At least a chance.

• Position: Column

On New Year's Eve, a Concord couple won $110.8 million in the Powerball lottery, the second time in seven months that Tar Heels have won with tickets they bought in South Carolina. I wrote this column more than 10 years ago, before South Carolina had a lottery. But even under our prolottery governor, some things never change.

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On our way down the mountains from my place in Virginia, we decided to indulge in what some would call a sin, one that the North Carolina legislature has done its damnedest to make sure I can't commit back home.

Pulling into the Exxon station at Fancy Gap, I jumped out of my pickup and plucked the nozzle from the pump and a five spot from my pocket. My buddy David Bailey snatched the bill and dashed inside to get snacks and--yes, I confess--lottery tickets. This was a Sunday, so the thermostat on the hellfire being stoked for me probably got turned up a few degrees then and there. But Saturday night's drawing had been for $13 million and change; if nobody won, Wednesday's prize would be even fatter.

Before I'd finished filling up, Bailey was back, grinning behind his beard. "Winner last night?" I asked. He nodded: "The guy in there said, 'Probably some SOB from North Carolina.'"

I have no idea if that's so. But I do know that a great many Tar Heels are crossing the state line each and every day to fatten the Old Dominion's coffers buying lottery tickets. But foes in the General Assembly don't want a North Carolina lottery. They even determined this summer that the people couldn't be trusted to decide the matter in a referendum.

I can see their point, having occasional paroxysms of doubt myself about the wisdom of democracy, usually brought on by seeing who winds up winning elections. But I do reject their contention that we can't have a lottery because it would exploit poor people, who...