Arkansas Lottery – Page 8

Lottery Spends Another $18,000 in Travel Reimbursements

Feb 17, 2021Jerry CoxArkansas LotteryArkansas Lottery

Last month the Arkansas Lottery spent another $17,898.04 on mileage reimbursements for its employees, according to the State of Arkansas’ transparency website.

State employees receive 42 cents for every mile they travel on state business in their personal vehicles.

Since the fiscal year began on July 1, 2020, the Arkansas Lottery has paid its employees $97,166.04 in mileage reimbursements.

That’s enough to cover over 230,000 miles of driving!

Some employees have received thousands of dollars for driving their personal vehicles on state business.

As we have written many, many times, the Arkansas Lottery probably could save a lot of money by using state vehicles for travel instead of paying employees to drive their personal vehicles.

Photo Credit: Airtuna08 at English Wikipedia [CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)]

Arkansas Lottery Spends 17% of Revenue on College Scholarships: January Report

Feb 15, 2021Jerry CoxArkansas LotteryArkansas Lottery

The Arkansas Lottery recently released its financial report for the month of January.

The report shows the Arkansas Lottery took in nearly $63 million, but paid only $10.9 million to scholarships — approximately 17.3 cents out of every dollar the lottery made.

The report also indicates the Arkansas Lottery spent 66.3% of its revenue on prizes for lottery players.

For perspective, the typical state-run lottery spends about 30% of its revenue on education and about 60% on prizes.

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	$49,780,369.99	$8,592,573.93	17.3%
August	49,672,105.04	7,862,917.44	15.8%
September	47,501,224.72	7,691,576.99	16.2%
October	42,615,839.96	8,447,337.00	19.8%
November	43,115,514.84	8,207,598.88	19.0%
December	50,329,644.30	5,970,922.53	11.9%
January, 2021	62,994,737.27	10,913,192.32	17.3%
Total	$346,009,436.12	$57,686,119.09	16.7%

Arkansas Lottery Scholarship Funding Remains Dismal Despite Best December on Record

Jan 20, 2021Jerry CoxArkansas LotteryArkansas Lottery

Scholarship funding at the Arkansas Lottery has remained dismal despite the fact that the Lottery had what appears to be its best December on record.

Reports recently released by the state’s Lottery Office show the Arkansas Lottery took in more than $50.3 million last month, but paid about $5.9 million to college scholarships — about 12 cents out of every dollar the Lottery earned.

Overall, less than 17% of the Lottery’s revenue has gone to scholarships this year while 70% has gone to prizes.

For perspective, the typical state-run lottery spends about 30% of its revenue on education and about 60% on prizes.

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	$49,780,369.99	$8,592,573.93	17.3%
August	49,672,105.04	7,862,917.44	15.8%
September	47,501,224.72	7,691,576.99	16.2%
October	42,615,839.96	8,447,337.00	19.8%
November	43,115,514.84	8,207,598.88	19.0%
December	50,329,644.30	5,970,922.53	11.9%
Total	$283,014,698.85	$46,772,926.77	16.5%