Lottery news from http://www.wxii12.com/
Now that North Carolina has a lottery, residents with hopes of striking it rich don't have to head north to Virginia to buy tickets, and retail stores just across the line are feeling the effects.
Virginia lottery director Sheila Hill-Christian said the overall decline of 8 to 10 percent was expected. But she said her state's lottery will make changes in games and install state-of-the-art technology that should enable it to make up the loss within two years.
Statewide, ticket sales in Virginia were down 9 percent in the 12 weeks after North Carolina started selling lottery tickets, compared to the same period a year ago.
In Carroll County, sales fell by 33 percent.
While many North Carolina players have abandoned Virginia, some continue to cross the border. One retailer said those people tell him the scratch-ticket payouts are better in Virginia than in North Carolina. |
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