The following press release was received from the office of NC Representative Michael Wray:
RALEIGH — N.C. Rep. Michael H. Wray (D-Northampton) will join Senator Doug Berger (D-Franklin) and area residents on Thursday morning at 8 am in Vance County at Rosemart Food Store #202 at 101 North Cooper Drive in Henderson and at 9 am in Warren County at Rosemart #9 at 215 HW 1 South as the first lottery tickets are sold and more than $1 million per day is dedicated to improving education. North Carolina will become the 42nd state in the nation to start a lottery, with scratch-off ticket games to be sold from more than 5,000 gas stations, grocery and drug stores, and specialty shops.
The North Carolina Education Lottery is expected to provide more than $400 million a year for education programs, including early childhood education, reducing class size, school construction and college scholarships.
“I plan to be there as the first tickets are sold on Thursday morning, and I will keep a close watch on the lottery every day to ensure proceeds go to education, and nothing else, as we intended when we approved it last year,” Rep. Wray said. “The new North Carolina Education Lottery will provide more than $1 million a day and $400 million a year, which will help us meet our goal of improving education and building new schools without having to raise taxes.”
After close to 20 years of debate in the General Assembly and public support currently above 70 percent, legislators approved the lottery last year by extremely close votes. The lottery passed the House by a 61-59 vote last April. In the Senate, Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue cast the tie-breaking vote to give the lottery a 25-24 victory last summer.
North Carolinians will be able to choose from four different scratch-off tickets beginning on Thursday, with additional games to be added within a month. The state will join the multi-state PowerBall lottery on May 30 and hopes to have a statewide Pick-5 game up and running by the fall.