Ticket dispenser machine and method

• US 5,222,624 A
• Filed: 07/10/1992
• Issued: 06/29/1993
• Est. Priority Date: 02/17/1989
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: GTECH Corporation (GTECH SpA)
• Original Assignee: Donald Sutherland
• Inventors: Burr, Robert L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bollinger, David H.
• Application Number:
  US07/912,005
• Time in Patent Office: 354 Days
• Field of Search: 221/1, 221/2, 221/3, 221/8, 221/9, 221/10, 221/13, 221/25, 221/26, 221/30, 221/92, 221/123, 221/124, 221/129-131, 221/155, 221/191, 221/194, 221/195, 221/206, 221/207, 235/375, 364/479
• US Class Current: 221/1
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 15/005 with dispensing of lottery tickets
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/329 Regular and instant lottery, e.g. electronic scratch cards
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/42 for ticket printing or like apparatus , e.g. apparatus for dispensing of printed paper tickets or payment cards

Abstract

Preferably, instant-winner lottery tickets are sold by the machine. The machine includes a bill acceptor to receive the money of the purchaser. It has from one to four windows in a front panel. Lottery tickets are displayed in the window and move past the window as they are being dispensed, thus allowing the buyer to see the messages and terms on the tickets themselves. When more than one window is provided in the machine, the buyer can select among a plurality of different instant-winner lottery games. The machine is connected electrically to a central computer for accounting and control functions. In another embodiment, representations of the tickets are displayed in a movable array on a video screen.

Claims

1. A ticket dispensing machine, comprising, in combination, a housing, at least one window in said housing through which tickets inside said housing can be seen but not touched by a person outside said housing, a dispensing outlet in said housing, electrically powered means for moving a continuous strip of tickets past said window, and for dispensing through said outlet a pre-determined number of said tickets to an operator of said machine.

2. A machine as in claim 1 in which said housing has a plurality of said windows, and said moving means is adapted to move an array of tickets past each of said windows.

3. A machine as in claim 1 in which said tickets are lottery tickets.

4. A machine as in claim 1 including means for receiving a medium of monetary exchange, detecting the number of monetary units represented by said medium and dispensing the number of tickets corresponding to said number of monetary units.

5. A machine as in claim 1 in which said dispensing outlet is accessible to an operator in a position to see the tickets behind said window.

6. A machine as in claim 1 in which said dispensing means includes means for barring a person from grasping any ticket before it is dispensed through said outlet.

7. A ticket dispensing machine, comprising, in combination, a housing, at least one window in said housing through which tickets inside said housing can be seen but not touched by a person outside said housing, a dispensing outlet in said housing, moving means for moving an array of tickets past said window, and means for dispensing through said outlet a pre-determined number of tickets to an operator of said machine including bar-code reading means mounted adjacent the path of travel by said tickets for reading a bar code from said tickets and transmitting to central computer means the information so read.

8. A machine as in claim 7 in which the barcodes on said tickets represent one or more of the group consisting of;

individual ticket identification;

ticket bath identification;

ticket lot numbers;

ticket manufacturer;

ticket manufacture date;

the game represented by the ticket;

whether the ticket is a winner;

how much winnings the ticket is worth.

9. A ticket vending method, said method comprising the steps of:

(a) utilizing electrically powered drive means for moving a strip of mutually-attached tickets past a viewing window in a housing in a manner such that the tickets can be seen from outside said housing, and

(b) issuing from said housing a pre-determined number of tickets from said array which are ordered by an operator.

10. A method as in claim 9 including the step of providing a plurality of windows in said housing, each with an array of tickets and powered drive means to move the array past it, and selecting among said arrays and issuing tickets from one of them.

11. A method as in claim 10 in which said tickets are lottery tickets, the tickets displayed through each of said windows representing a different lottery game to provide the customer with a variety of different games to select from.

12. A method as in claim 9 including the steps of providing a plurality of ticket vending machines in a particular locale, selecting one of said machines to be a master and the others to be slaves, and communicating data regarding the operation of said master and slave units through said master unit.

