Rudy Gregory sells groceries and country-style fast food as manager of Lockhart’s Trading Post. On Thursday, he’ll be ringing up one new item on his register, though: NC scratch-off lottery tickets.

The Trading Post got its first batch of tickets today. Gregory was breaking open the shrink-wrap pack, worth $12,000 to the state, and for Gregory, about $840. He makes seven cents on the dollar.

Despite the stake the Trading Post has in the postcard sized tickets embossed with various Carolina vistas, Gregory doubts the stakes themselves.

Some critics have charged the lottery is a tax on the poor because of the disproportionate amount of low-income residents who play the games. Gregory’s ambivalent on that point.

17 Chapel Hill service stations are joining Gregory. Food Lion has also decided to sell the games, but Harris Teeter has declined for now. These stores and 5000 retailers across the state are rolling the dice today the lottery will bring in a jackpot.