The lottery was introduced to encourage people to get the Covid-19 vaccine; however, it seems any direct impact has been limited to date.
During a press conference, Governor Roy Cooper said the number of vaccines administered has not increased "significantly yet."
The Governor hoped that offering a $1m jackpot to those who receive the vaccine would encourage locals to get the jab.
With the lottery running for more than a week, the number of vaccinated North Carolinians increased from 54% to 55%.
Governor Cooper said: “We're hoping over the next few days and few weeks we will see some significant improvement in our numbers.
"We're trying to find everything we can, even keeping steady would be a positive thing."
Similar incentives have been introduced by other states; but unlike North Carolina, they have reported a positive increase in vaccination rates.
For example, vaccination rates in Ohio increased by 33% in just one week. Similarly, the $116.5m lottery in California resulted in a rise in vaccines the following week.
According to the California Department of Health, the number of people who received at least one vaccine increased by 89,800 – just one day after the lottery was announced.
Data from Johns Hopkins University (JHU) shows that only 39% of North Carolina’s population is fully vaccinated.
Further data from JHU shows that, nationally, around 45% of the US population is fully vaccinated.
