Scholarship funding at the Arkansas Lottery has remained dismal despite the fact that the Lottery had what appears to be its best December on record.
Reports recently released by the state’s Lottery Office show the Arkansas Lottery took in more than $50.3 million last month, but paid about $5.9 million to college scholarships — about 12 cents out of every dollar the Lottery earned.
Overall, less than 17% of the Lottery’s revenue has gone to scholarships this year while 70% has gone to prizes.
For perspective, the typical state-run lottery spends about 30% of its revenue on education and about 60% on prizes.
Below is a breakdown of lottery revenue and scholarship spending so far this fiscal year.
| 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% |
| November | 43,115,514.84 | 8,207,598.88 | 19.0% |
| December | 50,329,644.30 | 5,970,922.53 | 11.9% |
| Total | $283,014,698.85 | $46,772,926.77 | 16.5% |
