Hand-held multi-function electronic lottery device

• US 5,893,797 A
• Filed: 05/05/1997
• Issued: 04/13/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 05/05/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Anthony J. Marino, John S. Marino
• Original Assignee: Anthony J. Marino, John S. Marino
• Inventors: Marino, Anthony J., Marino, John S.
• Primary Examiner(s): ONEILL, MICHAEL W
• Application Number:
  US08/851,211
• Time in Patent Office: 708 Days
• Field of Search: 463/46, 463/44, 463/19, 463/18, 463/17, 463/16, 273/148.13, 273/269, 364/410.1, 364/411.1, 364/412.1, 361/600, 361/679
• US Class Current: 463/46
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 3/081 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 15/006 electronically

Abstract

A hand-held multi-function electronic lottery device that is holdable in a hand of a user and has a user lottery ticket with a user lottery ticket number thereon insertable therethrough. The hand-held multi-function electronic lottery device includes a housing, a keypads a magnifier ticket reader windows and an L.E.D display. The housing has a front with a lower portion and an upper portion, a back with an upper portion that has a slot therethrough for inserting the user lottery ticket therethrough, a top, a bottom, and a pair of sides. The keypad is disposed on the housing. The magnifier ticket reader window is disposed on the housing and allows the user lottery ticket number on the user lottery ticket to be magnified and viewed therethrough when the user lottery ticket is inserted through the slot in the housing. The L.E.D. display is disposed on the housing. The hand-held multi-function electronic lottery device further includes a "main" routine that is utilized to input data, a "pick" sub-routine that is utilized to randomally pick numbers, a "best" sub-routine that is utilized to display the most frequently occurring winning lottery numbers, and a "replay" sub-routine that is utilized to store a selected group of lottery numbers.

Claims

1. A hand-held multi-function electronic lottery device holdable in a hand of a user and having a user lottery ticket with a user lottery ticket number thereon insertable therethrough comprising;

a) a housing having a front with a lower portion and an upper portion, a back with an upper portion having a slot therethrough for inserting the user lottery ticket therethrough, a top, a bottom, and a pair of sides;

b) a keypad disposed on said housing;

c) a magnifier ticket reader window disposed on said housing for allowing the user lottery ticket number on the user lottery ticket to be magnified and viewed therethrough when the user lottery ticket is inserted through said slot in said housing; and

d) an L.E.D. display disposed on said housing.

2. The device as defined in claim 1, wherein said housing is hollow, thin, and generally rectangular-parallelepiped-shaped.

3. The device as defined in claim 1, wherein said front of said housing is flat and rectangular-shaped.

4. The device as defined in claim 1, wherein said back of said housing is parallel to, and opposes, said front of said housing and is flat and rectangular-shaped.

5. The device as defined in claim 1, wherein said top of said housing connects said front of said housing to said back of said housing at their upper extremes.

6. The device as defined in claim 1, wherein said bottom of said housing connects said front of said housing to said back of said housing at their lower extremes.

7. The device as defined in claim 1, wherein said upper portion of said back of said housing is thin and rectangular-parallelepiped-shaped, and extends rearwardly outwardly therefrom and downwardly from said top of said housing to generally midway between said top of said housing and said bottom of said housing, and sidewardly from side to side of said pair of sides of said housing.

8. The device as defined in claim 1, wherein said upper portion of said back of said housing has a top that is coplanar with said top of said housing, and a bottom that is disposed midway between said top of said housing and said bottom of said housing.

9. The device as defined in claim 8, wherein said slot in said upper portion of said back of said housing is transverse and parallel to said front of said housing, and extends from, and opens into said top of said upper portion of said back of said housing to, and opens into, said bottom of said upper portion of said back of said housing.

10. The device as defined in claim 1 wherein said keypad is electronic and disposed on said lower portion of said front of said housing.

11. The device as defined in claim 1, wherein said keypad includes a "delete" key, a "win num" key, an "input num" key, a "pick" key, a "best" key, a "replay" key, a "0" key, a "1" key, a "2" key, a "3" key, a "4" key, a "5" key, a "6" key, a "7" key, an "8" key, and a "9" key.

12. The device as defined in claim 1, wherein said magnifier ticket reader window is disposed on said upper portion of said front of said housing and is transverse, semi-cylindrically-shaped, and communicates with said slot in said upper portion of said back of said housing so as to allow the user lottery ticket number on the user lottery ticket to be magnified and viewed therethrough when the user lottery ticket is inserted through the slot in the upper portion of the back of the housing.

13. The device as defined in claim 12, wherein said L.E.D. display is disposed on said upper portion of said front of said housing and is transverse and disposed above said magnifier ticket reader window on said upper portion of said front of said housing.

14. The device as defined in claim 13, further comprising a solar cell disposed on said housing and accomplishing a function of at least one of powering said hand-held multi-function electronic lottery device and recharging a battery for powering said hand-held multi-function electronic lottery device.

15. The device as defined in claim 14, wherein said solar cell is disposed on said upper portion of said front of said housing and is transverse and disposed above said L.E.D. display on said upper portion of said front of said housing.

