State lottery officials want to start advertising lottery tickets in Spanish.

There's a catch. The 2005 law that created the lottery states, "No advertising may intentionally target specific groups or economic classes."

So that leaves lottery officials trying to figure out how to market to Hispanics without targeting a specific group. Advertising has always been a sensitive issue for the lottery since critics don't want government encouraging people to gamble.

The lottery was created to raise money for education programs and Executive Director Tom Shaheen said there is a large untapped market. Out of 5,900 retailers, lottery officials figure that nearly 200 have a customer base in which at least half don't speak English.

So, Shaheen told lottery commission members Wednesday, he'd like permission to work up Spanish radio and print ads within the law.

"Thanks for throwing us into that briar patch," Commission chairman John McArthur joked.

The ads would not necessarily be translations of the English language ads already running. The lottery's marketing staff would ensure they are culturally relevant.

"I strongly feel it's an opportunity to for us," said Commission member Bridget-Anne Hampden. "It's recognizing the diversity of our state."

The commission told lottery staff to come back with a proposal on how they would propose to legally advertise in Spanish.

Sometime this weekend, lottery sales for 2008 will hit $1 billion.

It's a milestone for the two-year-old lottery. Officials promised those kind of sales figures from day one, but this is the first year in which the lottery has broken the billion barrier.

Ticket sales are calculated at the end of the day and Thursday closed with $995,787,389, said Pam Walker, a spokeswoman for the state lottery. Friday sales may not break $4 million, but it is all but certain to happen sometime Saturday or Sunday, she said.

Sales have perked up since the governor and legislature agreed to let the lottery pay out more in prize money. Turns out, people don't want to buy lottery tickets unless they think they can win.

"We really have seen an increase," said John McArthur, chairman of the N.C. Lottery Commission.

McArthur said high gas prices have muted sales somewhat.

The lottery budgeted for $957 million in sales for fiscal 2008, which ends June 30.

State Lottery Commission chairman John McArthur said proposed 5 percent raises for lottery employees encourage a better-run state lottery.

The House proposed Wednesday limiting the lottery employees' raises to that of other state employees. Other state employees would get across-the-board raises of 2.75 percent or $1,100, which ever is greater. The state lottery employees receive merit-based raises and the commission approved a budget that would allow for an average 5 percent raise.

McArthur said the lottery was created by the legislature and it can do what it wishes, but he said he would recommend keeping the raises as the lottery proposed.

"Making individual merit salary determinations based on employee performance is a part of trying to increase lottery revenue by trying to manage it as a business," McArthur said.