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Arkansans were feeling an itch, and the new Arkansas Scholarship Lottery gave them something to scratch.
This Sept. 29, 2009, Page 1 carried a photo of players scraping their tickets with pocketknives to check for winnings on the lottery’s first day. Only scratch-off tickets were being sold, with the national Powerball draw lottery to follow in October.
Players from all walks of life including college students and college presidents tried their luck in then-Arkansas Lottery Commission executive director Ernie Passailaigue called “a very smooth startup.”
While prizes ranged from $1 to $100,000, the story noted that by early afternoon on opening day, the biggest jackpot was $1,000, won by Deborah Conner of Rison on a $2 ticket. Some winners got payouts that amounted to less than the overall sums they wagered, but many said they enjoyed playing nonetheless. “This is addictive,” UALR criminal justice student Sherron Langel said. “I have been playing all my winnings.”
About 1,480 of 1,551 retailers licensed to offer the games began selling them that Monday. By 5 p.m., Passailaigue said, an estimated $671,000 in tickets had been sold and nearly $450,000 paid out in prizes.
The lottery to fund college scholarships was the result of a ballot initiative in the 2008 general election that became Amendment 87. The state Legislature passed the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery Act in March 2009, setting grade and achievement test requirements with scholarship awards at the time of $5,000 a year for four-year schools and $2,500 for two-year institutions. A lottery commission was soon formed and Passailaigue, who had helped start a state lottery in South Carolina, was hired to do the same in Arkansas.
College officials helped promote the new lottery by buying tickets. Allen Meadors, then president of the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, spent $10 on four tickets and won $21. Meadors declined the offer to parlay his winnings into more tickets. “Take the money and run,” he said, before turning over his $11 profit to the UCA Foundation.
Dan Howard, then executive vice chancellor and provost at Arkansas State University, doubled his $5 investment while touting the new opportunity for higher education.
Then-Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, who proposed the lottery in 2006, said he bought two tickets but left them intact to “save them as mementos” for his two young daughters.
Passailaigue resigned in September 2011 after criticism for failing to abide by state travel regulations and for late lottery deposit of taxes on prizes, among other things.
Over the years the scholarship requirements and amounts have changed, but the lottery has helped finance scholarships for more than 30,000 students in each of the past nine fiscal years. The percentage of its revenue for net proceeds has been among the lowest of lotteries across the nation.
— Terry L. Austin
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