In Southern Pines, there’s a small gas station on U.S. 15-501 South. It’s a Circle K, the kind you walk by mindlessly. A man by the name of Jaquell Kelly entered, gave a dollar, and left with a Cash 5 ticket sometime prior to the drawing on May 13. A few days later, he was sitting in the Raleigh headquarters of the NC Lottery, taking home $93,613 after taxes. That had about a 1 in 962,598 chance of occurring. According to reports, Kelly referred to it as a “fluke.” It’s difficult to ignore the sheer number of people who stand at similar counters every week with similar aspirations.
One of North Carolina’s most intricate public institutions is powered by a simple, daily ritual: the dollar bill slid across the counter, the ticket folded into a pocket. Since its inaugural drawing in 2006, the North Carolina Education Lottery has contributed over $10 billion to the state’s educational system. That is a really big number. Pre-K programs have been funded for kids who might not have otherwise had them, schools have been constructed, and scholarships have been given out. However, the lottery’s history has never been totally clear-cut or straightforward, which is probably why it’s important to pay attention to.
For a very long time, North Carolina was the only state on the East Coast without a lottery. The state’s location in what many referred to as the Bible Belt, where gambling carried a moral weight that made lawmakers wary and occasionally outright hostile, contributed to some of that. When the lottery was finally put to a vote in 2005, the discussion was heated. Almost all Republicans were against it. Progressive Democrats also disagreed, with many claiming it was a regressive tax that disproportionately took money away from those who could least afford it. That disagreement never completely subsided.
The drama of the vote itself was almost cinematic. On the day of the final Senate vote, two opponents of the lottery had excused absences. The chamber divided 24 to 24. The tie was broken by Lieutenant Governor Bev Perdue. It was signed into law by Governor Mike Easley. It would not have passed if the absent senators had paired their votes as was customary. It felt appropriate for something so hotly contested that the entire thing cleared by the narrowest possible margin.
The subsequent structure was thoughtful and meticulous. According to the law, 38% of revenue goes into the education fund, 7% goes to retailers, 4% goes toward operating expenses, and 51% goes back to players as prizes. Class size reduction, school construction, financial need-based college scholarships, and Pre-K programs for at-risk four-year-olds are all allocated from that fund. The allocation appears to be a sincere commitment on paper. In reality, there have been some difficult parts in the narrative.
Governor Perdue, the Lieutenant Governor whose tiebreaking vote had established the lottery, depleted the lottery’s $50 million reserve fund and withheld $38 million intended for school construction in 2009 due to a budget deficit. Some lawmakers were so incensed that they suggested removing the word “Education” entirely from the lottery’s name. The episode made clear something important: lottery money, no matter how carefully allocated, still passes through a political system that, when budgets are tight, doesn’t always respect the original intent.
Whether the lottery has fulfilled the promises made to voters in North Carolina in 2005 is still up for debate. Some educators and policy advocates believe that the funds were always intended to supplement current school budgets, but in reality, some lawmakers have used lottery revenue as an excuse to cut direct state funding in other areas. When the numbers are manipulated in ways that the general public seldom understands, it becomes more difficult to calculate the net benefit.
The games continue to run, though. Choose three drawings twice a day, in the morning and at night. Jackpots from Cash 5 frequently exceed $100,000. The kind of life-altering numbers offered by Mega Millions and Powerball make the line at a convenience store at 10:45 on a Wednesday night worthwhile. Cash POP, a more recent game that debuted in late 2024 and offers five draws every day, is either an indication of innovation or the level of demand for quick-turnaround opportunities. Most likely both.
The North Carolina Education Lottery isn’t just a heartwarming tale; it’s also not a warning. It is a system that was created by a single tiebreaker vote, is based on modest aspirations, genuinely contributes to scholarship funds and classrooms, and is sometimes entangled in the political forces that mold all public institutions. It is somewhere messier and more human than either of those framings. The $130,000 victory of Jaquell Kelly makes an interesting headline. A better estimate is $10 billion. The story is still being written about what that number truly means for the students in North Carolina’s public schools.
