New Mexico Lottery players returned a record-breaking $25 million profit to the state during the last fiscal year, exceeding expectations by $400,000, according to data released by lottery officials in early August.
The Lottery Success Scholarship sent 4,314 students to UNM during the 2001 spring semester, accounting for about $4.4 million - almost 50 percent of the University's total semester revenues, said Commission on Higher Education director Bruce Hamlett. More than 10,400 scholarship recipients attended New Mexico post-secondary schools this past school year.
Changes in the lottery revenue appropriation formula will ensure the scholarships for New Mexico high school graduates until at least 2010.
"We can tell anybody in high school or middle school right now that there's a full tuition waiting for them when they graduate," Hamlett said.
A brief panic ensued last year when the Commission on Higher Education and lottery officials announced that an increasing number of applicants, coupled with stagnant lottery sales, would result in a lottery scholarship funding shortfall by 2003. But the 2001 Legislature passed a bill funneling 100 percent of lottery revenues to the scholarship fund. Previously, profits were split evenly between the scholarship fund and the Public School Capital Outlay Council, which funds school construction and repairs.
Lottery representative Nadine Guillen said the Legislature made other funding available for the capital outlay council, which is overseen by the state Department of Education.
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"These scholarships have just been really popular," she said.
So popular, in fact, that more than 64 percent of New Mexico high school graduates now attend college, placing the state eighth nationwide for the number of students continuing on to college. Hamlett said New Mexico ranked 24th when the scholarship program was first implemented in 1996.
"We've seen a significant increase in the college continuation rate for high school graduates in the last four years - much of that we can attribute to the lottery," he said.
Unaudited data for the period between July 1, 2000 and June 30, 2001 show a $1.4 million increase from last year's profit, according to a New Mexico Lottery press release. Gross sales exceeded $115 million.
In the five years since its inception, the lottery has pumped $118 million into educational programs and of that $51 million went to scholarships, according to the release.
Guillen said it is challenging to predict the future of lottery revenues because of the stagnant economy and job market.
"The economy is going to determine how people spend their entertainment dollar," she said. "Depending on what happens, sales could increase or decrease, it just depends on the player's situation."
She said revenue projections were calculated based on one large Powerball runup, but that they never predict one as high as last week's $249 million jackpot. She added that 21 New Mexicans came within one number of the six necessary to take the prize.
According to the release, the New Mexico Lottery has awarded $340 million in prizes to players since 1996.
