Virginia stores with top lottery sales wary of N.C. legislation

Bob Lowry

Monday, May 23, 2005 | 9:05 a.m.

RIDGEWAY, Va. -- Mary Skeen hunches over a table, busily rubbing the numbers off a Pick 3 lottery card at the E-Z Stop convenience store a couple of miles from the North Carolina line.

Each week Skeen makes the 170-mile round-trip from High Point, N.C., to play the Virginia Lottery. North Carolina customers such as Skeen help put the E-Z Stop among the state's top 10 retail outlets in lottery sales. In fact, all of Virginia's top 10 sellers are located along its 380-mile border with the Tarheel state.

"For the poor people, this gives us a chance to have a little extra money," says the 58-year-old Skeen. "You come here and sometimes you hit and sometimes you don't. I haven't had any luck today."

Along this stretch of North Carolina-Virginia line, where the shutdown of furniture and textile plants has swelled the unemployment rate to more than twice the state average, dreams are a big part of the economy. And that has meant big sales for Virginia's lottery.

But some worry those numbers could drop if a bill gets through the North Carolina legislature that would end that state's reign as the last lottery holdout on the East Coast.

Virginia Lottery Director Penelope Kyle estimates that between 7 percent and 10 percent of Virginia's $1.3 billion in lottery sales come from outlets along the North Carolina line. All the other states along Virginia's border, as well as the District of Columbia, already have lotteries.

While Virginia officials had no estimate of how much the state stood to lose if North Carolina started a lottery, Kyle predicts it will not immediately affect Virginia because many North Carolina residents are in the habit of traveling to border cities like Danville, not just to play the lottery, but to shop or go to the movies.

"Most players are not going stop a buying pattern they've had for 17 years," she says.

South Carolina is in a similar situation with its lottery, which began in 2002. About 12 percent of South Carolina's lottery's sales come from North Carolina players, and some of the strongest retail sites are on the state's border.

South Carolina Lottery Director Ernie Passailaigue says a North Carolina lottery could cost his state $100 million in gross revenue a year.

Currently North Carolina's Senate is pondering a lottery proposal as part of a budget bill after the House passed a lottery measure by a narrow margin last month. Gov. Mike Easley has promised to sign lottery legislation if it passes and the games could be up and running within six months.

Chris Nichols, who works for a courier service in Cary, N.C., says a lottery in his home state would bring his frequent ticket runs to Virginia to a screeching halt.

"It's time for that money to stay in the North Carolina schools and to fix North Carolina roadways instead of letting all the money go to Virginia and South Carolina," he says during a stop at the Ma Hollins convenience store in Danville.

Ma Hollins, a nondescript Texaco station a half mile from North Carolina, stands out only because of its large parking lot and the number of vehicles with North Carolina plates.

The store has been No. 1 on the Virginia Lottery sales list in recent years, but was No. 2 in 2004 with receipts of $4.6 million. It was supplanted by The Border Station in Chesapeake -- a city near North Carolina's Outer Banks -- with sales of $4.7 million.

The aroma of fried chicken wafts through the front door of Ma Hollins, and it's a staple that keeps lottery customers returning.

"The fried chicken is part of it," says co-manager Naser Abuized. "A lot of people meet each other here, they eat, buy lottery tickets, scratch tickets. Some people stay here two to three hours. It's their fun day."

Abuized estimates that 90 percent of his sales are from North Carolinians who drive from as far away as Raleigh and Charlotte. He admits he's worried about a North Carolina game and sees it hurting his business as well as the Danville economy.

Todd Yeatts, Danville's assistant city manager, disagrees, saying the city of 48,500 has become a regional shopping hub that is not dependent on the lottery to draw people from across the line.

At People's General Store in Ridgeway, another retailer on the Top 10 list, the store is a mile from North Carolina on state Route 87. The owners offer a lure other than lottery tickets -- cheap gasoline.

Six miles away in Eden, N.C., gasoline sells for $2.23 a gallon; at People's, Pure gasoline is only $1.95 a gallon, and there's plenty of seating inside the simple white block building for customers to play scratch games.

In Eden, Inam R. Gill owns the Quick Trip Chevron on a busy corner, but envies those who bypass his station for the short trip to Ridgeway.

"I'm happy with my business, but I would like the lottery," he says. "There would be a lot of benefits. I would have more business. Everybody has it, so why don't we?"

The E-Z Stop in Ridgeway is a busy truck stop on U.S. 220, popular not only for its lottery sales, but because it also has a Dairy Queen and Subway attached to it.

Manager Robin Gilbert is optimistic that the lottery will fail again in North Carolina, adding, "You hear North Carolina residents talk about it and they don't think they'll get it."

Even Mary Skeen doesn't believe her trips from High Point will end anytime soon.

"No, it's a Bible state and there are a lot of churches."