LITTLE ROCK—House Speaker Robbie Wills said Tuesday that it’s likely Arkansas’ new lottery will be able to fund $5,000 college scholarships to four-year schools and $2,500 scholarships to two-year schools.

Lawmakers next year must set the amounts for the scholarships funded by Arkansas’ lottery, which began in September and has sold more than $71 million in tickets.

“We are encouraged by the numbers we’ve seen so far, and if we continue at this clip this year, we’ll be beyond where we need to be for $5,000 and $2,5000,” Wills told reporters after the lottery’s legislative oversight committee met.

The oversight committee must recommend the scholarship amounts before the Legislature meets in February. A law passed earlier this year set up the lottery’s operations and included a recommended scale of scholarship amounts based on lottery revenue.

Lottery officials have said they expect to sell more than $400 million in tickets in the games’ first year, with more than $100 million going toward scholarships.

Wills, who was the lead sponsor of the lottery legislation in the House earlier this year, said he also thinks that the Legislature will be able to set aside at least $8 million in scholarship money for students who are currently in college.

As written, the lottery law lumped students who are already in college with non-traditional students. The law had set aside up to $8 million from the lottery for non-traditional students.