WO2000057968A1

WO2000057968A1 - A new type of instant scratch-off lottery games

Info

Publication number: WO2000057968A1
Application number: PCT/US1999/006758
Authority: WO
Original assignee: Sultan, Hashem
Priority date: 1997-12-29
Filing date: 1999-03-29
Publication date: 2000-10-05
Also published as: AU3367399A; US5887906A

Abstract

A tamper resistant lottery ticket (1) for preventing payoff of invalid tickets comprises a ticket body having a plurality of numerical symbols (10) formed on the ticket body and a game field (4) associated with each of said numerical symbols on the body. At least one winning symbol for the ticket is positioned in a game field (4) and associated with a numerical symbol. A scratch-off material (9) covers the game fields (4) to hide contents of the game fields (4) and therefore hide the at least one winning symbol. The scratch-off material (9) is removable by a lottery player to reveal the contents of a game field (4) when the game field (4) is chosen. A readable security code (3) is printed on the scratch-off material (9) of the game fields (4).

Description

A NEW TYPE OF INSTANT SCRATCH-OFF LOTTERY GAMES

Field of the Invention

The invention relates to instant scratch-off lottery games in general, and

to means for preventing fraudulent alteration of the ticket.

Background of the Invention

Instant scratch-off lottery tickets are being increasingly sold around the

world.

Instant scratch-off lottery tickets contain hidden preprinted winning and

losing game data which distinguish this form of lottery from the various other

forms in which winning numbers are drawn some time after the sale of the ticket

(conventional state lottery).

This scratch-off lottery utilizes a ticket, card, or other paper imprinted with

indicia such as information relating to certain numbers, symbols, words and the

like which indicate whether the bearer has won a prize. Such tickets must

obscure the win-indicating information from observation by both the ticket

distributor and the ticket purchaser as well until after the ticket has been sold.

In this way, neither the ticket distributor nor the purchaser can determine which

of a large number of tickets contain the win-indicating information. After the ticket is purchased, the purchaser removes the material which

obscures the information imprinted thereon. Once this coating is removed, the

purchaser will know if he holds a winning ticket.

The games of the instant lotteries are generally of five main types:

1 - Match three amounts or symbols and win that amount.

2- Match any of your preprinted numbers to another set of preprinted numbers

and win a predetermined amount.

3- Bingo-type game

4- Compare your preprinted numbers or playing cards to a preprinted number(s)

or playing cards. You win if you get higher numbers, etc.

5- You win if you have a preprinted winning symbol in your card.

All of the above categories of games and all the other currently available

instant lottery games have a predetermined number of winning tickets. The

tickets that have the winning indicia are sold randomly among the other tickets.

The Purchaser has no role in making the ticket he buys a winning one, nor has

he the choice of entering his lucky numbers as he does in purchasing the

conventional lottery ticket.

Players feel more satisfaction if they can choose their own numbers

compared to having a ticket with preprinted winning indicia.

The current invention provides the combined advantages of the

conventional lottery by allowing the purchaser to enter his chosen number and the advantage of the instant scratch-off lottery tickets by enabling the purchaser

to immediately learn if the ticket is a winner or loser.

It is, therefore, a prime object of the current invention to provide a novel

type of instant lottery scratch-off game in which any ticket could be a winning

one if the player entered the correct numbers printed on that particular ticket.

It is another object of the present invention to provide endless new

varieties of games where only the player has a major input and contribution to

make the ticket a winning one.

It is another object of this invention to provide the player with prior

knowledge of the amount of the prize and the probability of winning for each

particular game.

It is another object of the current invention to create more trust and

confidence in the lottery agency by making the player choose his own numbers.

It is another object of the current invention to provide a method for

defeating any technique for nondestructive premature reading of the winning

number printed on the card by providing a security bar code over-printed on the

scratch-off material which covers the boxes which correspond to each number.

The security bar codes will enable the ticket distributor to transfer the

information to a central computer of the lottery agency to approve or disapprove

the payment of the prizes of the winning tickets.

In view of the above shortcomings of the instant lottery tickets, there is a

need in the lottery business for new types of games which combine the advantages of traditional lottery games by allowing players to choose their own

numbers and the advantage of the instant scratch-off ticket by allowing

immediate learning if the ticket is a winner or loser.

Summary of the Invention

The current invention relates to the structure of a game card of the instant

scratch-off type of lotteries.

The current invention provides the combined advantages of the

conventional lottery which allows the player to choose his own number to

determine his chance of winning, and the advantage of the instant scratch-off

lottery tickets by enabling the player to immediately learn if the ticket is a winning

or a losing one.

It is another object of the invention to provide a method to ensure whether

or not the ticket is invalidated by revealing more data than the player is allowed.

This is achieved by a bar code, readable to a scanner, covering each box

representing the number of the set of numbers printed on the card.

The current invention provides a plurality of games allowing the player to

pick his own number, which varies with each particular game, which could be

pick 1 , 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or more numbers from a set of numbers. Each number of

this set is represented by a box covered by the scratch-off material which is

over-printed with an appropriate bar code readable to a scanner (such scanners

are already widely used in stores). The winning number for each ticket is chosen randomly by a central

processor of the lottery agency and stored in its data associated with the serial

number of the ticket which is also printed on the card as a scanner readable bar

code. The winning numbers are marked by symbols inside the corresponding

boxes and are hidden by the scratch-off material and the over-printed security

bar code. The winning numbers are unique for each card.

The player is instructed to remove only the material covering the boxes

which corresponds to the numbers chosen. If the player reveals more boxes

than allowed for that particular game, the card is invalidated and the player loses

even if he reveals the correct numbers.

