Pennington owns the May Street Market. In late February, his shop became the first in Moore County to be fitted with a ticket terminal to sell the North Carolina Education Lottery (NCEL).
He’s pretty sure he was the first, anyway. The May Street Market heads the list provided by the NCEL. Ten other shops in the county garnered approval shortly after Pennington, and 18 more got the nod this week.
Twenty-three more stores in Moore County are awaiting the NCEL’s decision.
The machines will go active March 30. By then, the NCEL expects 5,000 retailers will be equipped to sell tickets.
“It’s fairly high-tech,” Pennington says. “It’s got a touch screen, and it’s not as large as some of the ones I’ve seen (in other states). It fits comfortably on my counter.”
All the approved merchants are going to attend a training session in Asheboro on Tuesday.
In Moore County the first batch of approved merchants were the May Street Market, Country Corner Mini Mart in Robbins, Foxfire General Store, Econo Mart No. 6, Smokers Express No. 475, four Kangaroo Express stores and two Food Lion stores.
This week, the NCEL approved Nic’s Pic Kwik No. 6, the Pinebluff Mini Mart, Judy’s Food Mart, Phil’s Corner, Tommy’s Grocery, the Village Market Galaxy, Art’s Deli Mart, Frank’s Food Center, seven Short Stop stores, two Quality Mart stores and Exprezit.
Pennington received his application in the mail in January. He figures that the state sent an application to every store with a license to sell beer and wine.
“It was a fairly extensive application,” he says.
To apply, he had to include a non-refundable application fee. He doesn’t remember the exact dollar amount of the fee, but said that it was several hundred dollars.
He got a call in the middle of February letting him know that he’d been approved. The lottery is going to pay merchants 7 cents for every ticket sold.
“The response from retailers has been fantastic,” Tom Shaheen, executive director of NCEL, said. “The retailers want to ensure they get in on the game and provide a service to their customers.
“It’s a service that means a 7 percent commission for retailers on each ticket sold and potentially hundreds of millions of dollars for education in North Carolina.”
The NCEL hired a corporation called GTECH, a subsidiary of GTECH Holdings Corporation, which has annual revenues of $1.25 billion and is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. GTECH sent out 60 crews statewide to install terminals. GTECH is also running the required training.
The NCEL has received almost 6,000 applications from stores. Only the scratch-off tickets will be available for the first two months. The Powerball lottery begins May 30. The NCEL said that other games may be coming this fall.
The state asserts that proceeds will go to reduce class size, help in construction of school facilities and provide need-based college scholarships. People can visit the lottery’s Web site at www.lottery.nc.gov.
Matthew Moriarty may be reached at 693-2479 or by e-mail at moriarty@thepilot.com.
