Arkansas Lottery Continues Spending Most of Its Money on Prizes

The Arkansas Lottery currently budgets 69% of its revenue for prizes, according to its latest monthly financial report.

The report indicates that about 16% of the Lottery’s revenue goes to college scholarships.

The Arkansas Lottery spends most of the money it makes on prizes for lottery players.

For perspective, the typical state lottery budgets approximately 30% of its revenue for education and about 60% for prizes.

Arkansas’ state-run lottery spends a larger portion of its revenue on prizes than the vast majority of state lotteries.

Below is a breakdown of Lottery revenue and prize spending for Fiscal Year 2021.

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%
November	43,115,514.84	8,207,598.88	19.0%
December	50,329,644.30	5,970,922.53	11.9%
January, 2021	62,994,737.27	10,913,192.32	17.3%
February	42,099,444.22	5,592,370.95	13.3%
Total	$388,108,880.34	$63,278,490.04	16.3%

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%
November	43,115,514.84	30,548,473.72	70.9%
December	50,329,644.30	33,661,170.75	66.9%
January, 2021	62,994,737.27	41,745,065.17	66.3%
February	42,099,444.22	27,955,512.19	66.4%
Total	$388,108,880.34	$267,993,424.78	69.1%