Arkansas Lottery Continues to Give Scholarships Less Than 20 Cents On The Dollar

Arkansas Lottery

Last week the Arkansas Lottery posted its revenue and expenses for the month of May.

The report shows the Arkansas Lottery took in nearly $40.5 million last month, but paid out about $8 million for scholarships–19.9% of its total income for the month.

So far this year the Arkansas Lottery has given a paltry 17% of its income to college scholarships. The average state lottery gives 30%.

Below is a breakdown of lottery income and scholarship allocation so far this fiscal year.

Month Gross Lottery Revenue Paid to Scholarships % Gross Revenue
July $36,885,396.81 $6,661,762.99 18.1%
August 49,320,459.23 8,912,741.54 18.1%
September 36,405,731.14 6,755,333.93 18.6%
October 39,802,740.53 5,667,305.74 14.2%
November 36,186,107.78 6,691,228.00 18.5%
December 44,716,219.32 6,583,355.77 14.7%
January, 2018 44,063,056.11 8,230,861.00 18.7%
February 39,389,927.57 5,947,647.50 15.1%
March 53,523,320.61 7,945,570.02 14.8%
April 42,064,194.78 7,192,997.10 17.1%
May 40,447,182.69 8,037,624.80 19.9%
Total $462,804,336.57 $78,626,428.39 17.0%

Photo Credit: By 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

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AR Lottery Scholarships Continue to Languish: April Report

Arkansas Lottery

Yesterday the Arkansas Lottery released its financial report for the month of April.

The reports show the Arkansas Lottery took in more than $42 million, but paid out less than $7.2 million in scholarship funding. That’s about 17% of the Lottery’s total revenue for the month.

Since last July the Arkansas Lottery has grossed nearly $422.4 million, but only 16 – 17 cents of every dollar it made has been budgeted for students. The rest is being spent on salaries, prizes, contract fees, advertising, and other expenses.

Right now it appears the Arkansas Lottery is on track to pay $85 – $90 million for scholarships this year. That’s $10 – $15 million shy of the amount lottery proponents told us students would receive every year back in 2008.

Below is a breakdown of lottery revenue and scholarship spending so far this fiscal year.

Month Gross Lottery Revenue Paid to Scholarships % Gross Revenue
July $36,885,396.81 $6,661,762.99 18.1%
August 49,320,459.23 8,912,741.54 18.1%
September 36,405,731.14 6,755,333.93 18.6%
October 39,802,740.53 5,667,305.74 14.2%
November 36,186,107.78 6,691,228.00 18.5%
December 44,716,219.32 6,583,355.77 14.7%
January, 2018 44,063,056.11 8,230,861.00 18.7%
February 39,389,927.57 5,947,647.50 15.1%
March 53,523,320.61 7,945,570.02 14.8%
April 42,064,194.78 7,192,997.10 17.1%
Total $422,357,153.88 $70,588,803.59 16.7%

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