Last week the Arkansas Lottery published its first financial report for Fiscal Year 2016.

The numbers reveal the Arkansas Lottery gave 18 cents of every dollar to college scholarships during the month of July. This is roughly on par with previous months from the past year; it is less than what the Arkansas Lottery allocated when it first started six years ago–roughly 21 – 22 cents of every dollar–and well below the 30 – 35 cents of every dollar the typical state lottery allocates.

All told, the Arkansas Lottery took in $31.7 million in scholarships during the month of July, and it paid $5.8 million to the state’s scholarship fund.

While it is too early to start making serious predictions, at this rate the Arkansas Lottery is set to pay out approximately $70 – $75 million in scholarships by the end of Fiscal Year 2016 next June.

Below are the specific numbers the Arkansas Lottery published for the month of July:

Month (FY16) Gross Lottery Revenue Paid to Scholarships % Gross Revenue
July, 2015 $31,665,651.14 $5,784,683.09 18.3%

For context, here are the numbers for Fiscal Year 2015, which just ended last June.

Month (FY15) Gross Lottery Revenue Paid to Scholarships % Gross Revenue
July, 2014  $30,925,067.43  $5,928,447.99 19%
August 31,571,412.10 5,296,965.80 17%
September 30,710,493.31 4,317,227.10 14%
October 32,959,739.29 5,939,625.59 18%
November 30,617,278.28 5,577,035.16 18%
December 34,507,731.54 5,474,318.77 16%
January, 2015 35,433,619.67 7,287,773.28 21%
February 41,770,314.46 6,161,343.01 15%
March 37,367,453.25 6,898,524.35 18%
April 33,866,970.54 5,881,005.95 17%
May 35,689,036.10 5,409,050.48 15%
June 33,815,559.59 8,278,928.14 24%
Total  $409,234,675.56  $72,450,245.62 17.7%

Lottery proponents continue to argue if the Arkansas Legislature requires the Lottery to set aside a minimum percentage of its gross revenue for scholarships–such as, for example, 30%–then the Lottery will have to cut prizes and advertising; that’s going to translate into fewer people buying lottery tickets, and that will mean less lottery revenue all around–and ultimately less money for scholarships.

We have demonstrated quite clearly that this argument simply does not hold up. If the Arkansas Lottery budgeted at least 30% of its gross revenue for college scholarships, it would pay out more money than it does for scholarships right now–even if lottery ticket sales plummeted by $100 million, from $410 million to $310 million.