ALC-Lottery Oversight Subcommittee
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Speaker 1
0:00
Thank you.
Thank you.
All right, it's time to get started, I guess. Everybody will get a seat. Chair sees the quorum. We'll
Speaker 5
1:22
call this meeting to order.
First on the agenda, I guess we took care
Speaker 8
1:33
of that, item A, so we'll skip right to item B. Ms. Strong, you have a report you want
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
1:45
to present? If you'll just state your name and who
Speaker 12
1:55
you're with for the record, you may begin. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Sharon Strong, Executive Director of the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery. So for today's report, we have our
Speaker 13
2:04
monthly disclosure report that we send every month.
This will be focusing on the month
Speaker 12
2:24
of November. so if you look at year over year november 2024 compared to november of 2025 not a huge difference a little bit up on draw a little bit down on instant basically flat for the most part
The biggest difference you'll see is in the net proceeds towards the bottom, 16.5% up on that. November of 25, actual versus our budget. So what we forecasted, we're basically spot on. We're on revenue. We're just about 0.3% down on that.
And then on net proceeds, we're 18.4% higher than what we forecasted. Year-to-date last year versus year-to-date this year, no big change on that. Except for the net proceeds, we are 15% more favorable. it's about 5 million 5.9 million higher in net proceeds and then this chart
compares where we are year-to-date versus our budget budget in terms of what we forecasted that we will generate in revenue and budget in terms of what we planned for our expenses so year to date we are 15 million higher than what we forecasted and we are 5 million higher in net proceeds and in terms of our general and administrative
expenses we're about half a million dollars less than our than what we
Speaker 13
4:24
budgeted So you can see the green, we've made more in revenue, which means we've handed out more in prizes. So that's
Speaker 12
4:45
what the red is, is the prize expenses. This shows our total amount in our trust account, which is $330,931,000.
and that's for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30th of 2026. Compared to last year, the fiscal year ended with $343,418,000. This is our reserve balance. this table shows what we have collected on child support and taxes we have collected
over half a million in income tax both federal and state and then five thousand three hundred and thirty-one dollars in child support in the month of November we did distribute an additional 10 million to the Arkansas Division of Higher Education and that brings the total for the fall semester to 58 million this
chart shows the retail sales by county I won't read them all out to you but Pulaski County remains at the highest generating County at nine million four hundred forty one thousand and then there were no in new instant games that we launched in the month of November we did launch two fast play games a one dollar holiday cash and a one dollar candy cane cash and I'll take any
Speaker 18
6:45
questions all right any questions from committee members yeah representative Lundstrom let
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
7:02
all right you are recognized can Can you go back to the child support and let
Speaker 12
7:07
us know how that works? So if there is somebody who wins $500 or more on a lottery ticket, they
Speaker 13
7:14
must come to our claim center to collect that prize.
And when they do that, we run their name and information through DHS and through DFA to determine if they owe child support or taxes. And if they do, that money gets taken out before
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
7:33
great and and how much
Speaker 12
7:36
did you say it was so back taxes and child support was child support was five thousand three hundred
Speaker 13
7:43
and thirty one dollars dfa is zero because the tax deadline has been extended so we anticipate seeing a
higher number on that once the people that have gotten extensions file okay and then on
Speaker 12
7:56
um federal and state income taxes withheld um that number for november is 565 849. wow okay that's awesome um on the the next question i had
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
8:08
was on unclaimed pottery lottery money 85 000 how long do we hold that before it goes
back into the pot to the end of the fiscal year great thank you
Speaker 18
8:21
you representative rye you're recognized for
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
8:27
questions yes sir thank you mr chairman ma'am you may have mentioned this but um on uh exhibit number c where it says for the year 2026 105 million 700 000 what is that figure representative rye we hadn't got to exhibit c quite yet
you want to hold that question till that's presented and thank you all right thank you yes sir seeing no other questions we will consider this item reviewed if you have nothing
further so now we'll move on to
Speaker 12
9:01
item c okay so this the lottery statute requires a report an annual report that I make that or that the executive director makes to the committee and it's 23 115 302 b9 and that requires the total amount of net proceeds for the fiscal year the prior fiscal year and then it also asks requires that we project the net proceeds for the
the following fiscal year so for the fiscal year that ended june 30th of 2025 the the amount of net proceeds was 111 million 817 897 and then what we project for this current fiscal year which will end June 30th of 2026, is $105,700,000. All right, Representative Rye.
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
9:58
Okay, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Ma'am, that
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
10:01
$105,700,000, that is for ending July 1 of this year? June 30th, yes, sir. June 30th. What was that for last year? Do you know? So it's that number right
Speaker 12
10:16
above on this page, $111,817,000. So we're down a little bit. So we're projecting a little bit lower, yes, just because of industry trends and a little bit of a downgrade in sales just nationwide in what we're seeing.
