AR Lottery Made More Money, But Spent Less on Scholarships in May

The Arkansas Lottery released its financial report for the month of May today.

According to the report, the Arkansas Lottery took in roughly $38.5 million, but paid $6.6 million to college scholarships; that comes to 17.2% of the Lottery’s gross revenue–less than half what our neighbors to the south in Louisiana allocate with their lottery, and 2.5% worse than the Lottery’s scholarship funding percentages in April.

In fact, the Arkansas Lottery spent some $786,000 less on scholarships in May than it did in April, despite the fact lottery revenue went up nearly $1 million during that same time.

These reports tell the same story every month: The Arkansas Lottery has been a disaster, as far scholarship funding is concerned, and the solutions lottery officials offer usually revolve around spending more money on advertising or rolling out new lottery games.

The Arkansas Lottery may close Fiscal Year 2016 at the end of this month with $85 million or so allocated for scholarship funding. To make that money, however, the Arkansas Lottery will have enticed Arkansans to spend–and lose–nearly half-a-billion dollars since last July.

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

Month Gross Lottery Revenue Paid to Scholarships % Gross Revenue
July, 2015 $ 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%
April 37,516,802.47 7,392,837.00 19.7%
May 38,485,146.05 6,606,164.94 17.2%
Total $ 421,341,860.11 $ 74,134,890.86 17.6%

Target Stock Continues to Tumble Amid Boycott

Target_Albemarle_Rd_Charlotte,_NC_(7579989322)According to Family Research Council, Target stock continues to reel as Americans boycott the company until it changes its policies announced two months ago concerning restrooms and changing areas in its stores.

FRC writes,

With its profits in the gender-free toilet, Target CEO Brian Cornell was on the hot seat with investors for the decision, which analysts say has cost the retailer more than $4.5 billion — and counting.

Worried about crashing stocks, Cornell was pressed about the negative fallout from the unpopular policy. He insisted (with a straight face) that there was none. “Zero correlation, zero effect,” he declared. That’s a convenient response, but not a truthful one. As everyone on Wall Street knows, Target’s stocks have taken a nearly 20-percent nosedive since April 19, when the change was announced. If there was zero correlation, why are Walmart and online retailers holding steady? Clearly, the boycott — the most successful in American Family Association’s history — is having an enormous impact on Target’s bottom line. But, much like Starbucks’s CEO, who doggedly stuck by his company’s anti-marriage campaign, Cornell made it known that he didn’t care what consumers’ think.

Family Research Council has written extensively about specific cases that demonstrate policies like Target’s can be abused, endangering the safety and privacy of others. You can read their overview here.

The American Family Association is asking Americans to boycott Target. So far, approximately 1.3 million have done so. You can find information about the boycott here.

Photo Credit: By Mike Kalasnik from Fort Mill, USA [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons.