The Arkansas Lottery’s prize budget for lottery players is more than four times larger than its budget for college scholarships, a new report indicates.
The Arkansas Lottery’s financial report for the month of October shows since July 1 the Arkansas Lottery has spent nearly $134.1 million on prizes, but it has spent less than $32.6 million on students.
All told, only about 17% of the Arkansas Lottery’s budget actually funds college scholarships, but nearly 71% of its budget pays for prizes for lottery players.
As we have written repeatedly, the typical state-run lottery budgets approximately 60% of its revenue for prizes and 30% for education.
The Arkansas Lottery could pay millions of dollars more to scholarships if it simply would reduce its prize budget and raise its scholarship budget — plain and simple.
Below is a breakdown of Lottery revenue and prize spending since Fiscal Year 2021 began on July 1.
Scholarship Spending
| Month | Gross Lottery Revenue | Paid to Scholarships | % Gross Revenue |
| July | $49,780,369.99 | $8,592,573.93 | 17.3% |
| August | 49,672,105.04 | 7,862,917.44 | 15.8% |
| September | 47,501,224.72 | 7,691,576.99 | 16.2% |
| October | 42,615,839.96 | 8,447,337.00 | 19.8% |
| Total | $189,569,539.71 | $32,594,405.36 | 17.2% |
Prize Spending
| Month | Gross Lottery Revenue | Total Prizes | % Going to Prizes |
| July | 49,780,369.99 | 35,641,717.48 | 71.6% |
| August | 49,672,105.04 | 35,023,856.83 | 70.5% |
| September | 47,501,224.72 | 33,422,556.14 | 70.4% |
| October | 42,615,839.96 | 29,995,072.50 | 70.4% |
| Total | 189,569,539.71 | 134,083,202.95 | 70.7% |
