Policy group warns of new lottery tactic

Monday, Feb. 21, 2005 | 9:13 a.m.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- A public policy group warns of a new lottery campaign aimed at Alabamians.

It's an advertising drive in east Alabama thanking residents for driving to Georgia to buy lottery tickets, said Bill Ahern, spokesman for the Washington-based Tax Foundation that recently studied state lotteries and their impact.

The campaign will feature a clerk in a Georgia store who points out that Alabama money has help fund his children's college education.

"It's all going to be part of campaign to put the lottery in Alabama, which would be a big mistake," Ahern told the Anniston Star for a story Sunday.

The Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan, nonprofit policy watchdog group, decided to study lotteries after noting so many states appeared to increase reliance on lottery revenue.

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