Lottery Won’t Meet $98 Million Goal For Scholarships
by June 6, 2013 7:56 am 104 views
From David Goins with our content partner, Fox 16 News:
Officials with the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery say they will be able to project the amount of money going to college scholarships later this month.
ASL Director Bishop Woosley told the Legislative Oversight Committee on Wednesday (June 5) that a number of factors can contribute to the lottery not meeting its $98 million target.
Woosley says large spikes in jackpots for Powerball help the lottery reach sales goals but that lackluster jackpots for another multi-state game, MegaMillions, has had the opposite effect.
“We were supposed to have a new national game last September,” Woosley says. “It didn’t happen. We had projected revenue based on that but the game doesn’t exist.”
The lottery is currently $6 million dollars behind its projected pace.
Legislators were aware of the likely reduced sales figures before the legislative session started in January.
The Arkansas General Assembly adjusted college scholarship award amounts in response, lowering the amount for incoming freshman at four year schools from $4,500 to $2,000.