Charles Heatherly: Lottery winners scamming the scam

Regarding the news series “Against all odds”: No one should be shocked by the investigation that a few folks are scamming the North Carolina Education Lottery for big bucks.

So what if one Franklinton merchant personally claims 40 percent of the winning prizes sold at his store. So what if a High Point woman picked a winning number nine times in four months. So what if several players have claimed million-dollar prizes more than once.

These disclosures make laughable the lottery director’s pathetic response: “Integrity goes to the heart of what we do.”

The fact that it was a newspaper reporter who discovered these troubling things rather than the lottery’s staff says much about its concern for its integrity. The lottery was conceived by top state leaders as way to fleece its most vulnerable residents.

The lottery contributes a smaller percentage of winnings to public schools today than it did a decade ago when first established. The lottery is a big scam, promising something for nothing. We should not be surprised that a few clever folks have figured ways to scam the big scam.

This story was originally published October 9, 2016 at 6:00 PM with the headline "Charles Heatherly: Lottery winners scamming the scam."