Scholarship Funding Dismal, Prizes High at AR Lottery: February Report

Today the Arkansas Lottery released its financial report for the month of February.

The report shows the Arkansas Lottery took in over $40 million last month.

In spite of making more than a million dollars every single day, the Lottery still paid only $7.2 million to scholarships — less than 18 cents out of every dollar the Arkansas Lottery made.

All told, the Lottery is budgeting about 15.6% of its revenue for college scholarships this fiscal year.

However, the Arkansas Lottery continues to budget extraordinary amounts of money for prizes.

In February, the state lottery spent nearly 71% of its revenue on prizes.

For perspective, the typical state lottery spends about 30% of its revenue on education and only about 55% – 65% on prizes.

To put it simply: The Arkansas Lottery spends too much money on prizes and too little on scholarships.

Below is a breakdown of lottery revenue, scholarship budgeting, and prize spending so far this fiscal year.

Scholarship Funding

Month	Gross Lottery Revenue	Paid to Scholarships	% Gross Revenue
July	$41,239,173.79	$4,523,930.75	11.0%
August	40,899,086.75	4,942,736.97	12.1%
September	36,202,677.79	6,565,973.32	18.1%
October	38,932,640.23	6,318,099.21	16.2%
November	36,118,641.12	5,947,177.45	16.5%
December	46,134,469.21	6,371,983.49	13.8%
January, 2020	40,802,067.75	8,239,083.77	20.2%
February	40,670,746.71	7,233,556.77	17.8%
Total	$320,999,503.35	$50,142,541.73	15.6%

Prize Budget

Month	Gross Lottery Revenue	Total Prizes	% Going to Prizes
July	41,239,173.79	27,395,174.44	66.4%
August	40,899,086.75	27,981,278.90	68.4%
September	36,202,677.79	25,380,100.69	70.1%
October	38,932,640.23	26,836,578.14	68.9%
November	36,118,641.12	24,593,530.95	68.1%
December	46,134,469.21	32,772,295.09	71.0%
January, 2020	40,802,067.75	27,636,240.24	67.7%
February	40,670,746.71	28,772,455.23	70.7%
Total	320,999,503.35	221,367,653.68	69.0%