Lottery

The Lottery

Why is North Carolina one of twelve states in the United States without a lottery and the only one on the east coast without a lottery? No the answer is not because the North Carolina budget is doing good without the money. Instead, North Carolina is going through a budget crisis and is having a hard time finding money to pay for public services such as education. So the reason North Carolina does not have a lottery yet is caused by of people beliefs on wither or not a lottery moral and ethical.

People against the lottery believe by North Carolina getting a lottery will make people become compulsive gamblers, the poor will spend all their money on lottery tickets, and some people will rely on winning as there income. The North Carolina citizens believe by having a lottery people will have to go to the store every week and buy ticket thinking they will win. The poor will spend the money their supposed to spend on food on buying a non-winning lottery ticket. It is also thought people may believe they will win all the time and instead of having a job can just use the winnings and live on them the rest of there lives and never have to get another job.

People for the lottery can see how much money a lottery will bring in for North Carolina. The citizens also realize how much the money is needed for education. The citizens can see through the research and from other states a lottery will bring in around 400 million dollars annually for the states education system. That’s a lot of needed money for the education system in North Carolina. Could the citizens of North Carolina think of a better way to get 400 million dollars annually to help our kid’s education system (Pulliam, 2003)?

A major issue comes with wither or not a state should have a lottery is always the poor people. The poor person is always thrown into the argument for some reason. Even though the same stuff is said every time the lottery is proposed for some reason the poor people are always put into the argument part about a lottery. It is always stated that the poor people will spend there money on lottery tickets and not on what the poor people should spend there money on. The poor person seems to be the major excuse for everyone who opposes the lottery on why a state should not have a lottery.

People that oppose the lottery believe a lottery is nothing but bait for a poor person. People believe this because they think that a poor person is only going to want to spend there money on a lottery ticket rather than food for there family. People also think a poor person will buy a ticket once and win a few dollars and think they will win again. These people are saying poor people are stupid when it comes to money and can not be responsible enough not to spend money on a lottery ticket.

What people against the lottery do not realize is the lower income people are less likely to buy lottery tickets. Instead, usually the people of middle incomes buy lottery tickets. In Georgia only 8.6 percent of lottery players had incomes of $24,000 or less, while 27 percent had incomes between $50,000 and $74,000 (NASPL). Proving the poor are responsible enough with there money not to buy lottery tickets.

What the people against the lottery need to see is even if North Carolina does not have a lottery people are going to go to other states and buy tickets. By them going to these other states to buy tickets are helping to fund there education system where as they could be helping to put more money into our education system if North Carolina had a lottery. If people are spending money in other states on lottery tickets then why don’t North Carolina want a lottery so the people can spend the money her rather than in other states supporting them.

With North Carolina being surrounded buy states with lotteries it is hard not to want to have a lottery in the state. Especially when the North Carolina citzens look at states like Georgia who has put more then 7.8 billion dollars worth of money into there education system over twelve years of having an education lottery (Georgia Lottery). In the long run North Carolina not having a lottery will only hurt our kids educational needs more then it will hurt anything else.

New schools, better technology, raise in teacher pay, scholarships is all things North Carolina citizens help to support in other states. It is estimated a third of the money people would spend in a lottery in North Carolina is already being spent in surrounding states lotteries. So, if the citizens look at the situation right they can say North Carolinians are paying to build schools in other states and yet our kids are going to over crowded schools because North Carolina do not have the money to build new schools or even to add on to schools because money is being giving to other states to help better