Tag: Arkansas Lottery

AR Lottery Paying 17 Cents on the Dollar to Scholarships This Fiscal Year

On Friday the Arkansas Lottery released its monthly financial report for February.

The report shows the Arkansas Lottery took in nearly $39.4 million, but paid out less than $6 million for college scholarships — about 15% of all the money it made last month.

So far this fiscal year the Arkansas Lottery is allocating a paltry 17% of its income for college scholarships.

The Arkansas Lottery has been an abysmal failure. Ten years ago, lottery proponents said a state-run lottery would generate $100 million per year for Arkansas’ Academic Challenge Scholarship. That hasn’t happened.

Instead, last month the Arkansas Legislature voted to allocate $25 million in taxpayer money to help supplement the Academic Challenge Scholarship. Lawmakers have had to do this every year since the Lottery was established.

If the Lottery Office would change its priorities and increase the percentage of its budget it sets aside for students, it could easily generate much more money in scholarship funding.

Below is a breakdown of the lottery’s revenue and scholarship budget so far this fiscal year.

READ MORE

Arkansas Lottery Still Paying Small Sums for Scholarships

Recently the Arkansas Lottery released its monthly financial report for January.

The report shows the Arkansas Lottery took in over $44 million in January alone, but gave Arkansas’ college scholarship fund a paltry $8.2 million — less than 19 cents out of every dollar the Arkansas Lottery made.

Unfortunately this is nothing new.

For years the Arkansas Lottery has consistently made tens of millions of dollars each month, but has budgeted small amounts of money for the college scholarships it is supposed to fund; in December the Arkansas Lottery allocated less than 15% of its gross revenue for scholarships.

You can see a breakdown of the Arkansas Lottery’s financial figures so far this fiscal year below.

READ MORE

Lottery Scholarship Funding Dismal in December Despite Uptick in Revenue

According to a report released today by the Arkansas Lottery, December was the second-best month the Lottery has had so far this fiscal year at just over $44.7 million in revenue.

However, despite this uptick in revenue, December was the second-worst month when it came to scholarship funding.

The Arkansas Lottery set aside a little less $6.6 million for scholarships last month — about 14-15 cents out of every dollar it made. That’s worse than every other month this fiscal year, except October.

Since Fiscal Year 2018 began last July, the Arkansas Lottery has spent a paltry 17% of its total revenue on college scholarships. For perspective, the average state lottery spends 30%.

Last December the Arkansas Lottery issued a press release in which it said,

We are always looking to maximize the winning and the fun for our players — as well as the revenues for scholarships for our students here in the state.

If the Arkansas Lottery is really concerned about maximizing scholarship funding, then why doesn’t it give Arkansas’ students more than just 17 cents out of every dollar it makes?

Below is a breakdown of the Lottery’s revenue and scholarship funding so far this fiscal year.

READ MORE