State Sen. Larry Shaw of Fayetteville has called out the N.C. Education Lotto for trying to use Fayetteville State University’s Early Childhood Learning Center as a backdrop for lotto TV ads. You know, the “soft-sell” lotto that convicted felon Jim Black and gang rammed down our throats.
“They are targeting black kids to get black folks to buy lottery tickets,” Shaw told The Fayetteville Observer.
Last year a John Locke Foundation analysis of state lottery sales found that high-poverty, high-unemployment counties in Eastern North Carolina had the highest rates of lotto ticket sales.
The FO further reports:
Shaw blasted the use of children in the ad as immoral, inappropriate and tasteless.
“If they want to use Vegas- style women, fine — they are adults. But don’t use children,” Shaw said. “Would you use young kids to sell liquor?”
Shaw also questioned why lottery officials chose to film in Fayetteville over schools in the Raleigh-Durham area.
“Why pick black kids in Fayetteville? Because they think here they will get the least resistance,” Shaw said.
Shaw adds that although he voted for the lotto, he is “personally against gambling.” Compromising on principles never pans out, does it?
