Category: Arkansas Lottery

AR Lottery Posts Dismal Numbers for September

The Arkansas Lottery gave 18.6 cents of every dollar it made in September to college scholarships, according to a report released today.

Since July, the Lottery has made $122.6 million, but has paid out $22.3 million to scholarships — a little over 18% of its total revenue.

Since 2014, the Arkansas Lottery has spent roughly 18% – 19% of its revenue on scholarships. For perspective, the average state lottery allocates 30%.

Below is a breakdown of lottery revenue so far this year.

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Arkansas Lottery Still Rolling Out More Gambling

This week the Arkansas Lottery announced it is rolling out a new instant lottery game: The Big Money Multiplier.

To put it simply, this is an oversize scratch-off ticket that sells for $10 instead of the typical $1 or $2. The odds of winning a prize — such as a $10 break-even prize — are roughly 1 in 3. The odds of winning the $250,000 jackpot are 1 in 440,000.

This is the same gimmick the Lottery has used since Day One: Roll out as much gambling as possible as quickly as possible in order to bolster ticket sales. In this case, the Lottery is selling scratch-off tickets that are more expensive than most and offer larger prizes, but the odds are long, and in the end the results will be the same: Arkansans will spend — and lose — millions of dollars buying lottery tickets. As we have written before, many people gamble out of desperation, and the Arkansas Lottery preys on those people with tickets like this one.

The Lottery’s director says he hopes this new ticket will help pay for college scholarships. The truth is the Arkansas Lottery allocates 18% – 19% of its revenue for scholarship funding. For perspective, the average state lottery allocates 30%.

The Arkansas Lottery doesn’t need a new scratch-off ticket to help send students to college. It simply needs to rework its budget.

Photo Credit: Mega Millions lottery tickets, by msspider66.

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Lottery Scholarship Funding Dismal Despite Revenue Spike

Last week the Arkansas Lottery posted its financial report for the month of August.

The Arkansas Lottery took in over $49.3 million in last month — nearly $12.5 million than the month before — but it paid out $8.9 million to scholarships — roughly 18.1% of its gross revenue.

Since 2014, the Arkansas Lottery has spent roughly 18% – 19% of its revenue on scholarships. That’s well below the national average.

There are no two ways about it: The Arkansas Lottery is a failure. It rolled out more gambling more quickly than any lottery we know in order to artificially bolster ticket sales.

It sets aside a smaller percentage of money for education than the average state lottery.

Other state lotteries pay more money to education despite making less money than Arkansas’ lottery.

And rather than reassess its priorities or restructure its budget, the Arkansas Lottery has a habit of trying to use marketing and promotion to gloss over its shortcomings.

Below is a breakdown of lottery figures so far this financial year.

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