Arkansas Lottery Scholarship Funding to Hit All-Time Low in 2015

1 CommentArkansas Lottery

Since the Arkansas Lottery’s inception, we have written over and over again about the paltry percent of gross revenue the Arkansas Lottery Commission awards for college scholarships.

When the Arkansas Lottery began five years ago this month, we calculated that only about 22% of lottery revenue went to students. The rest went somewhere else. That meant if you bought a $1 lottery ticket, only 22 cents of that dollar went to scholarships. At the time, that was the third-lowest percentage in the nation.

Despite efforts by lawmakers to require the Arkansas Lottery to set aside a minimum percentage of its revenue for students, lottery officials continued reducing that percentage of gross revenue. We have seen the percentage allocated for scholarships drop all the way from 22 cents on the dollar to 19.8 cents on the dollar (last year).

Now the Arkansas Lottery Commission has reduced it again, with only 18.76% of gross revenue going to scholarships.

Under its budget for 2015, the Arkansas Lottery hopes to take in about $416,770,000 in gross revenue, and it hopes to pay out $78,185,000 in scholarships. That means for the first time ever, lottery scholarships will receive less than 19% of the Arkansas Lottery’s total revenue.

Just to put those numbers in perspective, Louisiana requires its lottery to allocate at least 35% of lottery revenue for education. That’s how the Louisiana lottery paid out tens of millions of dollar more in education funding than Arkansas’ did despite taking in nearly $100 million less.

It isn’t just Louisiana, either. Many state lotteries set aside at least 25% – 30% for education funding.

People keep talking about trying to bolster lottery ticket sales to improve scholarship funding, but when your lottery isn’t required to set aside a minimum percentage of its revenue for scholarships, there’s no guarantee soaring ticket sales will do any good for Arkansas’ students. After all, the way the law is currently written, the Lottery Commission could approve a budget that pays $0 for scholarships. It’s all up to them.

The Arkansas “Scholarship” Lottery continues cutting its scholarship budget and refusing to set aside even an average percentage of its revenue for education. That’s simply unacceptable.

READ MORE

Lottery Commission Lowers Budget for 2015

Arkansas Lottery

According to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, on Wednesday the Arkansas Lottery Commission lowered its budget for the next year, cutting scholarship funding by $3 million to a total $78.2 million. This is $3.3 million less than the Arkansas Lottery paid in scholarships this past year.

We have written before how the Arkansas Lottery Commission has struggled to live up to its promises. Scholarship funding has never reached the levels promised in 2008; the Arkansas Lottery Commission has cut scholarship funds time and time again, but has somehow managed to afford new employees, raises, and bonuses; and lottery officials, in the past, have openly defied members of the Arkansas Legislature.

We’ve been saying it for nearly five years, but the problem down at the Arkansas Lottery Commission is not a revenue problem or a budget problem; it’s a priorities problem. Scholarships are the last bill the Lottery pays and the first thing they cut if ticket sales drop. This latest budget cut is simply another verse in that same old song.

READ MORE

A Few Fast Facts on the Arkansas Lottery

Arkansas Lottery

American_CashThe Arkansas Lottery just wrapped up Fiscal Year 2014. Year-end reports were posted on the agency’s website, recently. To summarize, here are a few fast facts on the Arkansas Lottery:

  • The Arkansas Lottery took in roughly $411 million in revenue from July 1, 2013 to June 30, 2014.
  • Approximately 19.8% of lottery revenue went for scholarships (yes, that’s still one of the lowest percentages in the nation).
  • During the month of June, the Arkansas Lottery sold approximately $30.5 million worth of tickets.
  • During the month of June, roughly 82% of lottery ticket revenue came from scratch-off tickets; about 6.5% came from Powerball; the rest came from other games.
  • The Arkansas Lottery spent roughly $81.5 million on college scholarships this year; this is $8.4 million less than last year and $16 million less than the year before.
  • Overall, lottery revenue for the year was roughly $49 million less than budgeted.
  • Scholarship funding came out $8.1 million less than budgeted.

There is a silver lining in all these facts and figures: The fact that lottery revenue continues to decline means Arkansans are losing fewer and fewer of their hard-earned dollars playing the lottery.

(more…)

READ MORE