Arkansas Scholorship Lottery sees first ticket sales

The 2008 vote for Arkansas to implement a lottery was seen through to fruition in Sept. 2009 when the first lottery tickets were sold at vendors across the state. The lottery was up and running 95 days earlier than was predicted.

By December the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery was reporting sales surpassing all expectations. On Dec. 8 the lottery commission released a statement that noted the ASL sales had passed the $100 million mark the prior day, just 71 days after the startup.

Students entering Arkansas colleges and universities in the fall semester of 2010 will be the first students to have the lottery scholarships available to them. The Arkansas Department of Higher Education has plans to put scholarship applications on its Web site in order to make them accessible to everyone. The lottery commission has predicted it will generate $100 million in net proceeds for college scholarships.

The lottery has also made an impact on the local economy. In mid-December ASL Executive Director Ernie Passailaigue, along with other lottery officials, traveled to Jonesboro for an official ribbon cutting ceremony with local chamber officials to mark the opening of the Lottery Claims Center at 2512 Alexander Drive, Suite A, in the Christian Creek Commons center. The center officially opened on Dec. 7, and it just so happens that same day Audrey Sturch of Pocahontas walked in with a $25,000 ticket to claim.

It was just announced recently that a store in Arkansas sold a $25 million Powerball ticket, just over two months since first beginning to sell the multi-state games.