The Arkansas Scholarship Lottery's revenue totaled $37.1 million in January -- $21.7 million less than what was collected in the same month a year ago, when the agency had its best month ever thanks to a big national jackpot.
In January 2016, lottery revenue was bolstered by a world-record $1.6 billion Powerball run. In addition to the year-ago comparison, revenue was less than what was projected.
The lottery also saw a significant drop in the amount raised for college scholarships -- $7.9 million last month, or $5.9 million less than the same month last year.
"I think if you just remove $20 million in Powerball [revenue] last year, you can draw a pretty good comparison with this past month," Lottery Director Bishop Woosley said Friday.
Scratch-off game revenue in January totaled $31.21 million, down a tad from $31.28 million in revenue a year ago. Draw-game revenue totaled $5.79 million last month -- down from $27.40 million a year ago -- the lottery said last week in its monthly report to Gov. Asa Hutchinson and the Legislature's lottery oversight panel.
The lottery's draw games include Powerball, Mega Millions, the Natural State Jackpot and Cash 3 and Cash 4. Revenue also includes fees paid by retailers.
Last month's scratch-off ticket revenue of $31.21 million fell $1.78 million short of the projected budget for the month, while draw-game ticket revenue of $5.79 million fell about $921,000 short of projections, the monthly report shows. Scratch-off tickets also are referred to as instant tickets.
"The instant ticket budget projections are ambitious based on the [lottery's] business plan," Woosley said in a written statement. "To meet those budget amounts, we would have to perform almost $2,000,000 better each month versus what we have in the past. Thus far we have fallen short, but we have seen some progress in instant sales.
"Excluding January of last year, this past month was our highest January in instant sales since January 2011," said Woosley, who has been the lottery's director since February 2012. "With the exception of the Powerball jackpot growing fast near the end of the month, almost of our jackpot games have been relatively low this [past] month. That accounts for the drop in draw game sales."
The lottery started selling tickets in late September 2009. It has helped finance Arkansas academic scholarships for more than 30,000 students during each of the past seven fiscal years. Revenue and net proceeds peaked in fiscal 2012 before dropping in each of the next three fiscal years, until the world-record Powerball run boosted both areas in fiscal 2016.
The Legislature has cut the size of future scholarship amounts three times during the past several years, due to more students than initially projected receiving the scholarship and net proceeds lagging behind projections.
During the first seven months of fiscal 2017, revenue totaled $250 million -- about $14 million less than in the same period in fiscal 2016 -- the lottery reported. Collections are also $9.6 million short of projections.
The November general "election and the lack of ad time available during that period likely impacted our instant ticket sales," Woosley said. "I am encouraged because we had fantastic sales in July, August and November, periods that were not as affected by the attention and ad time given to the election."
So far in fiscal 2017, scratch-off ticket revenue of $202.8 million exceeded the $201.2 million collected in the same period last fiscal year, according to the lottery. But that is $10.9 million short of the projected budget.
Draw-game revenue of $46.6 million so far in fiscal 2017 lags the $62.4 million collected at this point in fiscal 2016, but is $1.3 million ahead of the projected budget.
So far in fiscal 2017, net proceeds for college scholarships of $44.2 million lag the $49.9 million reported in the same time in fiscal 2016.
The lottery reported an unclaimed prize balance of $5.2 million on Jan. 31. Act 1180 of 2011 requires that unclaimed prize money, minus $1 million, be transferred to the state Department of Higher Education's scholarship account on the last day of each fiscal year.
For fiscal 2017, Woosley is projecting revenue of $463.4 million and net proceeds of $80.9 million. Last fiscal year, revenue was $456.3 million and proceeds were $85.3 million.
"Last year will be difficult to compete with given the huge boost we received from the record Powerball jackpot," Woosley said. "That said, we will do everything we can to reach our projection for this year. Anything above that will be a bonus for the students of Arkansas."
The lottery's revenue and net proceeds peaked in fiscal 2012 at $473.6 million and $97.5 million, respectively.
Metro on 02/12/2017