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N.C. Lawmakers Consider Banning Welfare Recipients From Playing State Lottery

Jan. 28, 2013 8:30pm Becket Adams

If you’re a North Carolina resident with a penchant for playing the lottery, you’re number may be up.

“North Carolina lawmakers are drafting legislation that would ban people on welfare or those who are in bankruptcy from buying lottery tickets,” ABC 11 report.

Should it pass, the bill would fine any vendor who knowingly sells lottery tickets to someone on welfare or in bankruptcy, Republican Congressman Paul Stam told ABC11.

However, the proposal is not going over well with some store owners who say it will force them to police their customers.

“I don’t feel comfortable for somebody ask why or your financial things, so it’s not my business,” Peace Street Market’s clerk Aref Peroz said.

Rep. Stam maintains that if customer are obviously on welfare (i.e. if they pay for their groceries with food stamps), they shouldn’t be allowed to purchase lotto tickets.

Barring welfare recipients from participating in the state lotto would affect some 1.7 million North Carolinians.

“We’re giving them welfare to help them live, and yet by selling them a ticket, we’re taking away their money that is there to provide them the barest of necessities,” Stam said.

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Comments (70)

fedupcitizen2012
Posted on January 29, 2013 at 3:01am
Anyone who receives welfare should have to get a new state ID card with big red letters on it stating that they are a welfare recipient. Not only should they not be allowed to buy lotto tickets, but they should be prohibited from buying cigarettes, and alcoholic beverages also. Nont only that, they should have weekly urine tests for illegal drugs too. Bunch of freakin leaches.

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- Smokey_Bojangles
  Posted on January 29, 2013 at 4:34am
  So,You are saying that Obama is the greatest president ever and has created millions of jobs that people just won’t take? Damn! I Should have voted for him! You must really love Obama to trust government with drug testing people. With Obamacare being shoved down our throats,do you think you will be exempt? Michelle may want to test you for bacon,sodas,coffee,and Mars Bars. To much of that stuff can kill you! Hate to bust your bubble,but the 4th amendment even applies to black people.
  
  Report this comment
- Redhawke
  Posted on January 29, 2013 at 5:20am
  No, Smokey, FedUp is saying that if you want welfare (free stuff), you will need to agree to regular urine tests to assure that you are not using the public’s money on drugs. When I was in the Navy (and at several civilian jobs), I had to submit to regular urine test. If that is good policy for military, it is good policy for leaches.
  
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- LIBERTARIAN T38
  Posted on January 29, 2013 at 8:15am
  Why would Obama inhibit people not working, being intoxicated, collecting welfare and voting Democrat? It got him reelected! His #1 accomplishment has been exploding the welfare class by driving the economy further into the ground and blaming Bush, his own personal Jew. Oh, also “free” birth control, sorry. What a statesman.
  
  Report this comment
- fedupcitizen2012
  Posted on January 29, 2013 at 2:13pm
  SMOKEY
  are you trying to say that black people are the only ones on welfare? That’s a pretty racist thing to say. I don’t trust the government as far as I can throw it. I am saying that if people want my money to “survive” then they should by all rights be limited in what they can buy. I also think that if they were caught in possession of cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, cable t.v., video games, iPhones, iPads etc.etc. they should immediately be cut off from the government tit. You don’t need any of that stuff to “survive” and those items could be sold to help provide for their own “survival”
  “I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer”. –Ben Franklin
  
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- fedupcitizen2012
  Posted on January 29, 2013 at 2:21pm
  SMOKEY
  On another note, the president could IMMEDIATELY create about 11 mllion jobs that the welfare recipients could take. Deport the illegals, and have welfare recipients stand at the entrances to Home Depot every morning!
  
  Report this comment
TeslanEdison
Posted on January 29, 2013 at 12:12am
This is where socialism and capitalism don’t mix, our constitution gives the right of the pursuit of happiness, such happiness might be considered playing the lottery. So you must eliminate one or the other, food-stamps of non disabled workers should have a work requirement, laws prohibiting participation in social activities due to receiving government aid are unconstitutional. The social welfare created by the larger government needs re-evaluation, we need to move back to churches and civic organizations receiving funding to do feed those who are need, computer tracking the success and results and determining funding that way.

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- ozchambers
  Posted on January 29, 2013 at 9:36am
  I was thinking the same thing. The government shouldnt have any say in how you spend your money. But then the government has taken taxpayers money and redistributed it in the form of welfare to others and in that light, it seems logical to curtail wasteful spending by the recipients. The truth is that the government has intruded too far on both fronts: personal liberty and redistribution.
  
