As of Thursday March 30th, my home state of North Carolina will have a lottery. After salavating at the profits the rest of the southeast was enjoying, the state finally broke down and decided to join the party.
I’m pretty much against anything that gives the government money, but the lottery leaves an especially bad taste in my mouth. Under the guise of “helping the children”, the government fills its coffers by preying on the lower classes. It’s no secret that the only people that regularly “play” the lottery have no business doing so in the first place as they are probably already living beyond their means. It has often been described as a “tax on the poor”.
The amount of money people throw away on this sort of thing is mind boggling. I was reading in the Raleigh News and Observer about the various border gas stations and convience stores in Virginia and South Carolina worried about losing business. Specifically there was one store just across the Virginia border on I-85 that sold $40,000 – $50,000 in lottery tickets a WEEK! I can only imagine what the border stations close to Charlotte in South Carolina must rake in.
On the plus side, I was happy to read that the newspaper in Dunn, NC is refusing run print ads for the lottery. The editor had a quote about not wanting to support the lottery for very similar reasons to those I expressed above. Good for him on taking a stand for what he believes in. I wish there were more like him.
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