Arkansas Lottery – Page 21

Arkansas Lottery Rolls Out Even More Scratch-Off Tickets

Jun 4, 2020Jerry CoxArkansas LotteryArkansas Lottery

This week the Arkansas Lottery rolled out four new scratch-off tickets — including one ticket that sells for $10.

Scratch-off tickets are controversial, because they are tied 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.

Expensive scratch-off tickets are particularly controversial, because they prey on the poor and desperate by offering long odds on big jackpots.

Despite all of this, the Arkansas Lottery still relies very heavily on scratch-off tickets.

The vast majority of the money the Arkansas Lottery makes from scratch-off tickets pays for prizes for lottery players. Very little goes to Arkansas’ students.

As long as the Arkansas Lottery continues to operate this way, it will keep preying on the poor and desperate, and the Lottery’s scholarship funding will remain low.

Report Shows Gambling Group Had Little Activity in April

May 25, 2020Jerry CoxGamblingArkansas Lottery, Casino Gambling, Gambling

The group Arcade Arkansas has spent more than half a million dollars on an effort to legalize thousands of casino-style gambling machines across Arkansas.

The group’s proposed constitutional amendment would allow some 15,000 gambling machines statewide under the Arkansas Lottery, and it could create miniature casinos all over the state — with little or no oversight to prevent fraud or corruption.

The group has put serious money into its effort. But Arcade Arkansas recently filed reports with the Arkansas Ethics Commission showing it conducted virtually no activity last month.

This tracks with reports in March that the group was temporarily suspending its campaign efforts amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

In February, Arkansas Lottery Director Bishop Woosley announced that he opposes the effort to legalize casino-style gambling under the auspices of state lottery.

Arcade Arkansas has until July 3 to gather nearly 90,000 valid petition signatures in order to place their proposed constitutional amendment on the November ballot.

Lottery Ticket Sales Surge Amid Pandemic

May 20, 2020Jerry CoxArkansas LotteryArkansas Lottery

According to KATV news, Arkansans have spent $17 million on state lottery tickets in the past seven weeks.

Lottery ticket sales have surged in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lottery officials say the uptick in sales could be the result of lower gas prices, closure of the casinos during the pandemic, and simply boredom.

However, our office recently analyzed weekly sales from the Arkansas Lottery, and it appears that lottery ticket sales in Arkansas rose after Arkansans began receiving economic stimulus checks from the federal government.

In other words, there’s a very good possibility Arkansans have been spending their unemployment checks and federal stimulus money on lottery tickets.

Here are five points worth remembering about the Arkansas Lottery:

The Arkansas Lottery relies heavily on scratch-off tickets despite the fact that these types of tickets can feed problem gambling and gambling addiction.
The Arkansas Lottery continues to sell scratch-off tickets that cost as much as $10 or $20 a piece. People who spend $20 on these scratch-off tickets have roughly a 66% chance of losing their money.
The Arkansas Lottery spends the vast majority of its revenue on prizes — upwards of 70%, which is far more than the typical state-run lottery.
The Arkansas Lottery currently spends about 15% – 16% of its revenue on college scholarships — which is about half of what the typical state-run lottery spends.
Because the Arkansas Lottery budgets so much for prizes and so little for education, the Lottery has failed to live up to its promise to provide $100 million per year in funding for college scholarships.

The bottom line: The Arkansas Lottery preys on the poor and desperate, and it has failed time and again to live up to its promises.

Photo Credit: Powerball and Mega Millions Lottery Billboard in Missouri by Tony Webster, on Flickr.