Category: Arkansas Lottery

Arkansas Lottery Again Talks About Keno, Letting People Gamble Online

In an interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration Secretary Larry Walther indicated that the state-run lottery might like to offer Keno and Internet gambling in Arkansas.

Lottery officials have floated the idea of offering Keno and electronic gambling in the past in order to bolster lottery sales and entice more people to play the lottery.

But lottery ticket sales surged in Arkansas during the COVID-19 pandemic last spring, and the Lottery just finished its best best fiscal year ever, in terms of revenue.

Clearly the Arkansas Lottery is doing just fine without Keno or online gambling.

Lottery officials lobbied unsuccessfully for Keno in 2013 and 2014, but lawmakers soundly rejected that proposal.

Keno is different from games like Powerball or MegaMillions. Drawings usually take place every few minutes rather than once a day, and the odds of winning a jackpot prize tend to be worse than other lottery games.

Its fast pace makes Keno a popular casino game, because players can pick numbers and place bets over and over again in a short amount of time.

As a result, Keno often is played in a live room full of gamblers.

One of the reasons lawmakers rejected Keno a few years ago is that they did not want the State Lottery creating miniature casinos in bars, convenience stores, and gas stations all over Arkansas.

If the Arkansas Lottery authorizes Keno — and especially if lottery officials make it possible for people to gamble online — that’s going to increase problem gambling and gambling addiction in Arkansas.

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Arkansas Lottery Spent $11K on Travel Since July 1

The Arkansas Lottery has spent more than $11,000 reimbursing employees for mileage expenses since July 1, according to the state’s transparency website.

State employees receive 42 cents for every mile they travel on state business in their personal vehicles.

Some lottery employees already have received upwards of $800 – $900 for their mileage in the past month or so.

All told, these mileage reimbursements imply that Arkansas Lottery employees have traveled more than 26,000 miles on official business since July 1.

Earlier this year our office obtained documents from the Arkansas Lottery showing that mileage reimbursements appear to go primarily to staff members who travel around the state to gas stations and other outlets where lottery tickets are sold.

The Arkansas Lottery probably could save a lot of money by having employees travel in official state vehicles instead of paying them to drive their own cars.

Unfortunately, saving money and being fiscally responsible isn’t something the Lottery Office seems interested in doing.

Photo Credit: Airtuna08 at English Wikipedia [CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)]

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State Lottery Spends One-Fourth as Much on Students as Prizes

The Arkansas Lottery wrapped up its fiscal year on June 31, 2020.

According to reports the state released on Friday, the Lottery budgeted four times as much money for prizes as it did for college scholarships.

The Arkansas Lottery spent a little less than $89.5 million on scholarships — about 16.8% of its total revenue for the fiscal year

However, the Arkansas Lottery budgeted nearly $370 million for prizes — about 69.5% of its revenue.

For perspective, the typical state lottery spends about 30% of its revenue on education and about 60% on prizes paid out to lottery players.

Because the Arkansas Lottery budgets so much money for prizes and so little for education, the Lottery has failed to live up to its promise to provide $100 million per year in funding for college scholarships.

Had the Arkansas Lottery structured its budget more like most states, it probably would have provided millions more in scholarship funding.

Below is a breakdown of lottery revenue, scholarship funding, and prize payouts for Fiscal Year 2020.

Scholarship Spending

Month	Gross Lottery Revenue	Paid to Scholarships	% Gross Revenue
July	$41,239,173.79	$4,523,930.75	11.0%
August	40,899,086.75	4,942,736.97	12.1%
September	36,202,677.79	6,565,973.32	18.1%
October	38,932,640.23	6,318,099.21	16.2%
November	36,118,641.12	5,947,177.45	16.5%
December	46,134,469.21	6,371,983.49	13.8%
January, 2020	40,802,067.75	8,239,083.77	20.2%
February	40,670,746.71	7,233,556.77	17.8%
March	47,876,969.85	7,386,497.30	15.4%
April	49,549,754.16	8,318,312.64	16.8%
May	61,129,306.96	8,619,106.39	14.1%
June	52,445,625.46	14,984,463.18	28.6%
Total	$532,001,159.78	$89,450,921.24	16.8%

Prize Allocation

Month	Gross Lottery Revenue	Total Prizes	% Going to Prizes
July	$41,239,173.79	$27,395,174.44	66.4%
August	40,899,086.75	27,981,278.90	68.4%
September	36,202,677.79	25,380,100.69	70.1%
October	38,932,640.23	26,836,578.14	68.9%
November	36,118,641.12	24,593,530.95	68.1%
December	46,134,469.21	32,772,295.09	71.0%
January, 2020	40,802,067.75	27,636,240.24	67.7%
February	40,670,746.71	28,772,455.23	70.7%
March	47,876,969.85	33,400,886.92	69.8%
April	49,549,754.16	35,431,849.03	71.5%
May	61,129,306.96	42,848,771.82	70.1%
June	52,445,625.46	36,553,760.70	69.7%
Total	$532,001,159.78	$369,602,922.15	69.5%

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