Arkansas Lottery – Page 102

Lottery Officials on the Defense

Sep 8, 2010JerryArkansas LotteryArkansas Lottery

Last Sunday, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette featured a news story about the Arkansas Lottery’s decision to only allocate approximately 21.5% of its revenue for college scholarships.

The fact is, as we’ve pointed out before, Arkansas’ lottery—whose foundational purpose is supposed to be providing college scholarships—is paying less than 22-cents on the dollar toward scholarships. That puts Arkansas’ lottery at the 4^th lowest in the nation when it comes to revenue allocated for education.

Arkansas Lottery Director Ernie Passailaigue defends Arkansas’ position by stating that allocating a larger percentage of revenue for scholarships would require them to pay out less money in prizes, and that paying out prizes is what makes people play the lottery. So ensuring there are plenty of prizes is the key to scholarship revenue. But there are two huge problems with his logic.

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Where Will You Find Lottery Machines?

Sep 3, 2010JerryArkansas LotteryArkansas Lottery

With all the talk about lottery ticket vending machines, you’re probably wondering where they might pop up in your community. Based on comments made by lottery officials, we have a pretty good idea about potential machine locations and places that you probably won’t see them.

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Lottery Commission Does Fuzzy Math on Machine Costs

Aug 27, 2010JerryArkansas LotteryArkansas Lottery, Vending Machines

The Arkansas Lottery Commission is back to doing fuzzy math.

Last week, we told you about Lottery Spokesman Julie Baldridge’s statement that the 100 lottery vending machines they purchased cost $50,000 each. But yesterday, Arkansas Lottery Director Ernie Passailaigue told the Legislative Oversight Committee the machines only cost $16,500 each.

The sudden change in the machines’ price tag was news to me—and, from what I could tell, to some of the legislators on the committee as well. When they pressed Mr. Passailaigue about the change in price, Passailaigue said that Baldridge’s statement on the radio was “misinformation”.

Well, I broke down the cost of the vending machines, and I think Julie Baldridge was probably being much more honest and accurate than Passailaigue gave her credit for.

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