A state-sponsored lottery is just plain wrong.

How can it be acceptable for the state to avidly promote an activity it deems illegal for individual citizens? That just doesn't make any sense.

Furthermore, a lottery simply provides too much political cover for our elected officials. If our legislators can't figure out how to run the state without resorting to heretofore illegal means, then clearly we need new legislators.

If other states choose to dupe their citizens and bilk the poorest and least informed of them for millions, so be it. North Carolina is -- or should be -- better than that.

Eric R. Calhoun
Greensboro