Player operable lottery machine having display means displaying combinations of game result indicia

• US 4,817,951 A
• Filed: 06/25/1987
• Issued: 04/04/1989
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/1986
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Aristocrat Technologies Australia PTY Limited (Aristocrat Leisure Limited)
• Original Assignee: Ainsworth Nominee Pty Limited
• Inventors: Crouch, Philip C., Finnigan, Patrick J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lastova, Maryann
• Application Number:
  US07/066,373
• Time in Patent Office: 649 Days
• Field of Search: 273/1 E, 273/138 A, 273/143 R, 273/DIG. 28, 364/410-412, 902/23
• US Class Current: 463/20
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3244 Payment aspects of a gaming system, e.g. payment schemes, setting payout ratio, bonus or consolation prizes

Abstract

A lottery machine comprising a display which can display combinations of indicia selected from a predetermined set of such combinations, and a control device arranged to sequentially select game results from a predetermined set of game results and to display an indicia combination corresponding to the selected result on the display. Each game on the machine is initiated by a player and can only be initiated after the player has established a credit in the machine. At the commencement of operation of the machine, or when a previous set of game results have all been used, the control device sequentially selects each possible game result for the next series of games to be played and randomly allocates the results to game numbers in the series in order to produce a new set of predetermined game results.

Claims

1. A player operable instant lottery machine, comprising display means, control means to control the operation of the display means, and initiation means operable by a player to cause the control means to select and display a new result on the display means,

said display means comprising means to simultaneously display several indicia in combination, said indicia being selected from a predetermined set of indicia and said combination being selected from a predetermined set of combinations of said indicia,

the control means including storage means for storing an ordered set of numbered game results representing a set of pseudo tickets of a lottery game series which is currently in progress, random number selection means for generating game results for said ordered set of game results and means for storing the ordered set in the storage means at the commencement of each said game series, means for sequentially selecting a next game result from the ordered set in the order in which they are stored in response to operation of the initiating means and means for displaying a combination of indicia corresponding to the currently selected game result.

2. The lottery machine of claim 1 wherein a plurality of styles of lottery game are provided by said control means, each style having a different set of results, and a new style being selected each time a set of game results is selected at the commencement of each of said game series.

3. The lottery machine of claim 2 wherein the games are selected in sequence by said control means and when each of the plurality of styles has been used, the first style is repeated.

4. The lottery machine of claim 1 wherein the display means comprises a plurality of rotatable reels each carrying a plurality of indicia from said set of indicia and means to rotate the reels and stop them at selected indicia.

5. The lottery machine of claim 4 wherein the reels are free spinning and are stopped spinning by engaging a pawl into a toothed wheel.

6. The lottery machine of claim 4 wherein the reels are driven by an electric motor and are stopped by braking the electric motor.

7. The lottery machine of claim 6 wherein the electric motor is a stepping motor.

8. The lottery machine of claim 1 wherein the display means comprises a video screen and video screen controlling circuit adapted to generate images on the screen representative of a plurality of rotatable reels, such that the display is made to simulate a plurality of spinning reels when a game is initiated, which simulated reels when stopped indicate the indicia combination representing the game result.