The Georgia Lottery Corporation is doing students in participating universities a service by offering $1,000 scholarships and one full ride scholarship to students attending certain home games. However, the Lottery’s decision to give away eight Segways is a questionable decision at best.

College students will have very little use for Segways as opposed to a laptop or tablet prize. In fact, at Georgia Southern University, the Segways would not even be allowed on the Pedestrium. At best the winner could sell the Segway to get money, and at worst it would just take up room in the winner’s apartment.

If the Segways were purchased by the Lottery, it is a terrible misuse of funds on an item with little to no demand on campuses. But even if the Segways were gifted, at a retail value of $9,130.44, the Segways could be sold by the Lottery and used to fund an additional full-ride scholarship or 72 other $1,000 dollar scholarships or even added to the $1,000 scholarships to make them worth $10,000. Any amount of additional money added on to a scholarship would be greatly appreciated by the winning students.

There is no problem with giving away additional scholarship money, but the Georgia Lottery should give away prizes that are actually useful to college students. Segways are not useful for the majority of college students, and are, in fact, useless to some students with disabilities.