N.C.’s lottery debut rakes in $10 million
Friday, March 31st, 2006
By Chris Fitzsimon
Staff Reports
Lotteries are all about the numbers, so here are the big ones from North Carolina’s opening day:
An estimated $10 million in sales; 4,800 participating retailers; more than $1.3 million in prizes won by midafternoon; scattered glitches across the state; and lines of customers more than a dozen deep at some stores.
Most important, according to lottery backers: $2.2 million raised for education.
"This is probably the smoothest startup I’ve ever been a part of," said lottery director Tom Shaheen, who has helped launch games in three other states.
On Thursday, North Carolina became the 42nd state — and the last on the East Coast — to introduce a lottery, ending a battle that has raged for more than two decades between gambling opponents and supporters of state-sanctioned games.
Scratch-off tickets went on sale at 6 a.m. across the state, with four versions of tickets costing $1, $2 and $5. Top prizes range from $5,000 to $100,000.
By 5 p.m., no one had claimed a prize larger than $600, which requires players to go to a regional office for a check.
The biggest gremlin of the day: The Asheville office’s check-writing machine wasn’t working, so it couldn’t pay out even if any big winners did show up.
Some sellers said they were forced to delay scratch-off sales because of glitches with machines that validate tickets.
"It’s inevitable" to have some problems, lottery deputy director Carla Archie said. "There were more than 5,000 machines that were ready to go." (more…)
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