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savagenatn
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 11:42pm
the trolls will say this is raaaaaaacist

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- Smokey_Bojangles
  Posted on January 29, 2013 at 4:43am
  I am not a troll.But I think 90% of conservative hatred about the unemployed/welfare recipients that the democrats created is fueled by racism. Reform The system,but don’t hate on the recipients. Food Stamps are up to 47 million now. Obama built that. The unemployed did not build that.
  
  Report this comment
- Redhawke
  Posted on January 29, 2013 at 7:37am
  “90% of conservative hatred…racism”
  
  Statements like that confirm that you are a troll Smokey. I know a great many welfare leaches that trade their “free money” benefits for cash to buy cigs, booze and drugs. They are the same race as I. Since you believe that welfare recipient equals black, I think that makes you the racist.
  
  Report this comment
- Smokey_Bojangles
  Posted on January 29, 2013 at 8:37am
  Keep fooling yourself. I admit I am racist. I do not care much for gays either. But I do not begrudge anyone their civil rights over my prejudices. My distrust of a government collecting Pee from any group is greater. When you give government a little,they come back for a lot. Just look how expensive getting a gun has become. It started with small bans,registration,Ammo Taxes and now Fienstien wants full confiscation. So the day the poor grandma has to pee in cup is only a year or two ahead of everyone having to pee in a cup for Obamacare,To use the roads,to pump gas…..Drug companies bought the 111th congress for $26.2 Million. Guess who sells the drug testing kits?
  
  Report this comment
- savagenatn
  Posted on January 30, 2013 at 12:36am
  ok pole smokey
  
  maybe you aren’t a troll, but you an absolute liberal idiot
  
  Report this comment
lel2007
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 10:53pm
Kind of drives home the fact that the odds are not in favor of winning.

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rsanchez1
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 10:25pm
I really don’t think there’s a need to fine the store owners.

If a welfare recipient wins the lottery and tries to cash it in, then just don’t cash it. Tie ticket purchases to photo ID. Problem solved.

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- pavepaws
  Posted on January 29, 2013 at 7:46pm
  I like the idea of not cashing a winning ticket if the holder is a welfare recipient. They’ll have to skirt the law by giving the ticket to someone else to cash for them. Of course the expectation will be that the winnings will be turned over to the original holder. Good luck with that. Who’s going to complain about being ripped off when they weren’t supposed to have a ticket in the first place.
  
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hi
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 10:18pm
But there is no better way to stimulate the economy than paying welfare to people to play the lottery.

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Mapache
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 9:46pm
How about just having a welfare recipient reimburse the state for ALL their welfare and government provided benefits out of any winnings over $1000?

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- banjarmon
  Posted on January 28, 2013 at 10:00pm
  Lady behind desk at Government food stamp program speaking to a
  bear…
  “Sorry, we’re not allowed to feed the bears,, because you will become
  dependent and never learn to fend for yourself.
  
  Report this comment
h20sue
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 9:45pm
This LAW should be active in every US. State. We have so much welfare fraud it’s pathetic and Congress is ignoring it. They need to get out away from their warm and ludicrive lifestyles, get in their cars and start walking around grocery stores, 7-11′s, restaurants, and watch welfare receipents purchase hot, prepared food. This is supposed to be illegal in Virginia and it’s happening everywhere!
Blacks, especially, have found ways to scam the system and they are professsionals at this. I see this daily, and it’s just sickning. Those of us who truly could use some help are embarrassed by others who are scamming our government. We work and struggle to put food in our bellies, pay our utilities, mortgage, but yet, welfare recipients are nothing more then lazy scammers. Most enjoy bragging about scamming the government. They drive large cars, live in high dollar homes, dress better then struggling middle class, and because they are getting free Obama phones, free living expenses, free computers, they are able to have their nails done, pedicures, massages, new clothes, etc. Cutting their ability to play the lotto would be wonderful. You have no idea how many welfare receipients stand in line at the local markets, waiting to purchase lottery tickets, or scratch tickets. It’s extemely disgusting for hard working folks.

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- NigelTufnel
  Posted on January 28, 2013 at 10:05pm
  There is a local heavily subsidized farmer who is operating under chapter 11. They have a lot of nice things and their kids drive nice cars. It’s becoming a real sore spot amongst the locals. Worse yet is that their kids will go to college for free as they are European immigrant deutch bags. But that is neither on me or you. Keep up the hard work. It’s not what you do it’s how you do it.
  
