AR Lottery Begins Fiscal Year on a Low Note

Arkansas Lottery

Today the Arkansas Lottery released its financial reports for the month of July, marking the beginning of Fiscal Year 2018.

According to the reports, the Arkansas Lottery took in nearly $36.9 million, but paid out less than $6.7 million for scholarships–about 18% of its gross revenue for the month.

This is down from July of last year, when the Arkansas Lottery made $38.2 million and paid $8.7 million to scholarships.

You can read the Arkansas Lottery’s July report here.

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Arkansas Lottery Spends 19 Cents of Every Dollar on Scholarships in FY 2017

Arkansas Lottery

Today the Arkansas Lottery released its final monthly report for Fiscal Year 2017.

The report shows the Arkansas Lottery made a little over $38.5 million in June; of that money, roughly $6.8 million was spent on college scholarships. Nearly $6.4 million extra in scholarship funding came from the Lottery’s unclaimed prizes account, which is funded with prize money that is not claimed by lottery players.

June marks the end of Fiscal Year 2017 at the Arkansas Lottery. Since July of 2016, the Lottery has made nearly $450 million, but has spent less than $85.3 million on scholarships–roughly 19 cents of every dollar it made.

To put those numbers into perspective, the Louisiana Lottery is required by law to spend at least 35% of its revenue on education. As of March 31, 2017, the Louisiana Lottery had made nearly $342.2 million, and it had set aside more than $120 million for education.

Louisiana’s Lottery often makes less money than Arkansas’, but it pays out more for education, because Louisiana’s state law requires a minimum percentage of the Louisiana Lottery’s revenue to go to education. In Arkansas, however, students get whatever money is leftover after the Lottery has paid its other bills.

Below is a breakdown of the Arkansas Lottery’s figures for Fiscal Year 2017.

Month Gross Lottery Revenue Paid to Scholarships % Gross Revenue
July, 2016 38,237,293.92 8,714,386.39 22.8%
August 35,091,022.09 5,498,714.86 15.7%
September 33,113,391.64 5,773,076.42 17.4%
October 34,061,993.14 5,165,040.54 15.2%
November 37,042,079.72 6,570,979.51 17.7%
December 35,352,159.35 4,596,532.22 13.0%
January, 2017 37,062,291.39 7,947,546.21 21.4%
February 41,176,854.60 6,698,099.62 16.3%
March 43,405,541.56 6,204,704.75 14.3%
April 38,671,617.14 7,845,827.56 20.3%
May 38,185,263.61 7,068,770.18 18.5%
June 38,517,227.85 13,193,652.18 34.3%
Total $449,916,736.01 $85,277,330.44 19.0%

Photo Credit: Mega Millions lottery tickets, by msspider66.

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Lottery Scholarship Revenue Drops in May

Arkansas Lottery

On Friday the Arkansas Lottery released its monthly financial report for May.

According to the report, the Arkansas Lottery took in over $38 million in May, but paid out roughly $7 million in scholarships–about 18 cents for every dollar it made.

Overall, Lottery revenue and scholarship funding have declined since April.

There’s simply no excuse for the Arkansas Lottery’s consistently low scholarship budget. If you would like to know the one thing the Arkansas Lottery could do to pay more to scholarships right now–even if lottery revenue dropped by tens of millions of dollars–click here.

Below is a breakdown of the Lottery’s financial figures for this fiscal year.

Month Gross Lottery Revenue Paid to Scholarships % Gross Revenue
July 38,237,293.92 8,714,386.39 22.8%
August 35,091,022.09 5,498,714.86 15.7%
September 33,113,391.64 5,773,076.42 17.4%
October 34,061,993.14 5,165,040.54 15.2%
November 37,042,079.72 6,570,979.51 17.7%
December 35,352,159.35 4,596,532.22 13.0%
January, 2017 37,062,291.39 7,947,546.21 21.4%
February 41,176,854.60 6,698,099.62 16.3%
March 43,405,541.56 6,204,704.75 14.3%
April 38,671,617.14 7,845,827.56 20.3%
May 38,185,263.61 7,068,770.18 18.5%
Total $411,399,508.16 $72,083,678.26 17.5%

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