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Doug, I can not believe that the state would allow this outrage after the high moral stands the legislature took against targeting the poor. What is this but targeting the poor? Of course they can go to any convenient store on the corner and get a ticket, but the exploitation isn't so blatant. There can be no doubt that the poor spend more of their income on lottery tickets than any other group since we have had years to study them. And it is also understandable that the poor would buy lottery tickets because winning the lottery as great as the odds are are still better odds than their chance of ever getting out of poverty any other way. So they buy, but let's make it a little harder, okay?. There is also money to be made in selling lottery tickets and that is why these places want them.

Doug: For what it's worth, I did put a call into Cooper's office Thursday seeking comment for the story. As of 7:30 p.m. Sunday, night, the ol' cell phone hasn't rung. -binker

It'll take a lot of guts for Cooper to step into this, but he'll deserve a lot of credit if he does.

Mr. Clark,
I be the first to admit I know little of payday lenders are pawn shops. How are they different from credit card companies, rent to own, are stories that sell things at only $39.99 for 60 months that come out to 2 1/2 times the sales price?

They're all similar in that they cater to the desire to live beyond one's means, without regard for later consequences.

I wonder if you'll be able to use your credit card to buy lottery tickets.

Doug - Re: credit cards: No, you won't. Cash, check, debit/atm or gift card. No credit cards.

For those of you thinking creatively, yes, one could go buy a gift card with your Visa and in turn use that to buy a lottery ticket.

Thanks, Mark. You have demonstrated again that nothing emanates from Raleigh unknown to you.

More questions:

Can I convert my 401k account to lottery tickets?

Can I buy lottery tickets against future Social Security earnings?

Can I have my paycheck direct-deposited to the lottery commission in exchange for lottery tickets?

Surely the state is interested in my convenience as a lottery customer.

Another question occurs to me: Could a legislator accept lottery tickets as campaign contributions?

True Story,
When I was working, many people would not put money in our 401k. (considered one of the best in the country) yet they would buy 50-100 lotto tickets a week. The company has now dropped the pension plan,and has reduced the 401k to a so-so plan. To many people retiring the month they reached 55. Not me I was a company loyalist I was darn near 56.

Assuming the rest of your questions are facetious, the one about campaign contributions is actaully an interesting one that we may see in the real world one day.

I would presume giving a lottery ticket to a campaign would be an "in-kind" donation, being that it's not actually cash. But do you put down the dollar amount it cost to buy the ticket - $1 or $5 or whatever - or the amount the ticket pays? If the ticket is a looser, do you have to mark it down at all? If it's a jackpot winner, do you have to refund the amount over the contribution limit? What are the answers to those questions if instead of using the ticket himself or herself, the candidate uses it as a door prize and gives it to someone else at a fund raiser?

You may laugh, but some lawyer at the SBOE or elsewhere is going to spend a week or his life researching all that.

I guess I should clarify, all of that in my last comment was with regard to campaign finance reporting.

From G.S. 163-278.6:

"(6) The terms 'contribute' or 'contribution' mean any advance, conveyance, deposit, distribution, transfer of funds, loan, payment, gift, pledge or subscription of money or anything of value whatsoever ..."

A lottery ticket is something of value, but what value? It's face value may be $5, but if it turns out to be a loser, then its value is nothing.

If it wins $50,000, then as you say the gift exceeds the contribution limit.

If I were a candidate, I'd just decline to accept lottery tickets in lieu of cash.

Doug J, who's enjoying a better retirement -- you or the folks who gambled their future on lottery tickets?

But what if you never scratch the lottery ticket off? It's potential values are at once nothing or the value of the jackpot. So how would you know what to report?

Somewhere, Schrödinger's cat is laughing...or getting into politics.

I'll be surprised if Cooper does enforce this provision. In this day and age most of us could be categorized as economically vulnerable.

There ain't no way that the State is gonna deprive itself of it's major lottery market; the mathematically challenged who tend to be poor and uneducated, and who'll spend the majority of their earnings (and assistance checks) on the hope that they'll win the big one.

If by chance the State is successful in locating lottery outlets in other than economically vunlerable neighborhoods (only five come to my mind in Guilford county) the deprived will be resourceful enough to find a ride to the privileged side of town to bet their lives away.

Can anyone shed light on the pending lawsuit against the State regarding how the Lottery was enacted?

Doug:

Is there a provision that prohibits someone on welfare, Medicare, food stamps or unemployment from buying a lottery ticket or receiving winnings?

Shouldn't there be?

jsykes,

Are you okay?

Ain't no way the Lottery's gonna exclude it's biggest targeted audience; the poor, the downtrodden. How dare you or me even think about excluding this social segment from the opportunity of a lifetime to roll the dice and to just possibly become an aristocrat.

I lived in a lotterized state in the midwest for a period of years and the biggest participants were on the public dole. NC won't be any different.

Jon:

My point exactly. So we give money to help them subsist and they now can gamble it away by giving it back to the state in return for a chance to win money. I wonder now, why don't we just set up an automatic draft? I like Doug's idea. It would save a lot of effort and make the process more efficient.

I'm still against the lottery. I just am thankful for gas pumps that take the debit card so I don't have to stand in line behind 5 people deciding between a lottery ticket or a pack of smokes.

Speaking of convenience stores ...

If you're in a hurry to get, say, milk for the kids or some chips before the big game, the last place you want to be is a convenience store 30 minutes before they cut off ticket sales for the night.

The number of suckers, er, the length of the lines, is directly proportional to the size of the jackpot. I've lived in three lottery states - Va, Texas and NY - and it's been the same in all three.