Yesterday the Arkansas Lottery released its financial report for the month of March.
The report shows the Arkansas Lottery took in more than $53.5 million last month, but paid out less than $8 million for scholarships — not even 15 cents of every dollar it made.
March was the Arkansas Lottery’s best month since January of 2016, but the college scholarships the lottery is supposed to fund still drew the short straw. In fact, since last July the Lottery has awarded only 16.7% of its revenue to the state’s scholarship fund. That’s pathetic.
As we have said time and time again, the Lottery doesn’t have a revenue problem; its priorities are out of whack. Below is a breakdown of lottery revenue so far this fiscal year.
| Month | Gross Lottery Revenue | Paid to Scholarships | % Gross Revenue |
| July | $36,885,396.81 | $6,661,762.99 | 18.1% |
| August | 49,320,459.23 | 8,912,741.54 | 18.1% |
| September | 36,405,731.14 | 6,755,333.93 | 18.6% |
| October | 39,802,740.53 | 5,667,305.74 | 14.2% |
| November | 36,186,107.78 | 6,691,228.00 | 18.5% |
| December | 44,716,219.32 | 6,583,355.77 | 14.7% |
| January, 2018 | 44,063,056.11 | 8,230,861.00 | 18.7% |
| February | 39,389,927.57 | 5,947,647.50 | 15.1% |
| March | 53,523,320.61 | 7,945,570.02 | 14.8% |
| Total | $380,292,959.10 | $63,395,806.49 | 16.7% |
