NC Education Lottery

Tom Shaheen, director of the North Carolina Exploitation Lottery, proves again today that he's just another guy slopping at the public trough:

And it turns out that the staff at the lottery commission will receive a five percent raise next fiscal year, well above the likely increase for most state employees. Lottery Director Tom Shaheen says that state workers who want more money should apply at the lottery commission. He is the quite the team player.

My friends are sick of me talking and writing about the lottery. And when one of my fellow front-pagers recently won a thousand bucks on a $20 ticket, I confess to thinking, "awwww, maybe it's not so terrible." But the truth is, the lottery IS so terrible, as Steve Ford, the editorial page editor at the N&O. wrote today.

To pirate a line from "All the King's Men," North Carolina's state lottery was conceived in sin and born of corruption. We may never learn all the gory details surrounding its passage, but to say that its supporters in the General Assembly finagled it through by hook and by crook pretty much conveys the spirit of the thing.

Here's what Tom Shaheen, NC's Lottery Czar, said in September:

Lottery to phase in bigger instant-win prizes

N.C. Education Lottery Director Tom Shaheen said Wednesday that all scratch-off games for sale in North Carolina won't have bigger prize payouts until early spring of 2008. But more will be available in the next few months.

Instant-win games are a mainstay of the lottery, making up nearly 60 percent of tickets sold. But sales have lagged behind projections, in part because neighboring states offer better odds, Shaheen said. Even a $2 win helps drive regular players to buy more tickets, he said. "They want to win a prize," he said.

The legislature allowed the lottery to increase prize payouts -- and decrease the percentage of profits set aside for education -- in this year's budget.

Here's what a bunch of pointy- headed academics said, as reported in the New York Times today.

Lottery boon raises concern

But critics in Texas and elsewhere say games promising this kind of instant gratification are more likely to contribute to the kind of problem gambling that is usually associated with fast-paced casino betting, and they are now trying to limit them.