A provision that would have doubled the advertising budget for the North Carolina lottery was dropped during final negotiations over the state Budget Bill for fiscal year 2016-17. As NC Family reportedon June 2, the State Senate had included a provision in its version of HB 1030–2016 Appropriation Actthat would have authorized the state lottery to spend up to 2 percent of total annual lottery revenues on advertising (instead of the current limit of 1 percent). If this provision had been approved, it would have boosted lottery advertising from $19 million per year to over $38 million per year, based on 2015 data obtained from the state lottery. Instead, the provision was jettisoned from the budget bill as House and Senate conferees ironed out differences between their versions of the state spending plan.
“We greatly appreciate our state lawmakers looking out for the best interests of North Carolina families by rejecting the proposal to double the advertising budget for the state lottery,” said NC Family President John L. Rustin. “Research consistently shows that state lotteries prey on the poor and increase the incidents of problem and pathological gambling, which leads to higher rates of crime, domestic violence, child abuse, divorce, bankruptcy, and even suicide.”
The State Senate has given its final approval to HB 1030, and the House is expected to do so in floor votes today and tomorrow.
NC Family THANKS all of those who responded to our Action Alert on this issue and contacted your state legislators in opposition to the lottery budget proposal!