13. A lottery ticket vending machine comprising, in combination, a housing, display means for displaying an array of lottery ticket representations viewable from outside of said housing by a customer, said array representing tickets in said machine available for purchase, acceptor means for receiving and accepting a means of monetary exchange, and means for dispensing said tickets in a number corresponding to the amount of money input into said machine by said customer, in which said display means comprises at least one transparent window through which said array can be seen but not touched by said customer, and means for moving said array in said enclosure during the dispensing of said tickets, said tickets being formed in a continuous strip with individual tickets delineated from their neighbors by perforations, storage means in said housing for storing a supply of said tickets, feed means for feeding said strip past said window, separator means for receiving said strip, and after passing by said window and separating said tickets from one another, said dispensing means being adapted to dispense one or more tickets separated from said strip including sliding support means for mounting said storage, feed, separator and dispensing means in said housing, said housing having a removable panel and said support means being slidable out of said housing for ease of reloading and service.

14. A machine as in claim 13 in which said removable panel is a hinged front panel, said window being located in said front panel.

15. A machine as in claim 13 said housing having a front panel, said window comprising a bezel in said front panel, a transparent covering for the front of said bezel, and the back of said bezel being open, and guide means for guiding said strip along said back of said bezel.

16. A machine as in claim 13, including adjustable edge guide means for guiding the edges of said strip, said adjustable edge guide means comprising a pair of cams rotatable to change the spacing between them.

17. A lottery ticket vending machine comprising, in combination, a housing, display means for displaying an array of lottery ticket representations viewable from outside of said housing by a customer, said array representing tickets in said machine available for purchase, acceptor means for receiving and accepting a means of monetary exchange, and means for dispensing said tickets in a number corresponding to the amount of money input into said machine by said customer, in which said display means comprises at least one transparent enclosure through which said array can be seen but not touched by said customer, and means for moving said array in said enclosure during the dispensing of said tickets, including a lamp for illuminating said array.

18. A lottery ticket vending machine comprising, in combination, a housing, display means for displaying an array of lottery ticket representations viewable from outside of said housing by a customer, said array representing tickets in said machine available for purchase, acceptor means for receiving and accepting a means of monetary exchange, and means for dispensing said tickets in a number corresponding to the amount of money input into said machine by said customer, in which said display means comprises video display means for displaying a plurality of arrays of ticket images on a video screen.

19. A machine as in claim 18 including means for separately scrolling each of said arrays to produce motion as tickets represented by a selected array are being dispensed.

20. A machine as in claim 19 including video memory means for storing and delivering to said video display means signals to form said arrays under the control of electrical control circuitry.

21. A ticket dispensing machine, said machine comprising, in combination, a housing, at least one window in said housing through which tickets inside said housing can be seen but not touched by a person outside said housing, a dispensing outlet in said housing, moving means for moving an array of tickets past said window, means for dispensing through said outlet a pre-determined number of tickets to an operator of said machine, said tickets being formed in a continuous strip with individual tickets delineated from their neighbors by perforations, storage means in said housing for storing a supply of said tickets, separator means for receiving said strip after passing by said window and separating said tickets from one another, said dispensing means being adapted to dispense one or more tickets separated from said strip, including sliding support means for mounting said storage, feed, separator and dispensing means in said housing, said housing having a removable panel and said support means being slidable out of said housing for ease of reloading and service.

22. A machine as in claim 21 in which said removable panel is a hinged front panel, said window being located in said front panel.

23. A ticket dispensing machine, said machine comprising, in combination, housing, at least one window in said housing through which tickets inside said housing can be seen but not touched by a person outside said housing, a dispensing outlet in said housing, moving means for moving an array of tickets past said window, means for dispensing through said outlet a pre-determined number of tickets to an operator of said machine, said tickets being formed in a continuous strip with individual tickets delineated from their neighbors by perforations, storage means in said housing for storing a supply of said tickets, separator means for receiving said strip after passing by said window and separating said tickets from one another, said dispensing means being adapted to dispense one or more tickets separated from said strip, said housing having a front panel, said window comprising a bezel in said front panel, a transparent covering for the front of said bezel, and the back of said bezel being open, and guide means for guiding said strip along said back of said bezel.

24. A method of dispensing tickets from a machine said method comprising the steps of:

(a) displaying a plurality of arrays of ticket representations, each of said arrays representing tickets available for dispensing from said machine,

(b) selecting tickets from one of said arrays,

(c) dispensing a selected number of said tickets, and

(d) causing the selected array to move to indicate the dispensing of tickets therefrom, in which said ticket representations comprise video images of said tickets displayed on a video screen.