By Jonathan Spiers
Staff Writer
By month’s end, the North Carolina Education Lottery will be coming to town, and retailers across Brunswick County are spending the next couple weeks preparing for their newest store product.
At Kopp’s Kwik Stop II in Boiling Spring Lakes, store owners Richard and Kristy Kopp are already envisioning where the large lottery console will fit in with their operation, planning to resituate the tobacco cabinets to make room behind the counter.
While they wait for state workers to install the required satellite dish on the roof, the Kopps are sending two employees from that store and another two from Kopp’s in Bolivia to Wrightsville Beach on Thursday for a three-hour training session led by state lottery representatives.
This initial preparation is for “launch day” on March 30, when the lottery’s first scratch-off games will be available for purchase. The lottery will also later offer the multi-state Powerball game, to be introduced May 30.
Until launch day, however, Richard Kopp is unsure what, if any, impact the lottery will have on his stores, considering that his are but two of at least 50 locations in the county that will be selling tickets.
“We won’t know until it gets here how good it’s going to be,” he said. “If everyone’s going to be selling them, I don’t know how big for business it’s going to be,” he said.
Kopp sees benefits, however, even if the lottery isn’t a business bonanza.
“We’re looking forward to it,” he said. “Any additional income will help, and anything that helps bring customers to the store is a good thing.”
Until the North Carolina Lottery is introduced, Brunswick County residents wanting to take a chance have to cross the border to South Carolina to purchase that state’s lottery tickets. No longer, said North Carolina Education Lottery spokeswoman Pamela Walker.
“We have had an amazing response from retailers,” Walker said. “They’re so excited. It’s something they’ve been waiting for, and they’re excited that the money will be staying in North Carolina.”
Among those who had at times made the trek south to test her luck is Morgan Crouse, a cashier at Kopp’s. The Bolivia native said she is excited that lottery tickets will soon be right at her fingertips rather than a state away.
“I went to South Carolina last weekend to get a lottery ticket,” she said. “I know a lot of my friends would say, ‘We’re going to get our lottery tickets,’ and would just go.”
Gov. Mike Easley signed the North Carolina State Lottery Act and the 2005 Appropriations Act last August. Of the total proceeds of the lottery, 35 percent will benefit education across the state, primarily reducing class sizes and funding prekindergarten programs, as well as providing school construction and college scholarship funding. The General Assembly estimates that the lottery will produce $425 million for such purposes in the 2006-07 fiscal year.
Since the start of the year, the lottery’s headquarters in Raleigh has been busy reviewing applications from more than 6,000 retailers in the state to sell tickets in their stores. Lottery representatives estimate that 5,000 retailers whose applications are approved will be selling tickets on lottery launch day March 30.
Only those 18 years of age or older can purchase lottery tickets. The first scratch-off games will cost $1 or $2 and feature games based on tic-tac-toe and blackjack, among others. Prizes vary by amount, and top prizes range from $5,000 to $21,000. Also available, at $5 per ticket, is “Carolina Cash,” which offers a top prize of $100,000.
