Arkansas Lottery Rolls Out More Scratch-Off Tickets
Earlier this month the Arkansas Lottery rolled out five new scratch-off tickets that sell for anywhere from $1 to $10 each.
They are:
- Lucky 7 ($1)
- Jumbo Bucks Maximum ($2)
- Scrabble Crossword ($3)
- Power 5 ($5)
- $200,000 Jackpot ($10)
Scratch-off tickets are controversial, because they are tied to problem gambling and gambling addiction.
For example, a 2015 study in Canada described them as “paper slot machines.”
A 2018 study published in the Journal of Behavioral Addictions also found a link between how often a person played scratch-off tickets and the severity of a person’s gambling problem.
Besides being addictive, scratch-off tickets are not as profitable for the Arkansas Lottery as draw games like Powerball and MegaMillions.
In spite of all of this, the Arkansas Lottery still relies very heavily on scratch-off tickets.
Most of the revenue from the Arkansas Lottery’s scratch-off tickets is spent on prizes for lottery players.
With the Arkansas Lottery’s five newest scratch-off tickets, anywhere from 61% – 76% of the money from ticket sales goes straight to prizes. Very little goes to college scholarships.
As long as the state-run lottery depends on scratch-off tickets and spends most of its money on prizes, it will never provide as much funding as possible for Arkansas’ college scholarships.
Photo Credit: YouTube.
