A Lucky Location? –KNE

Photos By Danny Vowell | Kentucky New Era Sandy Tutt smiles while she scratches a lottery ticket Thursday afternoon at Skyline Fuel on Skyline Drive in Hopkinsville. “I play (the lottery) when it hits me,” Tutt said. “I don’t get mad. If I spend $20 and get $10 back, it’s good.”

Sounds like great investment advice to me. If the lottery were just a game, but that is not how people play it.

The spike in lottery ticket sales coincides with a tough economy and higher gas and food prices.

“Folks are looking for a bail-out,” said Jim Adams,   general manager of Christian radio station WNKJ in Hopkinsville and an opponent of the lottery in Kentucky. “People are taking their food money and their gas money and gambling with it, hoping to win.”

Some studies have shown that food purchases go down when lottery purchases increase, said Adams.

Play Responsibly. Remember, it’s just a game.