Border Crossing

ARDMORE, Ala. -- When Tennessee starts selling tickets for its education lottery later this year, Debbie Cothren expects to see lots of cars bypass her Alabama store and head a few blocks north for tickets. "A lot of people are coming in asking if we are in Tennessee and whether we're going to have it," Cothren said of the lottery.

Like Cothren, some businesses and community leaders in north Alabama expect to see dollars pulled to Tennessee. They're concerned that when Alabamans buy lottery tickets, they'll also pick up cigarettes, beer and gasoline, according to The Birmingham News.

The looming Tennessee lottery also has a few north Alabama folks already thinking of ways to keep some Alabama cash closer to home and bring in some out-of-state bucks as well. The city council in Bridgeport recently voted to ask Jackson County legislators to allow city voters to determine whether they want wagering on greyhound racing.

Many north Alabama residents are already driving into Tennessee on Sundays because alcohol sales are legal on that day, convenience store workers in Tennessee say. Those stores are preparing for an even larger number of Alabamans lured by the lottery. "I would say it's pretty well going to hurt Alabama," said Donna Russell, assistant manager of the HP Max Fuel store in Ardmore, Tenn., blocks from Debbie Cothren's Ardmore, Ala., store.

Officials with several north Alabama cities and counties said the lottery could cost them tax revenue. Other officials said they don't see a problem. People already playing lotteries or going to Mississippi casinos will just split their money when Tennessee's lottery starts, the report said.

No one on either side of the line could estimate how much money might go into Tennessee from Alabama, but millions of dollars already flow from the state into Georgia's and Florida's lotteries. The Georgia Lottery Corp. estimates that Alabamans buy a little more than 4 percent of its tickets each year, based on a 1997 study of claims for prizes of $599 or more. At that rate, Alabamans buying some of the $2.5 billion in lottery tickets Georgia sold in fiscal 2002 would have contributed about $100 million to the Peach State.

Sam Oliver, director of communications for the Florida Lottery, said he did not have an estimate on how many Alabamans play that state's lottery. But the stores along the Alabama-Florida border add temporary ticket machines when the jackpot gets up to $50 million or $60 million, he said.

Alabama voters in 1999 rejected a referendum for an education lottery.