State gambling operation should operate in the light
Published March 11, 2015
Editorial by Burlington Times-News, March 6, 2015.
Secrecy and government don’t mix. Never has, never will.
That’s our message to state Rep. Darren Jackson of Wake County who wants to keep people in the dark about who wins the North Carolina lottery. Let’s make that a little more specific, North Carolina’s state-operated lottery.
State law says the names of lottery winners and the amount of their winnings are public information, which is as it should be. Jackson want to change the law so that secrecy is required unless winners consent otherwise.
He said some winners — his dad is one — have told him they don’t like being hounded by solicitors once word is out that they have hit the lottery. He also notes that other states allow such secrecy.
Those aren’t sound reasons to change the law as it stands now. And really, there are an abundance of reasons to keep the law as is — where openness prevails.
For starters, anyone who buys a lottery ticket does so voluntarily. They know the rules going in. If they win, people will know. So winners who take the chance on buying a winning ticket also take the risk that some people will be after them for a piece of the winnings. Some might be legitimate investment experts. Some might be scam artists and more than a few could be family members looking for a soft touch who just came into a bundle.
Buying a lottery ticket is all about choice. Gamblers can choose to buy it and accept the rules that come with winning, if they’re lucky enough to beat the overwhelming odds of bringing a big prize home. Or people can simply choose not to buy a ticket at all. Then they’ll never have to worry about the publicity that goes with winning.
Following rules in other states doesn’t cut it either as a reason to change the lottery law to permit secrecy about winners. That has the ring of teenagers begging parents to allow them to do something ridiculous just because others are doing it.
Bad policy is bad policy no matter where it governs.
The best reason to keep sunshine on lottery winners, though, is this one: It protects this government-run gambling operation from suspicion of wrongdoing.
Wherever there is secrecy, there is opportunity for fraud and corruption. Without it, people are left to take some insider’s word that all is above board and that the winnings are being awarded as promised or to the legitimate winners, not some friend of the games themselves.
Secret winners when millions of dollars are at stake is an open door to potential fraud.
Even lottery officials don’t think Jackson’s bill is a good idea for public policy. They have voiced support for the accountability that comes with openness. Good for them.
They also cite openness about winners as the reason they stopped a $1 million fraud that a store clerk’s wife attempted to pull off in 2012. When the win was announced, someone from the company where the clerk worked contacted lottery officials and an investigation followed. With no publicity, the fraud had a much higher chance of going undetected.
The bottom line here is that government secrecy always leads to suspicion and distrust. It opens the door for corruption. It’s part of what many feared when government got into the gambling business years ago. It North Carolina can’t conduct an open lottery then perhaps it should get out of the gambling business.
This bill is a bad deal — and North Carolina legislators should work diligently to keep it from becoming law.
