METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR OPERATING LOTTERIES AND FOR GENERATING AND PROCESSING LOTTERY ENTRIES

• US 20060223623A1
• Filed: 06/19/2006
• Published: 10/05/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Inventor Holdings LLC (Walker Innovation Inc. (f/k/a Patent Properties, Inc.))
• Original Assignee: Walker Digital LLC (Walker Innovation Inc. (f/k/a Patent Properties, Inc.))
• Inventors: JORASCH, JAMES A., SPARICO, THOMAS M., WALKER, JAY S.
• Granted Patent: US 7,384,333 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/17
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/792 for payment purposes, e.g. monthly subscriptions
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/407 Data transfer via internet
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/50 characterized by details of game servers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 3/0605 Lottery games
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 3/081 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 15/005 with dispensing of lottery tickets
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/32 for games, toys, sports, or amusements
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3234 about the performance of a gaming system, e.g. revenue, diagnosis of the gaming system
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3237 about the players, e.g. profiling, responsible gaming, strategy/behavior of players, location of players
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3239 Tracking of individual players
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/329 Regular and instant lottery, e.g. electronic scratch cards

Abstract

A system and process for generating, distributing, and processing lottery tickets guaranteed to win a drawing-based prize. Tickets are appropriately priced, and are validated at point of sale by a central server in which the ticket information is stored. Subsequent to each lottery drawing, the winning lottery numbers are compared to the entries in a never-lose ticket database to determine if any of the entries match the winning number. Winning entries are appropriately identified and tagged as inactive, while entries that have not yet won a drawing-based prize remain active for future drawings. Ticket pricing methodology is provided for appropriately pricing never-lose tickets. A method and apparatus are further provided whereby a ticket holder may query the status of a never-lose ticket directly from the server.

Claims

1. A method of operating a lottery, comprising the steps of:

(a) receiving a result of a lottery drawing;

(b) comparing said result to a plurality of stored lottery entries;

(c) if said result corresponds to one of said plurality of stored lottery entries, identifying said one entry as a winning lottery entry;

(d) identifying at least one non-winning lottery entry from said plurality of stored lottery entries;

(e) repeating steps (a), (b), (c) and (d) for at least one subsequent lottery drawing until said at least one non-winning lottery entry is identified as a winning lottery entry.

2-73. -73. (canceled)