Lottery game based on words or phrases

• US 20050085289A1
• Filed: 12/08/2004
• Published: 04/21/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Scientific Games International Incorporated (Scientific Games Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Scientific Games International Incorporated (Scientific Games Corporation)
• Inventors: Bozeman, Alan Kyle
• Granted Patent: US 7,497,778 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/17
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/329 Regular and instant lottery, e.g. electronic scratch cards
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 283/903 Lottery ticket

Abstract

A word-based lottery game wherein a player buys a ticket with a word or set of words and may win a prize if the outcome of a draw confers a win status to one or more words in the ticket. The draw is a random process for which an outcome is a concatenation of characters and may confer word a winner based upon a rule such as being able to compose the word with the drawn characters.

Claims

1. A method of conducting a word based lottery game having a plurality of players, comprising the steps of:

providing a set of words wherein at least one word is defined as a concatenation of characters;

defining a draw as a random process for which an outcome is a concatenation of characters, the draw being such that each outcome can be assigned a probability of occurrence;

defining a rule that confers the at least one word a win or loss status based on the outcome of the draw;

receiving a plurality of entries, each entry having at least one word;

assigning a win or loss status to the at least one word in an entry based on the outcome of the draw according to the rule;

selecting winning entries based on the words in an entry that are conferred a win status; and

assigning a prize for each winning entry.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of defining a draw further includes the step of drawing objects identified with characters from a set of objects.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of defining a draw further includes the step of generating a random concatenation of characters based on a probability distribution of characters.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the draw is a concatenation of letters restricted to outcomes that contain no repetition.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the draw includes wildcards that can be substituted for any character.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the draw includes a constant subset of letters.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of defining a draw further includes the step of making a blind selection by a player.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of defining a draw further includes the step of scratching places on a game card.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the draw is an event that applies to a plurality of entries.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein a draw applies to an individual entry.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein a word conferred a win status for an entry includes an instance of a character in a draw used many times.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein a word conferred a win status for an entry includes an instance of a character in a draw used at most once.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of defining a rule further includes the step of ignoring the delimiters.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the winning entry contains all of the characters in the outcome of the draw.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein prizes are assigned to individual words so that the return is the same for each entry.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein prizes are assigned to subsets of words and entries are assigned to players so that the plurality of entries yields a certain return.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein prizes are assigned to subsets of words and entries are assigned to players so that the return for the plurality of entries is independent of the draw.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of memorializing each entry on a ticket.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of producing the outcome of the draw instantly at a terminal and printing it on a separate ticket.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of memorializing each entry and the outcome of the draw on the same ticket.

21. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of memorializing each entry on a game card.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein a draw event is assigned to the game card at a terminal and printed on a ticket.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the outcome of a draw is produced at a terminal and printed on a ticket.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein the player creates his own entry including the steps of:

providing a set of words;

setting the size of the draw; and

determining the potential prizes by allocating payouts to individual words.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the player creates the entry at a graphical user interface and for which the draw is conducted and displayed on the graphical user interface.

26. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of recording the plurality of entries in a database.

27. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

entering the outcome of a draw into a database; and

correlating entries into the game to determine the prize amounts each entry is entitled to.

28. A system for playing a lottery game, comprising:

a terminal for receiving user entries, wherein each entry includes at least one word, a word being defined a concatenation of characters; and

a server in communication with the terminal, the server being capable of receiving entries,

generating a draw outcome, wherein the draw outcome is a concatenation of characters,

assigning a win or loss status to the words within an entry based on a predefined rule and the outcome,

selecting winning entries based on which words within an entry are conferred a win status, and

assigning a prize for each winning entry.

29. A system for playing a lottery game, comprising:

an input means for receiving user entries, wherein each entry includes at least one word, a word being defined a concatenation of characters;

a means for receiving entries from the input means;

a means for generating a draw outcome, wherein the draw outcome is a concatenation of characters;

a means for assigning a win or loss status to the words within an entry based on a predefined rule and the outcome;

a means for selecting winning entries based on which words within an entry are conferred a win status; and

a means for assigning a prize for each winning entry.