Recently we wrote about how the Arkansas Lottery paid very little to scholarships in December despite taking in more than $46 million.
The Arkansas Lottery notoriously budgets very little of its revenue for college scholarships, but December was particularly dismal, with students receiving only 13.8 cents out of every dollar the lottery made.
This week KNWA asked lottery officials why so little money went to scholarships last month.
They [Arkansas Lottery officials] say the lottery actually makes more money from its draw games such as Powerball and Mega Millions, but also local draws like the Natural State Jackpot and the Cash 3.
Officials say the lottery makes about 43 cents on the dollar for those, but the instant ticket games that had record sales in December don’t make as much. It varies depending on which ticket amounts are being sold. That then affects the profits, and, in turn the amount going to scholarships.
In other words, lottery officials blame the poor scholarship funding on the fact that the Lottery sold a lot of instant (i.e. scratch-off) tickets in December as opposed to Powerball tickets.
If it’s true that scratch-off tickets aren’t as profitable for the Arkansas Lottery, then why does the Lottery work so hard to promote them?
Why would they keep rolling out scratch-off tickets like the $20 ticket we wrote about in December?
If these instant tickets are actually hurting the Arkansas Lottery’s bottom line, then why does the state lottery offer more than 50 different scratch-off tickets at stores and gas stations all over Arkansas?
It simply doesn’t make sense.