But hopefully we'll be able to, what's that saying, overpromise under? Yes, hopefully we'll be able to overdeliver on that. Thank you. thank
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
10:49
further questions on this will that accept this as a received report thank you moving on to item D mr. Fuller do you
Speaker 18
11:02
want to come up with her for this we'll just introduce yourself
Chair
Unverified
11:16
for the record Y'all can present your report. Good afternoon. Nick Fuller, I'm the Assistant Commissioner for the Division of Higher Education. Exhibit D on your agenda is the follow-up report to the demographic information for students that receive the Academic Challenge Scholarship for fiscal 25. I provided this to you, I believe it was in early October.
but at that time we still had the anyone that was on probation for the past year had until October 1st to submit documentation to get back in the good graces I guess receive their scholarship continue so this is the update on where the students landed on submitting those requests and then the breakdown of all of the students so you'll see we awarded 27,170 students in fiscal 25 for a total of 99 million dollars of expenses for academic challenge scholarships and there were a total of three thousand two hundred and seventy one students that
were dropped either for not making the rest necessary hours to continue eligibility or not the the 2.5 GPA if you have any questions on these these demographic breakdowns available for me all right we'll
Speaker 18
12:31
have any questions seeing none thank you for
Chair
Unverified
12:37
that presentation moving on to item e you're recognized thanks sir item e is a recommendation from adhe for
review of the academic challenge scholarship program and we just recommend that we continue to review eligibility levels thresholds and award amounts for the program for the different different awards we did just make a change to some of these with the access act this past year that you all passed but we do recommend that we just continue to monitor those as well as you know with the fund balance of the net proceeds account to ensure we are providing adequate funding to the students through this program representative lundstrom you recognize thank you could you go
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
13:18
back and tell me when someone drops um what is the process for them to
become eligible again and how do those funds get paid back or do we lower what's
Chair
Unverified
13:29
the process if they they're awarded for a semester in the fall they enrolled and started classes and we award the money to the institution for that semester if they drop during that semester they do not have to pay back those those funds but if they drop they're not awarded for the next semester okay if they're not enrolled in any hours at the at the fall term they come back with zero hours they are dropped from the
program completely and if you've received the traditional academic challenge scholarship and you're dropped from the program for hours or gpa or anything you're eligible to reapply for the non-traditional version of the scholarship one time and then if you are dropped from that then you lose the eligibility to apply for the program again okay thank you
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
14:17
representative ladyman you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm over here. I'm going back to D. I apologize for going
backwards, but it shows the total expenditures for $26 of $108 million, and we were just told the total projected income was $105 million. So are we going to lose $3 million? dollars i believe the the
Chair
Unverified
14:43
balance in the net proceeds account prior to the the current year revenues of the 105 there's a little over 300 million dollars so we draw reserves yes sir okay all right thank you okay seeing no
Speaker 10
15:00
further questions thank you for that presentation
Speaker 48
15:02
next on the agenda is item f um it's our annual report we will need a motion to adopt this
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
15:21
report i'll give you all a minute to look it over and i'll entertain a motion all right i
Speaker 48
15:27
have a motion to adopt we need a second got a second all in favor say aye all opposed the reports been adopted so if y'all don't have any other business
y'all want to sit here and talk for another hour or two we are done and we are adjourned Thank you.
Agenda
A. Call to Order
B. Office of Arkansas Lottery Director’s Monthly Disclosures Report [Exhibit B]
C. Office of Arkansas Lottery Director’s Annual Report (A.C.A. 23-115-302(b)(9)) [Exhibit C]
D. ADHE Report on Scholarship Recipients (A.C.A. § 6-85-219 (c)) [Exhibit D]
E. Recommendations for the Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarship Program (A.C.A. § 6-85-219) [Exhibit E]
F. Discussion of Draft Annual Report to the Arkansas Legislative Council (A.C.A. § 23-115- 1101(d)) [Exhibit F]
G. Other Business
H. Adjournment
Documents
| Title | Type | Pages | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agenda — ALC-LOTTERY OVERSIGHT SUBCOMMITTEE, Dec 15, 2025 | Agenda | 1 | Official source ↗ |
| Exhibit B-OAL Director Report | Exhibit | 13 | Official source ↗ |
| Exhibit C-LOC Annual Report | Exhibit | 1 | Official source ↗ |
| Exhibit D-Lottery Report | Exhibit | 7 | Official source ↗ |
| Exhibit E-Lottery Recommendation Letter | Exhibit | 1 | Official source ↗ |
| Exhibit F-Annual Report | Exhibit | 1 | Official source ↗ |
Speakers
Speaker 1
Speaker 5
Speaker 8
Representative Johnny Rye
Unverified
Speaker 12
Speaker 13
Speaker 18
Representative Robin Lundstrum
Unverified
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
Speaker 36
Chair
Unverified
Speaker 10
Speaker 48