  Report this comment
- LoriQ
  Posted on May 2, 2013 at 2:53am
  Wow! You act like welfare recipients get a million dollar check each month! You really think a welfare recipient can affor to buy new cars wear expensive clothes and live in a nice house? You think they get that much money? Really? The only way a welfare recipient could affor all that stuff is if they were selling drugs or something else illegal. But to not do any illegal things and just live on welfare yeah ok they all have it good! And no I am NOT a welfare recipient but used to be and I’ve seen the kind of things they do. Yes a lot of them are liars and scammers because they are either using drugs or buying drugs but not everyone lives that way. There are people that do fall on hard times. I live in Pennsylvania and the coal industry used to be a big booming business. All the coal miners used to talk like you guys and put down welfare recipients but guess what happened? The coal industry isn’t so big anymore here and they had to lay off a bunch of coal workers. Guess what line they were standing in? Yep, the welfare lines. So, don’t presume you know what it’s like if you never had to live that way. Also, I see nothing wrong with letting a welfare recipient buy a lottery ticket. At least the honest ones. I’m not saying they should be able to buy a whole check’s worth a month but to buy 2 lottery tickets a month for a dollar a piece isn’t gonna break anyone’s bank and if they win big they could actually stimulate the economy.
  
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TotallyNotATroll
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 9:38pm
This is the problem with most of society anymore sadly. No one seems to see the middle ground, and ignores unintended consequences. I know for a fact that at least in Idaho, when a man pays his child support, the state puts it on their EBT card, meaning, your solution will punish people whose money did not come from the state in the first place. Jumping to the ‘lazy bastards’ side without realizing that it’s not that simple is why the democrats are so much more effective in their propaganda lately. They may word things too far to the side of welfare, but they aren’t alienating people for silly things like spending money from a card they might not have wanted in the first place. Making the store owners liable for who is and isn’t on welfare and why, this is ridiculous.
Separate the all encompassing EBT card by making different types of payments go to other types of cards, then maybe you could justify some action here.

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- endthemindlessspending
  Posted on January 28, 2013 at 9:57pm
  Why should child support be able to be used to buy lotto tickets? That money is for the child’s needs not the parents gambling habits. If it were me paying that support, I would be taking that person to court in a heartbeat.
  
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NigelTufnel
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 9:30pm
This sounds a little barbaric in this day and age. We can’t stop them from buying booz with our welfare money I don’t see how we can stop them from buying lotto tickets. I like media’s idea but I think the NC lawmakers are harking back to founding father Ben Franklin. “The best way to get people out of poverty is to make them feel uncomfortable in it..” Just 40 years ago township trustees used to hand out the welfare checks. It was part of their duty. They knew where they all lived and they would have them mow, cut brush, level stones and other tasks while they were drawing. The super lazy would move their trailers from township to township looking for the most lax township officers. If you were riding in the back of a township truck everyone knew you were on the dole.

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- LoriQ
  Posted on May 2, 2013 at 3:04am
  I like the way you say “our” welfare money. How do you know that someone didn’t find themselves on welfare though no means of their own. As I was saying earlier, the coal miner in my area found themselves out of work one day. It wasn’t their fault. They laid off in huge numbers. Some of them worked for years. So what I am saying is, some of “your” welfare money was actually some of “his” too since he paid into the system for a number of years also. So, don’t judge, you never know which line you might find yourself standing in tomorrow.
  
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progressiveslayer
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 9:14pm
Just round up all welfare recipients and send them to Afghanistan to clear the mine fields,it’s the final solution for our welfare problem.

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- TotallyNotATroll
  Posted on January 28, 2013 at 9:29pm
  ‘Final Solution’ interesting choice of words. Sieg Hail
  
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- Fubared
  Posted on January 28, 2013 at 9:38pm
  Japan even is having issues with it’s “comfortably poor”…Low rate, but still frowned upon by some societies.
  
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- Deuteronomy22
  Posted on January 28, 2013 at 9:51pm
  You’d have to round up half of West Virginia.
  
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media-bias-steals-elections
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 9:12pm
Why not just force them to collect their winnings at the state office, and if they are on the welfare list, the amount of the lottery won is retained by the government for anything less then every penny paid to that citizen since they have been on welfare?

Sounds fair to you?

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FightingBear
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 9:10pm
It’s a good idea but they didn’t think it through.

Instead of the seller policing the buyers, the state should simply not pay out if the winner is a welfare recipient or in bankruptcy.

Of course the law will go to court because it disproportionately affects the poor. It seems like we are always picking on the poor.

If they want to play the lottery bad enough, maybe they will go get a job instead of sitting at home waiting for my tax dollars to arrive in their mailbox.

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- Walkabout
  Posted on January 28, 2013 at 9:30pm
  If you can afford a lottery ticket, then you have too much discretionary income as a person on the dole.
  
  If you skimped on your child’s food, clothing or shelter, then it is child abuse.
  
  Report this comment
- Deuteronomy22
  Posted on January 28, 2013 at 10:13pm
  A dollar? Too much?
  
