RALEIGH, NC - The North Carolina Education Lottery announced earlier this week that it realized record sales during the 12 months ending in June, Bloomberg Businessweek reports.

The lottery said sales grew to more than $1.4 billion last year, a 10 percent increase compared to the previous year. The increase generated more than $419 million in net profits to educational programs, the highest annual transfer since the lottery's first tickets were sold in 2006.

North Carolina's lottery began selling tickets for the multi-state Mega Million games in January, and the number of lottery ticket retail locations increased four percent to a statewide total of nearly 6,300.