Lottery Retailers Anticipate Big Ticket Sales
By Tara Higgerson

Last August, Gov. Mike Easley gave the go-ahead for the North Carolina lottery, which starts on Thursday. North Carolina will be one of the last states on the East Coast to sell lottery tickets. And convenience stores are preparing for big sales.

As North Carolina lottery advertisements are aired into living rooms this week, retailers are hoping customers will be marching into their stores to buy tickets.

Tarek Bakr is a store clerk at Big John’s Mini-Mart in Chapel Hill. He says he’s expecting a long line of ticket buyers.

“I think I’ve got a lot of customers, because all of them are talking to me, ‘When’s it going to start? When’s it going to start?’” Bakr said.

Scratch-off lottery tickets will go on sale at 6 a.m. Thursday morning, but some customers say they won’t be in line.

“It ain’t for me,” said truck driver George Pittman. “I can use my money on other things. I’m trying to live for the Lord, so I don’t think it’s right spending my money on lottery tickets.”

Clayton resident Anthony Strossi says he’s feeling lucky. “I feel like I can maybe win the big jackpot one of these days, with my luck, because I’ve played scratch-offs before.”

More than 5,000 retailers will be selling four types of instant-win scratch-off tickets. Buyers like Strossi could win up to $100,000.

But economist James Smith said that lottery sales won’t increase overall sales at convenience stores and that eventually sales will slow down.

“There’s no way to identify that ‘oh my sales didn’t go up and I don’t have any new customers, I just have the same customers spending a less money on what they have been buying and spending it on lottery tickets,’” explained Smith.

About 50 percent of net lottery revenues will support education in the state. Howard Lee, the chairman of the North Carolina Board of Education, will purchase the first official ticket on Thursday. The Powerball game will start in May.