This month the Arkansas Lottery unveiled a new scratch-off ticket that sells for $10. Other tickets launched this year sell for $20 apiece.
As we have written many times, the bulk of the Arkansas Lottery’s ticket sales comes from scratch-off tickets, which are often associated with problem gambling and gambling addiction.
Scratch-off tickets that sell for $10 or $20 each are a problem, because they usually offer long odds on large prizes. That entices players to spend — and lose — more money each time they play one of these lottery tickets.
The Arkansas Lottery’s over-reliance on big prizes, long odds, and expensive scratch-off tickets makes it an especially predatory form of gambling.
Family Council has supported legislation in the past that would restructure the Arkansas Lottery’s budget to increase spending on education. The state-run lottery could provides millions of dollars more in scholarship funding if it simply would reduce its prize budget and increase its scholarship budget to align with other state lotteries.
Unfortunately, there simply doesn’t seem to be much impetus to do that.
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.
