(RALEIGH) -- A report from NC Policy Watch shows that North Carolina lottery sales tend to be higher per capita in counties where poverty is also high. Lottery spokesman Van Denton says lottery ads do not target the poor and don't promote gambling.

"We take the law very seriously, and the law says that every ad we do should contain responsible gaming. The law says don't target specific groups, the law says no ad should present a game as a means of relieving a financial difficulty and the law says no ad may have the purpose of inducing someone to play the lottery," Denton said.

Former state treasurer Richard Moore, a longtime lottery opponent, thinks the current advertising campaign by the N.C. Lottery Commission has gone over the line of what is permissible in trying to persuade Tar Heel residents to play the lottery.