Arkansas Lottery Budgets Paltry 14.2% for Scholarships in March

Arkansas Lottery

Today the Arkansas Lottery published financial reports for the month of March. The documents show the Arkansas Lottery took in approximately $40.6 million in March, but paid less than $5.8 million to scholarships–in other words, only about 14.2% of the Lottery’s gross revenue actually went to scholarships.

Since Fiscal Year 2016 started in July, the Arkansas Lottery has grossed more than $345 million, but only $60.1 million has gone to scholarships–about 17.4% of its total revenue.

Below is a breakdown of the Arkansas Lottery’s figures for Fiscal Year 2016.

Month Gross Lottery Revenue Paid to Scholarships % Gross Revenue
July $ 31,665,651.14 $ 5,784,683.09 18.3%
August 31,265,177.55 5,490,094.00 17.6%
September 36,134,389.63 6,624,967.11 18.3%
October 35,261,533.80 6,020,642.32 17.1%
November 32,226,599.28 5,725,139.09 17.8%
December 38,670,746.09 6,425,754.66 16.6%
January, 2016 58,746,249.00 13,831,359.75 23.5%
February 40,790,144.05 4,474,356.06 11.0%
March 40,579,421.05 5,758,892.84 14.2%
Total $ 345,339,911.59 $ 60,135,888.92 17.4%

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UPDATED: In 78 Months AR Lottery Makes $2.9 Billion, Pays Less Than 20% to Students

Arkansas Lottery

Recently we wrote how the Arkansas Lottery allocated a paltry 11% of its gross revenue for college scholarships last month. While that is one of the worst months in the Lottery’s history, looking at the past six and a half years, the Arkansas Lottery has failed time and again to put students first on its list of priorities.

We compiled numbers going all the way back to the Lottery’s start date using financial reports published on the Arkansas Lottery’s website. Since September 2009, the Arkansas Lottery has made approximately $2,881,137,177.93, but only $572,575,775.55 went to college scholarships.

In other words, since the Lottery’s inception, only 19.9% of the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery’s gross revenue has actually gone to college scholarships. The rest has gone to vendor contracts, overhead and operating expenses, prizes, and so on.

Below is a breakdown of the numbers.

