Lottery Scholarships Rise Thanks To Scientific Games Boost
by July 11, 2012 3:57 pm 99 views
The Arkansas Scholarship Lottery says it should produce about $97.58 million for scholarships from its net revenues for the fiscal year that ended June 30. Two million dollars of the increase can be attributed to a contract renegotiation with lottery vendor Scientific Games.
The $97,582,527 unaudited total for scholarships in FY2012 compares to $82,799,809 in FY2010 and $94,229,349 in FY2011.
“It’s always a good day when we get news that scholarship funding is growing,” said Lottery Director Bishop Woosley.
The total in lottery funding for Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarships since the first ticket sold on September 28, 2009,
is $274.6 Million.
Gross sales for Fiscal Year 2012 added up to more $473 million. This year’s scholarship funding includes $2 million paid by lottery vendor Scientific Games recently as part of a contract amendment negotiated by Woosley.
Without that amount, the scholarship total still would have outstripped last year’s figures by almost $1.4 million.
“The people of Arkansas wanted to give our citizens a better chance of going to college and getting a degree when they voted for the lottery in 2008,” said Lottery Chairman Ben Pickard. “I think I speak for the entire commission that we are delighted with the progress this year.”