Tag: Arkansas Lottery

Good Bill Filed to Rein in Arkansas Lottery

Rep. Warwick Sabin (D-Little Rock)

Sen. Joyce Elliott (D-Little Rock)

Today Sen. Joyce Elliott (D-Little Rock) and Rep. Warwick Sabin (D-Little Rock) filed S.B. 583.

This is a really good bill that simply requires the Arkansas Lottery to allocate at least 25% of its gross revenue for scholarships.

Right now the Arkansas Lottery allocates around 18%. To put that into the perspective, the average state lottery budgets approximately 30% of its gross revenue for education; Louisiana budgets 35%.

It’s simple math: If the Arkansas Lottery budgets a higher percentage of its money for scholarships, Arkansas’ college students will get more money. That’s what S.B. 583 does.

S.B. 583 is similar to legislation Family Council has supported in years past. We look forward to working with Sen. Elliott and Rep. Sabin to help pass this good, commonsense bill at the Arkansas Legislature.

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Arkansas Lottery Continues Posting Low Scholarship Figures

Today the Arkansas Lottery released its financial report for the month of January.

The report shows the Lottery took in over $38 million, and paid out less than $8 million to scholarships. This makes January one of the Arkansas Lottery’s better months, but scholarship funding is still low, with less than 21.5% of the Arkansas Lottery’s gross revenue actually being spent on college scholarships.

Lottery Scholarship Funds Supplemented with Tax Dollars

Right now the Arkansas Lottery is on track to pay out roughly $80 million in funding for Arkansas’ Academic Challenge Scholarship–which many refer to as the “Lottery Scholarship”–this fiscal year.

The State of Arkansas will pay another $25 million allocated by the Arkansas Legislature for Academic Challenge Scholarships.

Every year, the Arkansas Legislature’s Joint Budget Committee votes to supplement Arkansas’ Academic Challenge scholarships with state revenue. On average, nearly one-fourth of the the state’s “Lottery Scholarship” money doesn’t come from the Lottery at all. It comes from taxpayers.

There’s simply no way around it: The Arkansas Lottery continues to put up inexcusable numbers each month.

Below is a breakdown of lottery figures so far this fiscal year.

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Arkansas Lottery December Report: Scholarships Hit New Lows

This week the Arkansas Lottery posted its financial report for the month of December.

According to the report, the Arkansas Lottery took in nearly $35.4 million, but paid out less than $4.6 for scholarships–about 13% of the Lottery’s total revenue for the month.

As we have written repeatedly, the Arkansas Lottery budgets a pathetic percentage of revenue for scholarships as it is, but these numbers are particularly dismal. For example, the Arkansas Lottery made more money in December than it did in August, September, or October, but it paid it out far less for scholarships than it did any of those months. In fact, according to our records, December of 2016 was one of the worst months for scholarships at the Arkansas Lottery ever.

You can read the Lottery’r report here. Below is a breakdown of the Lottery’s revenue and scholarship spending this fiscal year.

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