By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — Fewer than half of Arkansans have a favorable opinion of the state’s new lottery, and more than half say they are unlikely to buy a lottery ticket in the next 12 months, according to poll results released today.
The poll commissioned by Talk Business Quarterly magazine showed 45 percent of Arkansans have a favorable opinion of the lottery, compared to 43 percent who have an unfavorable opinion.
Also, 42 percent of respondents said they were likely to buy a lottery ticket in the next 12 months, while 57 percent said they were not likely to buy a ticket in that time.
In July, a Talk Business Quarterly poll showed 49 percent of Arkansans had a favorable opinion of the lottery and 40 percent had an unfavorable opinion. Though the numbers have shifted slightly in the latest poll, the change is not statistically significant because it is within the margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent.
Wilson Research Associates of Washington, D.C., conducted phone interviews with 600 likely Arkansas voters Oct. 12-15. Democratic political strategist Robert McLarty of The Markham Group and Republican political strategist Clint Reed of The Political Firm composed the questions.
To the question, “Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of the Arkansas Lottery?” 28 percent of respondents said they were strongly favorable and 17 percent said they were somewhat favorable. Nine percent were somewhat unfavorable, 34 percent were strongly unfavorable and 12 percent had no opinion.
The question, “How likely are you to purchase a lottery ticket in the next 12 months?” drew these responses: 25 percent very likely, 17 percent somewhat likely, 7 percent somewhat unlikely, 50 percent very unlikely and 1 percent don’t know.
Arkansans last year approved a constitutional amendment to create a lottery to fund college scholarships with an overwhelming 63 percent vote.
This year, lottery officials drew criticism for making several high-dollar hires, including hiring Director Ernie Passailaigue at an annual salary of $324,000, which made him the third-highest-paid lottery director in the country.
Passailaigue said today it is too early to gauge the popularity of the lottery, which is now offering only one type of game and will not fund its first scholarships until next year.
“You don’t have that (scholarship) piece in play yet, and people don’t see a tangible result of that yet,” he said. “But they will in the not-too-distant future.”
Passailaigue also said, “The poll I take every day is sales, and based on my preliminary estimate of sales I think we’re doing very well.”
Ticket sales totaled $38.96 million in the lottery’s first four weeks, lottery officials announced today. The lottery launched Sept. 28 with scratch-off ticket sales, but Powerball tickets are scheduled to go on sale Saturday.
Lottery officials say the games are on track to gross $400 million a year and net about $100 million a year for scholarships.
Talk Business Quarterly publisher and Arkansas News Bureau columnist Roby Brock noted the polling was limited to likely Arkansas voters.
“Maybe there is a higher percentage of lottery players who are not as politically active,” Brock said.
Only likely voters were included because other poll questions dealt with political issues, Brock said. Results from those questions will be released later, he said.
Passailaigue, who formerly headed South Carolina’s lottery, said a 2008 poll showed that 60 percent of South Carolina adults had bought lottery tickets in that state in the previous 12 months. That poll was not limited to likely voters.
“We don’t screen for voters because that’s not our constituency,” he said.
