Lessons from a lean lottery haul
Wednesday, January 31st, 2007
By Chris Fitzsimon
Sunday’s News & Observer reported that North Carolina’s first-year lottery ticket sales were seriously lagging, on a course to perhaps fall $200 million short of state projections.
That isn’t a good thing. Since Gov. Mike Easley’s administration estimated lottery ticket sales at $1.2 billion - actually higher than the Lottery Commission itself would boast - the state has already planned on spending $425 million in lottery proceeds for schools, and some of that money simply won’t be there when the receipts in the till are counted.
It should come as no surprise that the North Carolina “Education” Lottery - the quote marks are entirely ours - came up short in its first year. We doubt there have been many state lotteries that exceeded their backers’ revenue expectations; over-estimating the windfall of such endeavors is part of the sales pitch. And it’s too early to say that the lottery in this state will fail. (more…)
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