Arkansas Lottery Pays 17%-18% to Scholarships Fifth Month in a Row

Arkansas Lottery

Earlier this month the Arkansas Lottery released its financial report for November 2015, revealing that for the fifth month in a row the Arkansas Lottery paid roughly 17%-18% of its gross revenue to college scholarships.

According to the report, the Arkansas Lottery took in $32.2 million in November, but only paid out $5.7 million to college scholarships; that’s about 17.8% of lottery revenue for the month. Below is a breakdown of the numbers for Fiscal Year 2016.

Month (FY16) Gross Lottery Revenue Paid to Scholarships % Gross Revenue
July $31,665,651.14 $5,784,683.09 18.3%
August 31,265,177.55 5,490,094.00 17.6%
September 36,134,389.63 6,624,967.11 18.3%
October 35,261,533.80 6,020,642.32 17.1%
November 32,226,599.28 5,725,139.09 17.8%
Total $166,553,351.40 $29,645,525.61 17.8%

In fact out of the past 17 months, there have been only 8 times the Arkansas Lottery allocated more than 18% of its revenue for scholarship funding.

Below is a breakdown of lottery revenue and scholarship allocation for the past 17 months.

Month Gross Lottery Revenue Paid to Scholarships % Gross Revenue
July, 2014  $30,925,067.43  $5,928,447.99 19%
August 31,571,412.10 5,296,965.80 17%
September 30,710,493.31 4,317,227.10 14%
October 32,959,739.29 5,939,625.59 18%
November 30,617,278.28 5,577,035.16 18%
December 34,507,731.54 5,474,318.77 16%
January, 2015 35,433,619.67 7,287,773.28 21%
February 41,770,314.46 6,161,343.01 15%
March 37,367,453.25 6,898,524.35 18%
April 33,866,970.54 5,881,005.95 17%
May 35,689,036.10 5,409,050.48 15%
June 33,815,559.59 8,278,928.14 24%
July $31,665,651.14 $5,784,683.09 18.3%
August 31,265,177.55 5,490,094.00 17.6%
September 36,134,389.63 6,624,967.11 18.3%
October 35,261,533.80 6,020,642.32 17.1%
November 32,226,599.28 5,725,139.09 17.8%
Total $575,788,026.96 $102,095,771.23 17.7%

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AR Lottery Pays 17-Cents on the Dollar to Scholarships in October

Arkansas Lottery

Earlier today the Arkansas Lottery released its financial report for the month of October.

The report shows lottery revenue fell by more than $872,000 from September to October; and scholarship proceeds dropped by more than $600,000 during that time.

All told, the Arkansas lottery paid 17.1% of its gross revenue toward scholarships during the month of October–the lowest percentage of any month this fiscal year.

Below is a breakdown of lottery ticket sales and scholarship revenue for Fiscal Year 2016: (more…)

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Despite Uptick, Arkansas Lottery Still Coming Up Short

Arkansas Lottery,

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports an uptick in ticket sales at the Arkansas Lottery. According to the article, sales for September, 2015, were the highest of any September since 2011.

Here’s the bad news: Despite this uptick in sales, the Arkansas Lottery only allocated 18.3%–$6.6 million–of its gross revenue for scholarships last month.

While we’re still only one quarter of the way into Fiscal Year 2016, these numbers put the Arkansas Lottery on track to pay out roughly $71 – $75 million in scholarships this fiscal year–$80 million on the high side.

To put these numbers into perspective, $75 million is a full $25 million less than lottery proponents insisted the Lottery would provide for scholarships six years ago, and 18.3% is barely better than half of the percentage Louisiana’s lottery allocates.

What’s more, according to Lottery officials, the Lottery’s uptick in sales during September was bolstered in part by a new $20 scratch-off ticket and a high PowerBall jackpot.

This is more of the same failed strategy. The Lottery’s strategy since Day One has been to prop up ticket sales artificially by rolling out new games. People are always excited to try the new lottery games, but as soon as the novelty wears off, ticket sales decline again. (more…)

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