Slow sales delay state lottery raffle drawing

North Carolina Education Lottery officials said Tuesday that they were postponing the drawing on a multimillion-dollar raffle by two weeks.

The winning tickets in the Cash Splash Millionaire Raffle were supposed to be drawn Wednesday, but slow sales prompted lottery officials to push the date back to Sept. 20.

“Sales were slower this summer than we had anticipated,” Alice Garland, acting director of the lottery, said in a statement. “We know the extension is disappointing to those raffle players waiting for the drawing, but they still have a great chance to win $1 million. We saw sales increase some in the last week, and the extension will help us meet our main mission – raising money for education.”

The lottery is selling 500,000 tickets for the raffle. More than 190,000 tickets had been sold as of Tuesday afternoon..

Tickets are $20 each, and the raffle has three top prizes of $1 million apiece.

Garland said the lottery wouldn't delay the drawing past Sept. 20.