Today the Arkansas Lottery released its financial report for the month of January.
The report shows the Lottery took in over $38 million, and paid out less than $8 million to scholarships. This makes January one of the Arkansas Lottery’s better months, but scholarship funding is still low, with less than 21.5% of the Arkansas Lottery’s gross revenue actually being spent on college scholarships.
Lottery Scholarship Funds Supplemented with Tax Dollars
Right now the Arkansas Lottery is on track to pay out roughly $80 million in funding for Arkansas’ Academic Challenge Scholarship–which many refer to as the “Lottery Scholarship”–this fiscal year.
The State of Arkansas will pay another $25 million allocated by the Arkansas Legislature for Academic Challenge Scholarships.
Every year, the Arkansas Legislature’s Joint Budget Committee votes to supplement Arkansas’ Academic Challenge scholarships with state revenue. On average, nearly one-fourth of the the state’s “Lottery Scholarship” money doesn’t come from the Lottery at all. It comes from taxpayers.
There’s simply no way around it: The Arkansas Lottery continues to put up inexcusable numbers each month.
Below is a breakdown of lottery figures so far this fiscal year.
| Month | Gross Lottery Revenue | Paid to Scholarships | % Gross Revenue |
| July, 2016 | $38,237,293.92 | $8,714,386.39 | 22.8% |
| August | 35,091,022.09 | 5,498,714.86 | 15.7% |
| September | 33,113,391.64 | 5,773,076.42 | 17.4% |
| October | 34,061,993.14 | 5,165,040.54 | 15.2% |
| November | 37,042,079.72 | 6,570,979.51 | 17.7% |
| December | 35,352,159.35 | 4,596,532.22 | 13.0% |
| January, 2017 | 37,062,291.39 | 7,947,546.21 | 21.4% |
| Total | $249,960,231.25 | $44,266,276.15 | 17.7% |
