Governor calls for using debit cards to buy lottery tickets in South Carolina

COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster is proposing letting people pay for lottery tickets with a debit card, something that’s never been allowed in the game’s 24-year history. 

McMaster made the suggestion at the State House Monday during the announcement of his 2025-26 budget proposal. 

South Carolina is one of just three states — Tennessee and Wyoming are the others — that doesn’t let people use debit cards to purchase lottery tickets. When the lottery was created in 2001, the law creating it required that tickets could only be purchased with cash. 

But McMaster said lottery investment proceeds have dipped in recent years. He said the Board of Economic Advisors said investment proceeds are projected to be $31.9 million less than the amount appropriated in last year’s budget. According to McMaster, the South Carolina Education Lottery estimates lottery proceeds could rise by $52 million annually if debit cards were allowed to be used to buy tickets. 

“Many businesses no longer accept cash, and many people don’t carry it,” McMaster said. 

Credit cards would still be outlawed as a form of payment. 

McMaster wants to use the expected added money to increase funding for the lottery’s existing uses –LIFE, HOPE, and Palmetto Fellow college scholarships — but also the Education Scholarship Trust Fund. That’s the private school voucher program that was ruled unconstitutional last year by the South Carolina Supreme Court, who said using state funds for the program violated the state’s law forbidding public money for private schools. But advocates of retaining the program believe that using lottery proceeds, rather than money from the state’s general fund, would help the program survive any constitutional concerns. 

McMaster’s budget proposal also calls for an income tax cut, more money for disaster relief to cover the costs from Hurricane Helene, and raising starting teacher salaries to $50,000 a year.