A terse news release from the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery:

Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration (DFA) Secretary Larry Walther today announced Bishop Woosley, director of the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery, has submitted his resignation effective August 3 to pursue other opportunities.  Michael Helms, chief counsel for Lottery, will serve as interim director as the search is underway for a new director.

“Since the Lottery launched in Arkansas in 2009, Bishop has played a critical role in its success, overseeing a record amount of scholarships for Arkansas students,” said Secretary Walther. “I appreciate his leadership and wish him all the best as he moves forward in his career.”

Woosley joined Lottery in 2009 as Chief Legal Counsel. He was named Director in 2012.

Arkansans approved a Scholarship Lottery via a statewide vote in 2008. Since that time, Lottery has provided 542,000 scholarships to Arkansas students.

There are 1,967 lottery retailers throughout the state.

Woosley dates back to the Beebe administration. (I made an inaccurate reference to the Lottery Commission, which no longer exists. It’s now strictly an executive agency.)

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The lottery recently reported a record fiscal year of revenue, $532 million, but the net for the scholarship spending was down by $9 million from a record year in 2019.

The lottery has been operating for 11 years. In its first full year of operation in 2011, it produced $94 million. That’s been topped a couple of times, with the high water mark being $98.6 million in 2019.

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The lottery faces competition from expanded casino gambling now and another proposed amendment could expand that competition even more. Woosley has talked this year for the possibility of adding keno or online lottery sales as a means of increasing revenue. These are ideas that have some opposition in the legislature.

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