Check cashing and lottery tickets
The N.C. Education Lottery plans to sell lottery tickets through Ace Cash Express, a Texas-based check cashing outlet.
From the story for tomorrow's paper:
“It obviously raises a lot of concerns,” said Rob Schofield, a lawyer and director of research for the liberal watchdog group N.C. Policy Watch. His organization has been critical of the lottery since its inception.“This is really one more step down the road that the lottery was already headed of being a poor tax,” Shofield said.
Shofield pointed out that the state had to sue Ace earlier this decade to stop the company from offering payday loans, a type of lending that North Carolina had recently outlawed.
Calls to Eric Norrington, Ace’s senior vice president for public affairs, were not returned Tuesday afternoon.
Shaheen said that the lottery cannot choose who it allows to sell lottery tickets based on their other businesses.
“Anybody in North Carolina who runs a business and can pass a background check is eligible,” Shaheen said. “We cannot turn anybody down for any reason other than they failed a background check or they’re trying to be in business selling lottery tickets only...Other than that we have no choice who sells.”
Click here for the whole thing.
Worth noting: the state sued ACE to get them to stop payday lending after the legislature outlawed the practice. Background here and here.
Comments (3)
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You can be an instant loser - just purchase a couple lottery tickets.
Posted on March 24, 2009 6:11 PM
If the combination of Ace Cash Express and the state lottery is bad for the working poor, it's not because of Ace.
North Carolina's ban on payday lending was well-intentioned but misguided. A recent study by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York examined the end of payday lending in North Carolina and Georgia. The study found that the bans led to higher and/or faster increases in the rates of bounced checks, complaints about lenders and debt collectors, and Chapter 7 bankruptcy filings. Far from preying on lower-income people, payday lenders provide them with an important credit option. Can we say anything similarly positive about the lottery?
Posted on March 24, 2009 8:55 PM
A recent study by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York examined the end of payday lending in North Carolina and Georgia. The study found that the bans led to higher and/or faster increases in the rates of bounced checks, complaints about lenders and debt collectors, and Chapter 7 bankruptcy filings. Far from preying on lower-income people, payday lenders provide them with an important credit option. Can we say anything similarly positive about the lottery?*Andrew
Can you say anything similary postive about the Federal Reserve System who creates paper currency out of nothing with no real wealth behind it to the tune of 2 trillion bailout paper dollars to secret inside foreign and American group bankers in the past year! Having the federal reserve conduct a study is like Al Capon conducting a study on the FBI.
What are you going to do when you hear a rush of a wind consisting of massive hyper-inflation paper currency floating in a wheelbarrel to purchase a loaf of bread in the next year?
Posted on March 28, 2009 5:06 PM