LENOIR COUNTY, N.C. – As soon as drivers enter Lenoir County on Highway 11, they’re greeted by large, flashing and colorful signs.
The signs advertise sweepstakes cafes, four of them along a three-mile stretch of this highway. They’re places cafe owner Janice Thompson believes get a bad rap. “The people who judge and have negative opinions of cafes are people who have never been to one,” she said. Planning records indicate 14 sweepstakes cafes operate in Lenoir County. But in surrounding counties like Pitt, Craven and Onslow, they’re banned because the North Carolina General Assembly outlawed them back in 2010.