Yesterday the Arkansas Lottery released its financial report for the month of January. The report shows lottery ticket sales and net proceeds for college scholarships are still lagging.
In December, we wrote how at the rate things are going, the Arkansas Lottery stands to come in about $8 million short of its scholarship goal for 2014. According to the Lottery Commission’s budget, the Arkansas Lottery needs to allocate about $7.4 million per month, on average, to meet its goal of $89.5 million in scholarship money for the year. So far, however, these monthly reports show the Arkansas Lottery has allocated more like $6.4 – $6.8 million for scholarships each month.
That’s a shortfall of nearly $1 million every month.
Lottery Director Bishop Woosley recently hinted if lottery ticket sales did not improve soon, the Arkansas Lottery Commission might have to reevaluate its scholarship budget for the year. According to its website, Lottery Commissioners are scheduled to meet next week.
In light of this latest report revealing the Arkansas Lottery’s situation has not improved, one has to wonder if adjusting the scholarship budget will be a topic at next week’s meeting.
See the Arkansas Lottery’s financial report for the month of January here.
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