The Arkansas Lottery completed Fiscal Year 2016 a few days ago, and the numbers don’t look good.
The lottery posted its financial report for the month of June today. Altogether, the lottery took in more than $456.3 million from July 2015 – June 2016, but paid less than $85.4 million to scholarships.
That means less than 19 cents of every dollar the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery made in the past year actually went to the scholarships. The rest went elsewhere.
The Arkansas Lottery continues to have some of the highest administrative costs in the country; and while the average state lottery budgets about 30% of its gross revenue for education programs, the Arkansas Lottery consistently budgets less than 20%.
Below is a breakdown of the Arkansas Lottery’s scholarship figures 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% |
June | 34,983,951.24 | 11,249,220.37 | 32.2% |
Total | $456,325,811.35 | $85,384,111.23 | 18.7% |