N.C. House Passes Lottery 61-59

The N.C. House for the first time in modern history voted favorably to induce poor people to gamble on the remote chance that they might get rich via a state lottery. The vote was not only extremely close but extremely perplexing in that some House members who have been opposed to a lottery for all the right philosophical reasons ended up caving in because they saw no alternative for the support of public education. That's what we've come to: if we can't finance education on the strength of ignorance, we won't finance it at all.

The law still has to pass the Senate, but the Senate has voted in favor of a lottery three times in recent years. It was the House that was the hold-out. Was.