Month Gross Lottery Revenue Paid to Scholarships % Gross Revenue
September 2009 – December 2009 $140,663,596.38 $29,257,495.48 20.8%
January, 2010 40,732,059.10 8,213,311.32 20.2%
February 46,006,517.45 9,713,297.81 21.1%
March 43,305,930.90 9,677,617.03 22.3%
April 38,182,470.50 8,270,655.49 21.7%
May 39,933,085.50 11,129,450.15 27.9%
June 35,728,633.85 6,289,957.24 17.6%
July 35,031,491.82 7,520,120.34 21.5%
August 35,320,546.96 7,338,723.82 20.8%
September 34,254,979.66 6,549,850.89 19.1%
October 36,656,481.26 9,719,358.08 26.5%
November 35,438,274.50 8,256,268.77 23.3%
December 40,240,809.78 6,696,764.84 16.6%
January, 2011 39,271,538.50 9,033,775.08 23.0%
February 41,429,186.01 8,229,741.60 19.9%
March 46,497,918.23 10,289,409.67 22.1%
April 38,206,042.00 8,397,457.57 22.0%
May 43,330,165.29 8,521,784.66 19.7%
June 39,402,904.75 3,690,562.00 9.4%
July 36,012,930.08 7,152,902.98 19.9%
August 38,111,003.00 7,543,553.59 19.8%
September 39,003,945.00 6,973,179.71 17.9%
October 37,702,362.62 8,133,705.83 21.6%
November 36,549,852.82 7,994,126.51 21.9%
December 39,660,751.64 7,888,279.14 19.9%
January, 2012 35,166,516.65 5,522,746.82 15.7%
February 49,160,394.76 9,729,593.58 19.8%
March 51,432,631.61 12,827,373.05 24.9%
April 39,433,610.80 7,066,187.76 17.9%
May 36,887,158.00 7,571,654.04 20.5%
June 34,504,440.30 9,179,224.65 26.6%
July 33,799,768.89 4,752,501.51 14.1%
August 35,021,798.75 7,193,285.93 20.5%
September 29,774,378.22 6,584,956.76 22.1%
October 33,905,873.06 6,632,866.03 19.6%
November 39,432,474.86 8,443,935.59 21.4%
December 34,257,289.75 6,914,260.68 20.2%
January, 2013 32,503,601.13 6,538,953.09 20.1%
February 41,886,865.34 6,447,118.77 15.4%
March 47,059,333.27 9,775,272.83 20.8%
April 31,319,563.49 8,143,467.33 26.0%
May 42,281,984.15 9,894,347.85 23.4%
June 32,002,883.35 8,591,482.76 26.8%
July 33,078,775.30 4,891,371.69 14.8%
August 34,471,323.18 6,401,829.10 18.6%
September 31,857,565.72 6,023,766.10 18.9%
October 33,271,398.30 6,773,936.78 20.4%
November 31,243,008.93 6,768,352.72 21.7%
December 35,496,013.02 5,831,218.66 16.4%
January, 2014 31,078,390.22 5,616,281.40 18.1%
February 38,985,852.63 5,909,955.50 15.2%
March 41,258,315.52 7,324,233.06 17.8%
April 36,626,908.39 7,476,150.84 20.4%
May 33,323,318.34 6,513,245.39 19.5%
June 29,947,098.30 11,927,613.98 39.8%
July 30,925,067.43 5,928,447.99 19.2%
August 31,571,412.10 5,296,965.80 16.8%
September 30,710,493.31 4,317,227.10 14.1%
October 32,959,739.29 5,939,625.59 18.0%
November 30,617,278.28 5,577,035.16 18.2%
December 34,507,731.54 5,474,318.77 15.9%
January, 2015 35,433,619.67 7,287,773.28 20.6%
February 41,770,314.46 6,161,343.01 14.8%
March 37,367,453.25 6,898,524.35 18.5%
April 33,866,970.54 5,881,005.95 17.4%
May 35,689,036.10 5,409,050.48 15.2%
June 33,815,559.59 8,278,928.14 24.5%
July 31,665,651.14 5,784,683.09 18.3%
August 31,265,177.55 5,490,094.00 17.6%
September 36,134,389.63 6,624,967.11 18.3%
October 35,261,533.80 6,020,642.32 17.1%
November 32,226,599.28 5,725,139.09 17.8%
December 38,670,746.09 6,425,754.66 16.6%
January, 2016 58,746,249.00 13,831,359.75 23.5%
February 40,790,144.05 4,474,356.06 11.0%
Total $2,881,137,177.93 $572,575,775.55 19.9%

A Few Quick Facts on the Lottery

  • Since September 2009, the Arkansas Lottery has grossed, on average, approximately $36.9 million every month, but has paid out only about $7.3 million in scholarship funding each month.
  • The Arkansas Lottery has earned, on average, about $14 every second since September 2009.
  • During the month of February alone, the Arkansas Lottery grossed nearly $40.8 million; that’s more than $16 every second, on average.
  • The Arkansas Lottery has yet to live up to its promise of paying $100 million per year to scholarships.

Updated: This post has been updated since it was first published to include an additional six months worth of financial data from the Arkansas Lottery.

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Lottery Ad Ignores Math

Arkansas Lottery

Recently ads for PowerBall have appeared around Arkansas, saying, “Someone’s Gonna Win, Why Not You?” But there’s a problem with the ad: There’s no guarantee “someone’s gonna win” a prize playing PoweBall.

Mathematically, the odds of winning the PowerBall jackpot are approximately 1 in 292.2 million. The odds of winning some sort of prize–such as a $4 payout–are roughly 1 in 25.

That means if 25 people each bought a PowerBall ticket, statistically speaking, one of them likely would win some sort of prize. However, there is no guarantee anyone will win; with a lottery like PowerBall, all 25 players could pick the very same losing numbers.

That’s because PowerBall’s winning numbers are all chosen at random. PowerBall isn’t like a raffle, where winning tickets are drawn from a hat based on the tickets sold. Raffles guarantee a winner; lotteries do not. That’s why PowerBall jackpots can grow to the levels we saw earlier this year: When people don’t win prizes playing PowerBall, the prize money has time to grow. While unlikely, it’s mathematically possible no one will ever win at PowerBall again.

Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said, “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.” With the lottery, the facts cannot be ignored: There simply is no guarantee that “someone’s gonna win.”

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