16. A method of using a hand-held multi-function electronic lottery device, comprising the steps of:

a) inserting manually a user lottery ticket in a slot in said hand-held multi-function electronic lottery device;

b) displaying a user lottery ticket number in a magnified ticket reader window of said hand-held multi-function electronic lottery device;

c) entering manually a winning lottery number by use of a keypad of said hand-held multi-function electronic lottery device;

d) displaying the winning lottery number on an L.E.D. display of said hand-held multi-function electronic lottery device;

e) determining if number displayed on said L.E.D. display is the winning lottery number;

f) pressing manually a "delete" key on said keypad, if answer to step e) is no;

g) returning to step c), if said "delete" key on said keypad has been pressed manually;

h) pressing manually a "win num" key on said keypads if answer to step e) is yes;

i) ordering automatically numbers of the winning lottery number from lowest to highest so as to form an ordered winning lottery number;

j) entering manually an alternate number to the ordered winning lottery number by use of said keypad;

k) determining visually if the user lottery ticket number displayed in said magnifier window is a winner by comparing it with the winning lottery number displayed on said L.E.D. display;

l) displaying the winning lottery number displayed on said L.E.D. display for 10 minutes;

m) attaching automatically a winning lottery number identifier to the winning lottery number;

n) storing the winning lottery number with the winning number identifier;

o) entering manually the user lottery ticket number displayed in said magnifier ticket reader window by use of said keypad;

p) displaying the user lottery ticket number on said L.E.D. display;

q) determining if number displayed on said L.E.D. display is the user lottery ticket number;

r) pressing manually said "delete" key on said keypad, if answer to step q) is no;

s) returning to step o), if "delete" key on said keypad has been pressed manually;

t) pressing manually an "input num" key on said keypad, if answer to step q) is yes;

u) ordering automatically numbers of the user lottery ticket number from lowest to highest so as to form an ordered user lottery ticket number;

v) entering manually an alternate number to the ordered user lottery ticket number by use of said keypad;

w) attaching automatically a user lottery ticket number identifier to the user lottery ticket number; and

x) storing the user lottery ticket number with the user lottery ticket number identifier.

17. The method as defined in claim 16, further comprising the steps of:

a) pressing manually a "pick" key on said keypad;

b) activating automatically a random number generator of said hand-held multi-function electronic lottery device;

c) generating automatically random numbers;

d) displaying the random numbers on said L.E.D. display with a "p" in an alternate column of said L.E.D. display so as to form displayed random numbers;

e) determining if the displayed random numbers are to be a user pick;

f) pressing manually press the "delete" key on the keypad, if answer to step e) is no;

g) pressing manually the "input num" key on the keypad, if answer to step e) is yes;

h) determining if the "win num" key on said keypad was hit instead of the "input num" key on said keypad;

i) displaying "error" on said L.E.D. display, if answer to step h) is yes;

j) attaching automatically a user pick identifier to the random numbers so as to form user pick numbers, if answer to step h) is no; and

k) storing the user pick numbers with the user pick number identifier.

18. The method as defined in claim 16, further comprising the steps of:

a) pressing manually a "best" key on said keypad;

b) retrieving automatically most frequently occurring winning lottery numbers in numerical order;

c) displaying the most frequently occurring winning lottery numbers on the L.E.D. display with a "B" in the alternate column of the L.E.D. display;

d) determining if the most frequently occurring winning lottery numbers displayed on the L.E.D. display is to be a user pick;

e) pressing manually the "delete" key on the keypad, if answer to step d) is no;

f) pressing manually the "input num" key on the keypad, if answer to step d) is yes;

g) determining if the "win num" key on the keypad was hit instead of the "input num" key on the keypad;

h) displaying "error" on the L.E.D. display, if answer to step g) is yes;

i) attaching automatically a user pick identifier to the most frequently occurring winning lottery numbers, if answer to step g) is no; and

j) storing the most frequently occurring winning lottery numbers with the user pick identifier.

19. The method as defined in claim 16, further comprising the steps of:

a) pressing manually a "replay" key on said keypad;

b) display an "R" in said alternate column of said L.E.D. display;

c) entering manually a predetermined replay set by use of said keypad;

d) displaying the predetermined replay set on said L.E.D. display with the "R" in said alternate column of said L.E.D. display;

e) determining if the predetermined replay set displayed on said L.E.D. display is the predetermined replay set;

f) pressing manually said "delete" key on said keypad, if answer to step e) is no;

g) returning to step c) if said "delete" key on said keypad was pressed manually;

h) pressing manually said "input num" key on said keypad, if answer to step e) is yes;

i) attaching automatically a replay set identifier to the predetermined replay set;

j) storing automatically the predetermined replay set with the replay set identifier so as to form a stored replay set;

k) pressing manually said "replay" key on said keypad again;

l) comparing automatically the stored replay set with most recently stored winning lottery numbers;

m) determining if the stored replay set contains at least three winning lottery numbers;

n) terminating said method if answer to step m) is no;

o) displaying the stored replay set containing the at least three winning lottery numbers so as to form a displayed stored replay set, if answer to step m) is yes;

p) determining if the displayed stored replay set is to be deleted, if answer to step m) is yes;

q) terminating the method if answer to step p) is no; and

r) pressing manually said "delete" key on said keypad, if answer to step p) is yes.