State Lottery Still Puts Prizes Ahead of Students
The Arkansas Lottery continues to spend 70% of its revenue on prizes and only 16% on college scholarships.
Watch this video to learn more.
State-Run Lottery Unveils Even More Scratch-Off Tickets
The Arkansas Lottery recently unveiled a slate of four new scratch-off tickets, according to information posted on the Lottery’s website.
The tickets sell for anywhere from $1 to $10, and advertise prizes up to $200,000.
As we have written many times, the Arkansas Lottery has a habit of rolling out a steady stream of new lottery games every month.
The Lottery also spends more money on prizes than most state-run lotteries, and it relies very heavily on scratch-off tickets for revenue.
Players who buy the Arkansas Lottery’s newest $10 scratch-off ticket hoping to win $200,000 have roughly a two in three chance of losing their money. The odds of winning the jackpot are a staggering one in 440,000.
As we have said time and time again, scratch-off tickets like these are linked to problem gambling and gambling addiction.
A 2015 study in Canada described them as “paper slot machines.”
A 2018 study published in the Journal of Behavioral Addictions found a link between how often a person played scratch-off tickets and the severity of a person’s gambling problem.
Despite all of this, the Arkansas Lottery continues to roll out new scratch-off tickets every month and budgets 70% of its revenue for prizes in an ongoing effort to prop up lottery ticket sales.
Photo Credit: Powerball and Mega Millions Lottery Billboard in Missouri by Tony Webster, on Flickr.
State Lottery Continues to Spend 70% of Revenue on Prizes
The Arkansas Lottery continues to spend more than 70% of its monthly revenue on prizes, according to reports filed with the Governor’s Office.
The reports show the Arkansas Lottery took in more than $47.5 million in September.
Out of that money, $33.4 million was spent on prizes for lottery players — roughly 70.4% of the Lottery’s revenue for the month.
Less than $7.7 million went to college scholarships — about 16.2% of the Lottery’s revenue.
For perspective, the typical state lottery budgets about 60% of its revenue for prizes and about 30% for education.
All told, since Fiscal Year 2021 began last July the Arkansas Lottery has taken in nearly $147 million, but only about 16 cents out of every dollar has gone toward college scholarships.
Below is a breakdown of Lottery revenue, scholarship budgeting, and prize spending so far this fiscal year.
Lottery Scholarship Spending
| Month | Gross Lottery Revenue | Paid to Scholarships | % Gross Revenue |
| July | $49,780,369.99 | $8,592,573.93 | 17.3% |
| August | 49,672,105.04 | 7,862,917.44 | 15.8% |
| September | 47,501,224.72 | 7,691,576.99 | 16.2% |
| Total | $146,953,699.75 | $24,147,068.36 | 16.4% |
Lottery Prize Spending
| Month | Gross Lottery Revenue | Total Prizes | % Going to Prizes |
| July | 49,780,369.99 | 35,641,717.48 | 71.6% |
| August | 49,672,105.04 | 35,023,856.83 | 70.5% |
| September | 47,501,224.72 | 33,422,556.14 | 70.4% |
| Total | 146,953,699.75 | 104,088,130.45 | 70.8% |