When North Carolina cranked up the lottery, critics predicted it would be a drain on poorer citizens, desperate to augment their meager, or nonexistent, wages. Lottery supporters scoffed at the prediction, saying it was just one more liberal “bleeding heart” concern, and there was nothing to worry about. It’s probably true that those who opposed the lottery may have been liberals (although it would be hard to convince the fundamentalist religious groups who fought the lottery on moral grounds), and they may or may not have had bleeding hearts. But a new report on the lottery, based on hard facts and figures, is pretty definitive in its findings: The poorest counties in North Carolina are where the most money is spent on lottery tickets. The report, Hope and Hard Luck, was put together by NC Policy Watch and shows conclusively that where hard-to-shake poverty and high unemployment reign, so do lottery ticket sales.
In the 2009-2010 fiscal year, North Carolina averaged $200 in lottery sales per adult. In Mecklenburg County, spending on lottery tickets came to $147 per adult; surrounding counties had similar numbers, except for Catawba County, where the percentage of citizens living below the poverty line reached nearly 14 percent and lottery sales came to $218 per capita. In mountainous McDowell County, where the percentage living in poverty is 23 percent, lottery spending rose to $318 per capita. The heaviest lottery buyers, however, were in the more poverty-stricken counties of eastern N.C., such as Halifax County ($472 per capita, 24 percent live below poverty line), or Edgecomb County ($469 per capita, 22.6 percent below poverty line).
The report includes a link to an interactive map of the state, color-coded for different levels of lottery sales; you can click onto each county for its particular information and compare it to other areas’ stats. You can also overlay a graphic onto the state map to see which counties have poverty levels above the 20 percent level. So, make of the research and facts what you will, but there’s no denying that those who opposed a lottery on grounds that the cost would fall heaviest on poorer areas were right on the money. So to speak.
This article appears in Dec 14-20, 2010.
Good grief Grooms – do you know ANYTHING about how the lottery was passed?
1. FACT – Most Republicans in the General Assembly voted AGAINST it.
2. FACT – Most Democrats voted FOR it.
3. FACT – It passed when Democrats controlled BOTH the House AND the Senate.
4. FACT – The Democratic Senate leadership scheduled the vote when two anti-lottery Republican legislators (Harry Brown and John Garwood) were out-of-town.
5. FACT – The vote in the Senate was 24-24 (you see, 24 plus 24 equals 48, plus the two absentees equals 50, which is how many Senators there are in the NC Senate).
6. FACT – By virtue of the tie vote, the vote was decided by the Lieutenant Governor… Democrat Bev Perdue, whom Democratic voters rewarded by nominating her to be Governor.
7. FACT – In February 2009, as governor, Perdue raided $88 million in lottery funds (the entire $50 million reserve plus $38 million allocated for school construction) to plug a budget deficit.
8. FACT – The interactive map you link to indicates that per-capita lottery sales are highest in Democrat/Perdue strongholds in the eastern part of the state, and lowest in the Republican western area.
Stupid is as stupid does (voting Democrat and buying lottery tickets).
I make up FACTs all the time too.
High five Voldemort/Griffin/conservitard drone
Funny; I read that he said Liberal, not Democrat.
People who think Liberal and Democrat are synonyms watch too much Fox News.
“Stupid is as stupid does” is exactly right, FrankenMort. You apparently can’t even understand the gist of a blog post when you read it. As DLP said above, the post was about liberals’ initial opposition to the lottery, for reasons which the new study confirms. My guess is you read the headline, wrongly assumed it was in praise of Democrats, didn’t bother reading the rest of the post, and then went on and on about something I didn’t even write about.
You know, I’m tired of having to explain perfectly clear blog posts because you can’t understand them. This is the last time I’m reading your bitter, insulting, nonsensical replies, much less trying to explain them. From now on, I’ll leave it to others on the site to go to the trouble, if they so desire. There’s a line in The Hangover that applies here: “You are literally too stupid to insult.”
I am opposed to the lottery, not because it is good for the state or bad for the poor, but because it is administered by the state. If I ran a similar numbers game, I would be locked up forever, if I advertised, I would be labeled “Predatory” For whatever reason, because the government thieves profit from lotteries, the sheeple have no objection to it.
I like how the most credible source little Franky here can provide is Wikipedia.
Furthermore, Why would anyone want to to go out of their way to be in the same room as you Frank? You’re obnoxious, stupid, and ugly… you’re not the sort of person that makes people jump at the prospect of sharing a luncheon with. God only knows what sort of pig slop you shovel into that craggy face of yours.
Why on Earth would an upstanding journalist and gentleman such as Mr. Grooms want to go out of his way to spend time with an inbred philistine like yourself?
I’m not Wes but I agree with everything he says – Frank Griffin is one ugly dude hahahaha
yeah Groomsywoomsy lets see you address facts who’s only credible source is Wikipedia, that stawart internet bastion of truth impartiality
lol stupid libbyleftyhippyderpderpfoxnewstellsmewhattothinkihatepeoplethatarentwhite