
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% |