Painful Shrinkage

New N.C. games will cut S.C. lottery's revenue

Amid expressions of regret from N.C. residents morally opposed to state-sanctioned gambling, the N.C. lottery opened for business last week. N.C. educators and parents look forward to the school operation and construction money the lottery is expected to generate. But S.C. leaders worry that their own lottery, a smash hit on both sides of the state line since 2002, will suffer.

Well they might. Some N.C. gamblers will continue to play S.C. lottery games because the prizes are larger. But in June, the N.C. lottery will join Powerball - that high-odds, high-jackpot national megalith of lottery games. N.C. bettors who play Powerball alone will no longer need to cross the state line to buy tickets.

The salad days of the S.C. lottery, therefore, likely are ending. Beginning next year, S.C. legislators could find themselves hard-pressed to sustain their commitments to lottery-supported programs. Since 2003, the bulk of the money has gone to state technical-college and university scholarships and to university advanced research with potential to grow the S.C. economy. But sizable allocations also support public school programs to improve students' academic performance, to buy technology for schools and colleges, to buy school buses, to support the Governor's School for the Arts, and a to host of other educational programs. This fiscal year, S.C. lottery revenue expenditures will total $289 million through June 30. In the fiscal year that begins July 1, that spending pace likely won't be sustainable.

None of this is to begrudge North Carolinians the benefits that will flow to their schools via the N.C. lottery. But N.C. bettors have been good - very good - to the S.C. lottery. The inevitable shrinkage, now that North Carolina has gotten into the lottery business, promises to be painful.