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Posted on Fri, Apr. 14, 2006

LOTTERY WINNINGS

Residency questions pondered

By Mark Johnson and Stella Hopkins
Knight Ridder

RALEIGH, N.C. - The estimated 390,000 illegal immigrants in North Carolina are welcome to each spend $1 on the state's new lottery, but they may not be allowed to win.

State Controller Robert Powell, who oversees the state's cashflow and accounting, is questioning whether illegal immigrants should be eligible for a lottery jackpot. Lottery officials said state law does not prohibit illegal immigrants from collecting a prize, but the lottery's claim policies may effectively bar them from getting the money.

A ban on jackpots for illegal immigrants would put North Carolina in a small minority. As few as two states, Maryland and North Dakota, restrict prizes to legal residents. A bill in the S.C. legislature would limit players and winners to legal residents, but that legislation is stalled in committee.

Most states' guidelines don't address the issue, while states along the Mexican border make no effort to determine residency. One of California's first big prize winners in 1985 was an illegal immigrant who won $2 million and was promptly deported back to Mexico, although he kept his prize.

At the same time, North Carolina's lottery is less than a month old in a state with one of the fastest growing Hispanic populations. One in every five lottery retailers on opening day last month was in a neighborhood where the adult population was at least 10 percent Hispanic, according to a Charlotte Observer analysis of lottery and demographic data. Those numbers do not take into account the legality of residents' status.

"If you're here illegally, then there should be at least a legal determination as to whether you should receive the funds," Powell said.

Powell said he is not proposing a rule one way or the other.

"I'm just saying it ought to be discussed and answered," he said.

It would be unfair to block illegal immigrants from winning, said Sandra Machuca, owner of La Centroamericana convenience store on South Boulevard in Charlotte.

She has been selling about $1,000 worth of scratch-off tickets a week.

"None of my clients are American," Machuca said. "Whoever wins has a right to the prize. That's why they buy the ticket."

Any residency rules effectively would apply only to prizes of $600 or more, which are claimed at lottery offices. Under current N.C. lottery rules, a winner of $600 or more must claim the prize at a lottery office, showing a photo identification and proof of a Social Security number.

If the winner doesn't have a Social Security number, the lottery will accept: a U.S. passport, a foreign passport, an identification card issued by another state, a U.S. armed forces identification card, voter registration card or permanent resident card.

Typically, illegal immigrants cannot legally obtain a Social Security number.

Lottery spokeswoman Pam Walker said a winner who has no Social Security number but does have required identification will still get paid, but at the higher, non-resident tax withholding rate, 30 percent instead of 25 percent.

Lottery Director Ernie Passailaigue said winners must give a Social Security number, which effectively bars illegal immigrants, but all they need is a friend.

"It's easy to get around the law," Passailaigue said.