As reported by the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette outlet, Arkansas has registered higher revenues on state lottery scratch-off tickets this May than on both scratch-off and draw-game tickets in any May over the past 10 years despite COVID-19.
Revealed in its monthly report to Governor Asa Hutchinson and the Legislative Council’s lottery oversight subcommittee, the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery’s scratch-off revenue saw a surge of $52.8m in May compared to the same point last year which saw a figure of $32.5m.
Furthermore, the addition of the $8.3m in revenue generated from draw-games sees total revenue for the month reach $61.1m, up from $41.1m a year ago, and exceeding the previous month record of $43.3m that was set in 2011.
Discussing the sharp increase in revenue, Lottery Director Bishop Woosley said: “First, the stores that sell our product have remained open during the entire period the virus was impacting our state.
“Second, the entire first week of March was our highest instant ticket sales week ever up to that point, so, the increase in sales began before the state was even remotely impacted by the Covid virus.
“After that first week, there was a two-week lull in sales and then a steady and strong increase which mirrored or exceeded what we had seen the first week in March.
“If I had to offer a guess, I would say the increase in sales was due to a combination of most forms of entertainment (casinos, movie theaters, sports games and restaurants) being closed, low gas prices and people simply being bored and looking for activities that they can do in their own homes.”
May is the 11th month of fiscal 2020, which ends June 30, with total revenue so far reaching $479.5m, exceeding the $477.8m collected in the same period in fiscal 2019.
As it stands in the current fiscal year, scratch-off ticket revenue has totaled $406.8m, exceeding the $376.1m in the same period in fiscal 2019. Regarding draw-game revenue however, this fiscal period has seen $72.1m registered, a decrease when compared to the $100.9m in fiscal 2019.
For fiscal 2020, Woosley has projected revenue of $497m with net proceeds for college scholarships of $89.3m. He added: “For the year, we are up in total sales almost $21m over budget and up over $31m in [scratch-off] ticket sales and down a little more than $9.8m in [draw-game] sales.
“At this point, we are enjoying our best [scratch-off] ticket sales year and total sales year in our 10-year history. We are currently ahead of our proceeds budget by $171,940.”
