New NC afternoon lottery drawing to begin March 31

RALEIGH (AP) -- North Carolina lottery players can pick numbers for daytime drawings starting in two weeks.

The North Carolina Education Lottery said Monday that a new daytime "Carolina Pick 3" drawing will begin March 31. The numbers game will follow the rules for a similar nighttime drawing that began in October 2006, with a top prize of $500.

The first tickets can be purchased March 30.

The daytime drawing will be held at 3 p.m. Monday through Saturday but won't be televised like the daily nighttime drawing. But it can viewed on the Web sites of the lottery and several TV stations.

Lottery officials said several months ago that they wanted to begin a daytime drawing this spring.

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