Video: Scholarship Funding Still Abysmal at AR Lottery
Ten years after the Arkansas Constitution was amended to create it, the Arkansas Lottery is still failing to live up to expectations.
Watch this video to learn more.
AR Lottery Gives Scholarships Pennies on the Dollar in September
Today the Arkansas Lottery released its financial report for the month of September.
The report shows the Arkansas Lottery took in nearly $35.2 million, but set aside less than $7.8 million for college scholarships — about 22 cents of every dollar the Lottery made.
So far, the Arkansas Lottery is on track to pay about $85 million dollars for college scholarships in fiscal year 2019 — well below the $100 million Lottery proponents promised Arkansans ten years ago.
The truth is the Arkansas Lottery never has lived up to its promises. Scholarship funding has remained dismal while the Lottery’s salaries, contract fees, advertising budget, and overhead expenses have remained high.
State lotteries prey on the poor and pull millions of dollars out of the state economy.
Below is a breakdown of lottery revenue and scholarship funding so far this fiscal year.
| Month | Gross Lottery Revenue | Paid to Scholarships | % Gross Revenue |
| July | $42,413,352.70 | $5,066,628.73 | 11.9% |
| August | 40,343,279.62 | 6,175,998.40 | 15.3% |
| September | 35,198,809.72 | 7,783,450.82 | 22.1% |
| Total | $117,955,442.04 | $19,026,077.95 | 16.1% |
AR Lottery Gives Scholarships 15 Cents of Every Dollar in August
Yesterday the Arkansas Lottery posted its financial reports for the month of August.
The reports show the Arkansas Lottery made more than $40.3 million last month, but paid out less than $6.2 million for scholarships. That means students received about 15 cents of every dollar the Lottery made in August.
For perspective, our neighbors in Louisiana budget at least 35% of their lottery’s revenue for education.
Although it is too early to tell, if the last two months are any indicator, the Arkansas Lottery will pay out somewhere around $70 – $80 million in college scholarships in Fiscal Year 2019 — well below the $100 million lottery proponents told voters in 2008 that students would get every year.
Below is a breakdown of Lottery figures so far this fiscal year.
| Month | Gross Lottery Revenue | Paid to Scholarships | % Gross Revenue |
| July | $42,413,352.70 | $5,066,628.73 | 11.9% |
| August | 40,343,279.62 | 6,175,998.40 | 15.3% |
| Total | $82,756,632.32 | $11,242,627.13 | 13.6% |
Photo Credit: Roman Oleinik [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], from Wikimedia Commons