Lottery crusaders speak

Supporters, detractors of game run by state stump across South Carolina before election weekend
Web posted Friday, November 3, 2000

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By Greg Rickabaugh
South Carolina Bureau

AIKEN - Secretary of State Jim Miles brought his anti-lottery crusade to a small crowd in Aiken on Thursday, saying a state-run lottery would not improve education but would create gambling addicts.

Mr. Miles said the state's future depends on the lottery issue, and he urged a crowd of 30 people to spread the message before Tuesday's vote.

Secretary of State Jim Miles speaks during an anti-lottery rally sponsored by Millbrook Baptist Church in Aiken on Thursday night. The lottery issue in South Carolina will be decided at the polls Tuesday. TODD BENNETT/STAFF

``Go to the Georgia Web site, and they readily admit that 4 to 5 percent of citizens will wind up being pathologically addicted to gambling as a result of the lottery,'' Mr. Miles said. ``How could anybody do that? How could anybody believe that that's right?''

Mr. Miles visited Columbia and Anderson earlier in the day and finished the evening with a visit to a youth center at Millbrook Baptist Church in Aiken.

The Republican state official frequently invoked religious themes in his speech, even asking the crowd to pray for lawmakers who support the lottery. He told stories of his father and brother, saying they were once addicted to alcoholism. His son was hooked on video poker, he said.

``Satan just grabs a hold of them,'' he said. ``And the very idea of any government spending money on TV ads encouraging (this) ... is absolutely outrageous. I can hardly talk about it without getting emotional.''

Mr. Miles' visit came as two polls show the race too close to call.

A Mason-Dixon poll conducted for The (Charleston) Post and Courier and WCBD-TV in Charleston says 48 percent of likely voters favor the lottery, compared with 43 percent against. Clemson's Strom Thurmond Institute released a poll Thursday that showed 45 percent of respondents support a lottery and 45 percent oppose it.

Aiken couple Paul and Edie Vucish attended Thursday night's event, saying they oppose a lottery because it sells the wrong message to people.

``I think it's something that just feeds off the poor and teaches young people to try and get something for nothing,'' Mrs. Vucish said.

It also creates gambling addictions, she said. As a former Pennsylvania resident, Mrs. Vucish said she watched that state's lottery destroy her father.

``(He) was addicted to that lottery - playing the numbers,'' said Mrs. Vucish, a local homemaker. ``He just got sucked into it.''

``His defense was that somebody had to win. But he never won, and he died broke,'' Mr. Vucish added.

As the lottery campaign goes down to the wire, both sides are gearing up their last-ditch efforts for the weekend before the election. Both sides will focus on black voters.

Gov. Jim Hodges appeared at the predominantly black South Carolina State University on Thursday for a pro-lottery rally. The anti-lottery forces and state religious leaders joined the NAACP and the Rainbow/Push Coalition for a unity rally in Columbia on Thursday night.

South Carolinians will vote Tuesday on whether to amend the state's constitution to allow the creation of a state-run lottery.

Associated Press reports were used in this article.

Reach Greg Rickabaugh at (803) 279-6895.

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