Going out of town--It's a gamble

To the disappointment of border town convenient store owners in Virginia, South Carolina, and Tennessee, North Carolina has a lottery now after the state senate approved it yesterday. However, the circumstances of this passage are a little fishy. Last week, President Pro Tem Mark Basnight announced that the senate was done with business for the term, no more bills would be voted on even though the House had not quite finished its work. This meant that there would be no Senate vote on whether or not North Carolina should have a lottery, a bill which the House had passed in April but which was known to not have enough supporting votes in the Senate. However, when Basnight found out that two Senators who opposed the lottery and actually believed him when he said that he would not call for any more votes and could not return to Raleigh to vote--John Garwood of North Wilkesboro because he was too sick to travel and Harry Jackson of Jacksonville because he left for his honeymoon--he called for the vote, which was a 24-24 tie, broken by Lt. Gov. Beverly Purdue in favor of the lottery. Way to go, Basnight.