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- Smokey_Bojangles
  Posted on January 29, 2013 at 4:39am
  One Dollar. I aint begrudging nobody a beer or a lottery ticket. In NC Food Stamps do not cover either. So If They went out and picked up cans to buy a Crunk Juice,I am not going to resent it one bit. They still have to cover power bills,water bills,Sales taxes…
  
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FreedomPurveyor
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 9:09pm
If you look at the math, this is extremely helpful to people on welfare. A very tiny fraction of those 1.7 million welfare recipients purchasing lottery tickets will end up with a net gain. The rest all lose money, which is being provided by the state in the first place to help them survive.

Of course, even though it is helping them, they will complain because most are as mathematically challenged as they are financially.

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- Mr.buff1959
  Posted on January 28, 2013 at 9:15pm
  That was vary well said. thank you.
  
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- TotallyNotATroll
  Posted on January 28, 2013 at 9:28pm
  There is a reason a lot of people refer to playing the lottery as paying your ‘idiot tax.’
  
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TotallyNotATroll
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 9:05pm
Oh I left out, lets go ahead and judge those fools, I mean its not like they put things like Child Support from private individuals on those cards either, lets get em.

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Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 9:05pm
Simple solution.
1. Give all reciepients $20 worth of credits for lottery tickets which would be recorded. If they win, winnings will be used to pay back at least 70% of their accrued benefits.
2. If they win on any other ticket that was not part of their alloted lottery, I.E, they buy tickets out of their welfare benefits, they forfiet every dime to the welfare system.

That will at least make them a little wary of buying tickets with their money and even if they win, then they would have to find someone that would claim the prize in their name and give them their share. It won’t work, but just like any good govt. solution, it’s the intent that counts.

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TotallyNotATroll
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 9:02pm
So um, the lottery, the way for the poor to hope to become rich, yeah, lets take that away from those lazy bastards, this is an important job for politicians, much more so than anything else in the entirest universe.

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Tigress1
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 9:01pm
Man, the gov. wants to quit giving away free bets on the lottery! That s*ck$ Baaaaad!

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whatthecrazy
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 8:54pm
Man are they going to be PI$$ED,but why stop there ?How about no more cruises,booze, free phones,free health care ,LOW rent jewelry,gas just about everything free cash will buy,dang now i remember why im going broke.bummer……….

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nighttrainno9
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 8:50pm
Good idea, I hate having to stand in line to pay for my gas so I can go
to work, while blacks in line with their big SUVs w/$8000.00 worth of
wheels buy lottery tickets with their EBT cards. First of all, I’m going
to work to support their azz’s, second their vehicles and food and
lottery tickets are bought with my money.

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- Smokey_Bojangles
  Posted on January 29, 2013 at 4:44am
  You must not live in NC. EBT cards can ONLY be used for food. Have no Idea what state you live in,but you may want to contact your State Reps.
  
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chips1
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 8:48pm
If I buy 100 tickets for $100, I can sell them to welfare people for $200. Sounds good to me!!!

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- FISH_BONE
  Posted on January 28, 2013 at 9:03pm
  I’ll sell them for $175. See how the free market works?
  
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- Mr.buff1959
  Posted on January 28, 2013 at 9:12pm
  Now that is true capitalist ,But i would not want too be your salesman in a gun free zone.
  
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- Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
  Posted on January 28, 2013 at 11:18pm
  The issue would be, if there is a law they can’t play the lottery when on assistance, and they win, can the state then sue them for their winnings?
  
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BasketFullOfPuppies
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 8:43pm
Do they honestly think that people won’t find a way around this? More asinine stupidity from politicians.

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COFemale
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 8:41pm
That is so ridiculous. It is not the store owner’s job to know whether someone is in bankruptcy. It is none of their business. That part has gone way too far.

Let the welfare recipient play, but pass a law any winnings over a certain amount belongs to the state. That will curb playing.

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- BARRYS_BEARD
  Posted on January 28, 2013 at 8:48pm
  “but pass a law any winnings over a certain amount belongs to the state.” Aren’t those called taxes?
  
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Stelex
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 8:41pm
Oww, it hurts……make it stop.

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civilwarcometh
Posted on January 28, 2013 at 8:32pm
Maybe you should consider banning WELFARE!!!!!!!

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- oldguy49
  Posted on January 28, 2013 at 8:40pm
  amen….pas te ammo
  
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- mrunner
  Posted on January 28, 2013 at 8:44pm
  Quit with the common sense solutions!! You know those don’t go over well in liberal circles. More laws will fix all ills dont cha no?
  
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- BARRYS_BEARD
  Posted on January 28, 2013 at 8:46pm
  Surely you’re not suggesting someone actually go work to support themselves? Come on, be real.
  
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- Smokey_Bojangles
  Posted on January 29, 2013 at 4:49am
  Yeah,;cause Obama has created so many jobs because he is the greatest president ever…..
  Yaw said it. Not me.
  
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