AR Lottery Gives Scholarships 15 Cents of Every Dollar in August
Yesterday the Arkansas Lottery posted its financial reports for the month of August.
The reports show the Arkansas Lottery made more than $40.3 million last month, but paid out less than $6.2 million for scholarships. That means students received about 15 cents of every dollar the Lottery made in August.
For perspective, our neighbors in Louisiana budget at least 35% of their lottery’s revenue for education.
Although it is too early to tell, if the last two months are any indicator, the Arkansas Lottery will pay out somewhere around $70 – $80 million in college scholarships in Fiscal Year 2019 — well below the $100 million lottery proponents told voters in 2008 that students would get every year.
Below is a breakdown of Lottery figures so far this fiscal year.
| Month | Gross Lottery Revenue | Paid to Scholarships | % Gross Revenue |
| July | $42,413,352.70 | $5,066,628.73 | 11.9% |
| August | 40,343,279.62 | 6,175,998.40 | 15.3% |
| Total | $82,756,632.32 | $11,242,627.13 | 13.6% |
Photo Credit: Roman Oleinik [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], from Wikimedia Commons
