New South Carolina lottery puts pressure on neighbor

Paul Nowell

Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2002 | 9:15 a.m.

FORT MILL, S.C. -- Lee Davis, who lives just inside North Carolina, stopped for lunch Monday at the Times Turn Around convenience store and decided to take a chance on South Carolina's new lottery.

Davis squinted to get a better look when another customer told him the man who was taking his money for five lottery tickets was South Carolina Gov. Jim Hodges.

The 20-year-old plumber from Gastonia, N.C., is just the kind of neighbor Hodges was hoping to see when he came to the store to urge North Carolinians to drive a few miles to buy some lottery tickets.

"Good luck," he called out as Davis left the store less than two miles from the state line on the aptly named Charlotte Highway.

"I'm working down here today so I thought I've give it a try," Davis said. "I live less than 10 miles from the state line, so I'll probably buy some tickets from time to time."

That kind of talk was music to Hodges' ears. The Democratic governor was elected in 1998 on a lottery platform, and he hopes the games will eventually raise $150 million a year for South Carolina educational programs.

"I'm happy that our friends in North Carolina want to come down to help support South Carolina education," he said, standing behind the counter as employees rushed around to keep up with the demand for lottery tickets and fried chicken.

A lottery has been a hard sell in North Carolina. Gov. Mike Easley supports creating one, going so far as to submit a proposed budget last spring that included lottery-funded programs. But neither the Legislature nor voters have approved one.

That doesn't mean it's an unpopular idea among border residents.

"My boyfriend and I have been driving around looking for a place that sells them," Megan Courtright, 20, of Charlotte, said. "I think it's a great idea and I intend to play it."

After leaving with several tickets, Courtright came back in the shop and bought another bunch. She managed to make her way around the crowd of news reporters and photographers who jammed inside the small store to record the event.

Four types of scratch-off tickets went on sale at 3,180 retail locations across the state Monday.

South Carolina lottery official Tony Robertson estimated about 30 percent of our sales in stores near the border will come from North Carolinians.

"We've had a lot of people coming in and a lot of them are coming from North Carolina," said store manager Joy Carter, who said the biggest winner so far at her store took home $50. Some customers stopped on the way to work in Charlotte and bought $50 or $100 worth of tickets.

Easley spokesman Fred Hartman estimated North Carolinians will spend up to $150 million a year on South Carolina's lottery. And he said the opening-day success of the lottery along the border screams for the need to give the games a vote in North Carolina.

"We're already losing $100 million a year to Virginia and millions more to Georgia,"' Hartman said. "We are already building new classrooms. The problem is we're building them in other states. It makes absolutely no sense."

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