Arkansas Lottery Will Provide Scholarship Money

Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter told people on Tuesday, “Next year—beginning in January—not too many months away, any high school student who applies for a scholarship funded by the lottery and is going to an Arkansas college or university will get a scholarship if they do one of two things.” One, keep a 2.5 grade point average or two score a 19 or better on the ACT. And Halter says he doesn’t know of any state financial aid that is that accessible. The first Arkansas lottery ticket is expected to be sold in mid October. And Lt. Governor Halter says every penny of the money will be devoted to college scholarships. But that’s not what spreading all the hype. It’s the high paying salaries lottery officials are getting. The director of the lottery will pocket 324,000 dollars a year-- that makes him the third highest paid lottery official in the country. Halter said, “None of those salaries were outside the pay range of what the state legislature approved.” Scholarship money is the sole purpose of the lottery revenue. One Arkansas resident says the lottery is entertainment for those who have the money but will ultimately make the poor, poorer. Halter said, “Well let me tell you the ups about this cause they remain the same—ups are the opportunity to provide to all Arkansans that don’t currently have a bachelors degree the opportunity to earn it.” And some residents believe that the lottery will be nothing but a good thing for the state. Chales Ham of El Dorado said, “I believe we should have a lottery—the state is losing money to the people who want to gamble anyway. If they wanna gamble they are gonna go to Louisiana.” And NBC 10 asked Courtney Bridges of Bearden if he thinks that the money will be used for scholarship purposes? He said, “I hope so—I hope it’s used for scholarship purposes and high school too.” He added that he thinks its great that the money is now coming to Arkansas.