Lottery game utilizing nostalgic game themes

• US 7,699,314 B2
• Filed: 01/06/2006
• Issued: 04/20/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/07/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Scientific Games Corporation
• Original Assignee: Scientific Games International Incorporated (Scientific Games Corporation)
• Inventors: Bozeman, Alan Kyle
• Primary Examiner(s): Kim; Gene
• Assistant Examiner(s): COLLINS, DOLORES R
• Application Number:
  US11/327,608
• Publication Number:
  US 20060151943A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,565 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 273/138.1
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/32 for games, toys, sports, or amusements
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/329 Regular and instant lottery, e.g. electronic scratch cards

Abstract

A method for hosting and playing a lottery game using nostalgic game themes. The lottery game, in one embodiment emulating Pac-Man®, comprises a player selecting a path on a grid, and a lottery populating the path with numbers either generated randomly or selected by the player. The lottery also randomly places few ghosts on the same grid. A set of player indicia is determined by the numbers on the path before the path intercept with one or more ghosts. The set of player indicia is then compared with a set of winning indicia and the player receives a prize depending on the number of matches between the player indicia and winning indicia.

Claims

1. A method for hosting a lottery game, comprising the steps of:

designating a plurality of game player positions on a predetermined grid presented to the player on a play slip, the game player positions defining a pathway on the grid, said pathway including all of the player positions and being linear and continuous from a first grid position to a second grid position wherein;

issuing a lottery ticket to the player that indicates the player'"'"'s pathway on the grid;

the lottery authority randomly selecting at least one position on said grid; and

determining an outcome of the game based on the intersection of the pathway indicated on the player'"'"'s lottery ticket and the at least one randomly selected position on the grid.

2. The method of claim 1, the step of randomly selecting at least one position on the grid further comprising the step of randomly selecting a plurality of positions from a plurality of separate subsets of positions defined on said grid, wherein the number of subsets is equal to the number of randomly selected positions, and only one position is selected from each of the subsets.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of awarding a game prize to the game player based on the game outcome as a function of where the pathway is intersected by one of the randomly selected positions.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the game prize is based on the number of positions in the pathway from the start position to intersection of the pathway by one of the randomly selected positions.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising the step of randomly assigning player indicia to the grid positions for the player and displaying the randomly assigned player indicia on the lottery ticket issued to the player, the game outcome being a function of the player indicia identified by the pathway up to a first position on the pathway intersected by one of the randomly selected positions.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising the steps of randomly producing a set of lottery indicia and awarding prizes based on the number of matches between the lottery indicia and the player indicia indentified by the pathway.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the lottery authority'"'"'s random selection of grid positions occurs at the time of game entry and is indicated on the lottery ticket issued to the player that also indicates the player'"'"'s pathway of player positions.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the lottery authority'"'"'s random selection of grid positions comprises an event that applies to multiple players and is not indicated on the lottery ticket issued to the player that indicates the player'"'"'s pathway of player positions.