Last month's $758.7 million Powerball jackpot helped fuel sales for the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery, setting August records for revenue and the amount raised for college scholarships.
Total revenue reached $49.32 million in August and eclipsed the previous high for the month, $38.11 million in 2011, according to the lottery's monthly report to Gov. Asa Hutchinson and the Legislative Council's lottery oversight subcommittee.
Net proceeds, the amount raised for college scholarships, totaled $8.9 million in August and exceeded the previous record for the month of $7.5 million, also in 2011, the lottery reported.
The lottery has helped finance more than 30,000 Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarships during each of the past seven years. Including the $8.9 million in net proceeds last month, the lottery has raised more than $700 million for college scholarships since it started selling tickets on Sept. 28, 2009.
"We obviously had a huge month in Powerball sales due to the jackpot," lottery Director Bishop Woosley said Monday in a written statement. A woman in Massachusetts bought the winning ticket.
In addition to the Powerball jackpot run, Woosley said other contributions to the "great sales we had this August" were strong sales from scratch-off tickets, a large Mega Millions jackpot early in the month and the fact that lottery retailers were allowed, for the first time, to accept debit cards as payment for tickets starting Aug. 1.
While the revenue and amount raised for college scholarships last month represented records for August, they fell short of the overall record reached in January 2016 when the Powerball jackpot reached $1.6 billion. That month, revenue totaled $58.7 million and the amount raised for college scholarships was $13.8 million. Before that, the previous monthly record was $51.5 million in revenue and net proceeds of $12.8 million in March 2012 when the Mega Millions jackpot hit $650 million.
The August revenue of $49.32 million represented a $14.3 million increase over the same month a year ago. Likewise, the net proceeds of $8.9 million for the month was $3.5 million more than what was raised in the same month in 2016, according to the lottery.
Last month, scratch-off ticket revenue increased by $6.6 million over a year ago to $35.6 million, while draw-game ticket revenue increased by $7.7 million to $13.6 million, the lottery reported. The lottery's revenue also include fees paid by retailers.
Woosley said the scratch-off ticket revenue increased last month compared to a year ago because "we had a strong batch of instant games that we launched in August, including a new $20 instant game along with Multiplier themed games.
"Additionally, some of our previously launched games, such as the Wonka Golden Ticket continued to have strong sales," he said.
Draw-game tickets include games such as Powerball, Mega Millions, Cash 3, Cash 4, Natural State Jackpot and Fast Play. Powerball ticket revenue alone totaled $8.9 million in August -- up by $6.7 million over a year ago -- and Mega Million ticket revenue totaled $1.9 million in August -- up by about $944,000 over a year ago -- Woosley said.
During the first two months of fiscal 2018, the lottery's revenue totaled $86.2 million -- $12.9 million more than in the same period last fiscal year, the lottery reported. Fiscal 2018 started July 1.
Also during July and August, net proceeds for scholarships totaled $15.5 million -- $1.3 million more than in the same period in fiscal 2017, according to the lottery.
Unclaimed prizes totaled $738,410 in August, increasing the unclaimed prize reserve fund to $2.6 million, the lottery reported. At the end of the fiscal year, the lottery shifts that reserve fund, minus $1 million, to college scholarships under state law.
Woosley has projected revenue of $459 million and net proceeds of $83.6 million in fiscal 2018. Last fiscal year, revenue totaled $449.9 million and net proceeds were $85.2 million.
The peak in the amount raised for scholarships was $97.5 million in fiscal 2012. But then net proceeds dipped three consecutive fiscal years, falling to $72.6 million in fiscal 2015. Net proceeds rebounded to $85.2 million in fiscal years 2016 and 2017.
Woosley said $705 million has been raised for scholarships overall.
"Surpassing $700 million in scholarship proceeds is definitely a milestone -- but we just love that it means more scholarships for Arkansas students, and more people in Arkansas having fun playing the games," Woosley said in a news release.
The Legislature has cut the size of future scholarships three times during the past several years due to more students than projecting being awarded scholarship and net proceeds falling short of initial projections.
Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarships totaling $86.1 million were paid out in fiscal 2017 -- down from $96.4 million distributed in fiscal 2016 -- according to the state Department of Higher Education.
In July, Department Deputy Director Tara Smith said department officials were projecting a 3 to 5 percent increase in scholarship expenditures, which would bring the total to between $88.9 million and $90.5 million, in fiscal 2018.
Last month, the department reported that the number of new scholarship applications increased from 25,566 last school year to 30,883 this school year. By comparison, applications were down last year by about 2,900. The number of applications dropped last year after the scholarship qualifications changed.
Department officials have attributed this year's increase to the marketing and communications campaign for a new program and the high profile that higher education received during this year's regular legislative session.
"We are still projecting an increase in the number of students awarded and total expenditures," Smith said Monday. "We are still working through renewals and new awards."
A Section on 09/12/2017