Tag: Arkansas Lottery

Lottery Gives 18 Cents on the Dollar to Education in July

Last week the Arkansas Lottery published its first financial report for Fiscal Year 2016.

The numbers reveal the Arkansas Lottery gave 18 cents of every dollar to college scholarships during the month of July. This is roughly on par with previous months from the past year; it is less than what the Arkansas Lottery allocated when it first started six years ago–roughly 21 – 22 cents of every dollar–and well below the 30 – 35 cents of every dollar the typical state lottery allocates.

All told, the Arkansas Lottery took in $31.7 million in scholarships during the month of July, and it paid $5.8 million to the state’s scholarship fund.

While it is too early to start making serious predictions, at this rate the Arkansas Lottery is set to pay out approximately $70 – $75 million in scholarships by the end of Fiscal Year 2016 next June.

Below are the specific numbers the Arkansas Lottery published for the month of July:

For context, here are the numbers for Fiscal Year 2015, which just ended last June.

Lottery proponents continue to argue if the Arkansas Legislature requires the Lottery to set aside a minimum percentage of its gross revenue for scholarships–such as, for example, 30%–then the Lottery will have to cut prizes and advertising; that’s going to translate into fewer people buying lottery tickets, and that will mean less lottery revenue all around–and ultimately less money for scholarships.

We have demonstrated quite clearly that this argument simply does not hold up. If the Arkansas Lottery budgeted at least 30% of its gross revenue for college scholarships, it would pay out more money than it does for scholarships right now–even if lottery ticket sales plummeted by $100 million, from $410 million to $310 million.

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Report Shows Scholarship Decline from ’14 to ’15 at Arkansas Lottery

The Arkansas Lottery released its financial report for the month of June earlier today. As previously expected, the Arkansas Lottery allocated a little less than $72.5 million for college scholarships during Fiscal Year 2015–almost $9 million less than the “very conservative budget” lottery officials initially approved last year.

The report shows that from Fiscal Year 2014 to Fiscal Year 2015 lottery ticket sales declined by about $1.4 million, but lottery scholarship funds dropped by roughly $9 million.

Last June the Arkansas Lottery supplemented scholarship funding with $5 million from its Unclaimed Prizes account.

All told, the Arkansas Lottery spent 17.7% of its income on scholarships during the past year–down from 19.8% in Fiscal Year 2014. Below is a breakdown of lottery revenue and scholarship allocations from the past 12 months. (more…)

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Lottery Scholarship Proceeds Slip to 15% as Revenue Increases in May

The Arkansas Lottery has released its financial summary for the month of May. The report shows lottery revenue increased by more than $1.8 million from April to May.

Despite this increase in revenue, scholarship proceeds dropped by nearly $472,000–falling to $5.4 million or 15% of the Lottery’s revenue for the month.

All told, the Arkansas Lottery has taken in $375,419,115.97 since July 1, 2014, but it has only paid out $64,171,317.48 in scholarship money–17% of the Lottery’s overall revenue for the year.

The Arkansas Lottery’s fiscal year closes at the end of this month. Looking at the numbers, it appears the Arkansas Lottery likely will pay out between $70 and $76 million in scholarships this fiscal year–about 17% – 18% of its gross revenue.

Below is a breakdown of the Lottery’s revenue and scholarship payments this fiscal year.

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