To pirate a line from "All the King's Men," North Carolina's state lottery was conceived in sin and born of corruption. We may never learn all the gory details surrounding its passage, but to say that its supporters in the General Assembly finagled it through by hook and by crook pretty much conveys the spirit of the thing.

They had to go to such lengths because of strenuous opposition from those who saw the lottery, despite the bounty it stands to generate in support of educational programs, as a betrayal of the principles of fair taxation and fair dealing with the citizenry.

This editorial page was in that corner. While we have agreed with Governor Easley more often than not, and while we have admired his commitment to boosting education, we thought the lottery was not a good way to raise the necessary money.

Now, the lottery has been in operation for close to two years. There's one pesky challenge in the courts that claims its passage was illegitimate (this has to do with whether the lottery should be regarded as a tax and thus should have been put through some additional legislative hoops). But it's hard to envision a scenario under which the lottery would be dismantled and abandoned, even if that wouldn't be such a bad idea.

The discussion these days revolves more around how to run the lottery efficiently and effectively while keeping it from becoming intolerable in its appeal to people's desire to strike it rich -- a cynical appeal, since the odds are so great against winning anything beyond chump change.

Worse, that appeal tends to be strong among people who are hard up, and who thus aren't well-fixed to afford lottery tickets.

Concerns of that sort were factored into the original lottery set-up, with a general sense that it was better to avoid the hard sell. And a relatively high percentage of the take was earmarked for education.

What that meant, however, was less money for prizes, dampening sales. So legislators last summer agreed with Easley to loosen up. Prizes in some scratch-off ticket games now have been increased and the percentage going to education could shrink -- with the hope that education actually will end up with more money on the strength of more tickets sold.

Where could this be heading? A New York Times report the other day spotlighted a trend in other states toward higher ticket prices in the scratch-off, instant games. The idea is to take advantage of those games' popularity -- critics call it their addictiveness.

Yes, with some tickets pegged at $20 and up -- as high as $50 in Texas -- prizes can be larger. But for a compulsive gambler who lives for the rush of that scratch-off action, it's a lot easier to get in trouble when the stakes are so high.

Texas introduced its $50 tickets in May and, according to the Times, credits the high-dollar scratch-off games with enabling the state to avoid a big yearly drop in lottery sales.

But data from Texas show that, for example, unemployed people playing the lottery there tend to spend more than those with jobs -- a median of $40 a month in 2006, compared with $26.

The median monthly expenditure was $20 for white players, $70 for black players and $47 for Hispanics.

Players with less than a high school education spent $33, and high school graduates spent $40. For college grads playing the lottery the monthly tab was $20, and for those with graduate degrees it was $12.

The two age brackets who played the most heavily were 18-24 (median expense of $50 a month) and 25-34 ($38 a month).

Get the picture? Sadly, it's younger, poorer, less educated folks -- and minorities -- who gravitate toward the lottery ticket counter. Anybody with eyes in his head who occasionally ducks into a North Carolina convenience store or other lottery outlet can't help but notice the same pattern here.

Some say it's patronizing to suggest to people with money in their pocket that it might be better spent on groceries or utility bills than lottery tickets. Buying a ticket offers a little temporary excitement, maybe a little cash back -- conceivably even a lot.

But the thrill of gambling can become something people can't seem to live without. That's when harmless fun veers over the line into addiction.

North Carolina hasn't been blind to the perils of a no-holds-barred, no-hype-spared lottery. And its top price for a scratch-off ticket is a modest $10.

The pressure to raise more money, though, is intense -- pressure from politicians who want to pay for things without raising conventional taxes, pressure from vendors and others who profit from lottery operations. The question is whether we'll be able to hold the line. Any bets?