Court Rules Phone Card Not Lottery

RALEIGH — What's a lottery? That’s the question the N.C. Court of Appeals addressed recently in a case involving inexpensive long-distance calling cards that also came with a scratch-and-win promotion. The court ruled that because the phone cards, though providing only for two minutes of calling time each, were competitive in the market, the promotion did not amount to an illegal lottery, as the state had contended.