearly enough. And there is a better way. There is an opportunity cost to passing a bad bill,” Carlton Saffa, the Chief Market Officer for Saracen Casino Resort, said.
NIL has changed the landscape of college sports, and with the change in college athletics and competition with other schools across the country, Hawk believes that this is the tool that universities needed to be competitive.
“It’s giving these universities another tool in the toolbox to be able to do what they do best, and that’s fundraise,” Rep. Hawk said.
The bill would have allowed universities to hold raffles for more than NIL.
Scholarships and general support of the athletic department, as well as building and maintaining facilities were also included in the bill.
Hawk also says that this bill would have had the option to provide the best experience and opportunities while competing at Arkansas universities.
“These universities, they work too hard. They work too hard fundraising and doing. Our student athletes should have the best no matter what school you go to, whether it’s UCA, Southern Arkansas, Harding or U of A. Our schools should have the best and this would have given them that,” Rep. Hawk said.
Saffa, who was against the bill, says that although he and Saracen are not against college athletics, they were against this bill because of the language and the writing.
“We are all about collegiate sports, and we want to help raise money for NIL, but this bill as written needlessly cut out the folks most equipped and most willing to help,” Saffa said.
While the landscape of college athletics is changing, he’s hoping that Saracen can partner with the universities to raise money for NIL.
“It is a reality, and we need to be able to operate with a NIL war chest if we are to compete, and I hope that at Saracen we’re able to help equip the universities with the tools that they need,” Saffa said.
Rep. Hawk says that this might not be the last time that a bill like this will be before the Arkansas legislature for the session.
“We had an opportunity to be able to get out and get ahead of this, and we didn’t do it. And, you know, look, we’re going to work on some things. We’ll bring it back and try to make it fit,” Rep. Hawk said.
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