For example, if the player is playing the Pick 3 games, he is instructed to

choose only three numbers of a set of numbers printed on the card. He has to

remove only the scratch-off material covering the boxes (or fields) of his three

selected numbers.

The ticket distributors are provided with scanners (not part of the

invention-already available in the market), that can read the serial number of

the ticket and the security bar code for each box number to verify that winning

numbers are revealed and that only certain numbers of the fields are revealed

and the covering security bar codes of the rest of the fields are not violated. The

information thus obtained is transferred to the central processor of the lottery

agency to approve or disapprove the payment of the prizes. Brief Description of the Drawings

Figure 1 is a rough drawing of a ticket for Pick 6 numbers showing the

numbers and their corresponding boxes covered with a security bar code.

Figure 2 is a rough drawing of a ticket for Pick 6 numbers, with a player

having entered six numbers, 3, 8, 13, 28, 43, and 47. The player matched five

numbers of the six.

Figures 3, 4 and 5 show examples of different types of playing Pick 3

numbers with different probabilities of winning, and hence different prizes.

Figure 6 is a rough drawing of a cross-section of the lottery ticket showing

the security bar codes 3 over-printed on the scratch-off material 9.

Detailed Description of the Invention

The current invention relates to the structure of a game card of the instant

scratch-off type of lotteries.

In Figure 1 , an example of the proposed games is illustrated. The

manufacturing of these kinds of tickets is well known to those of ordinary skill in

the art, and is beyond the scope of this invention.

The card needs to be made of multi-layered card protected against see-

through, difficult to forge, in which the hidden data are printed with an ink having

no or minimal radio opacity, such as described by Silverschotz et a!., in U.S.

Patent No. 5,542,710, and Meloni et al. in U.S. Patent No. 4,787,950, and by

Hansell, U.S. Patent No. 5,407,535, and by Goldman in U.S. Patent No.

4.191 ,376. The card is overprinted with a group of numbers 10. The group may

consist of any amount of numbers, which varies with the type of game played

and the rules set by the lottery agency.

Each number of this group is represented by a small box 4 or area, or a

game field of any other shape, like a circle, heart, etc. The box is covered with

a printed security bar code 3 representing the number. This security code is

readable to an ordinary scanner available in almost every store. It should be

noted that this security code need not be of the bar code type; any symbol

readable to scanners can be used.

In Figure 6, a sectional view of the card is illustrated showing the security

code 3 overprinted on the scratch-off material 9 which is coating the other layers

2 of the card 1.

The card has a field 5 for the serial number of the card, as well as its

scanner readable bar code 6. The bar code is printed on the card itself and may

or may not be coated with scratch-off material for covering the serial number and

its readable bar code.

The serial number will indicate the predetermined numbers of the field the

player is allowed to reveal its content; example 03-000 0000 00000 indicates

that the card is a pick 3 fields only, and 05-000 00000 indicates that the card is

a pick 5 fields only. The rest of the serial number is the number of the ticket associated with

the predetermined winning numbers chosen randomly by the central processor

of the lottery agency.

Instructions on the rules of the game are overprinted with the amount of

the prizes. For example, in Figure 1 , the player is instructed to pick only six

numbers by scratching off the material covering the corresponding six fields to

reveal the contents of those fields, from a group of the fields 10. If the player

reveais more than six fields, the ticket will be invalidated. This can be

immediately recognized by the scanners reading the ticket.

Each ticket has winning numbers chosen randomly by a central computer

processor in the lottery agency and the winning numbers are stored with their

corresponding serial number in the computer. The winning numbers of

selectable game fields (e.g., 1-6 fields) are associated with the serial number of

each ticket.

To verify a winning ticket, the computer should compare the numbers

whose security code is erased by removal of the scratch-off with the serial

number of the ticket and that only a certain number of fields as instructed are

chosen by the player (like six fields in the Pick 6 game) by verifying the integrity

of the security codes over the rest of the fields which correspond to the

numbers. Figure 2 shows that by scratching off the security code of the numbers

chosen by a player he will immediately learn if he chooses the fields with

winning numbers or symbols or not.

Winning numbers are indicated by hidden symbol 7 in the boxes 4 of the

numbers. The symbol can be a letter, another number, a word, a certain color,

or any other mark or indicator determined by the lottery agency.

It is shown in Figure 2, as an example, the player has chosen fields

numbers 3, 8, 13, 28, 43, and 47. The winning numbers were 3, 8, 28, 35

(which the player did not choose and which is still hidden by the security code),

43, and 47. As seen, the field of number 13 does not have a winning symbol

and therefore is represented by either an empty field 8 or another symbol to

indicate a non-winning number.

Prizes vary with each particular game and the probability of winning for

each game.

In general, the probability of winning for any lottery game is the product

of the probability of winning of each one attempt multiplied by the number of

attempts. Therefore, in the conventional lottery of Ohio Super Lotto, where

players have to choose six numbers from 1 to 47, the probability for each one

ticket is 1/10,737,573. If the volume of ticket sales exceeds 10 million tickets,

the probability of a winner approaches % 100.

For the same game (Pick 6 from 1 to 47) on the current invention, the

probability for each player remains the same 1/10,737,573, but the probability of a winner remains 1/10,373,573 because each winning number on a particular

card is always played only once.

This will give the lottery agency tremendous benefits. The purchaser, on

the other hand, as an individual, is not affected. His chance of winning remains

the same whether he played the same game on the conventional lottery or the

scratch-off type, but he has the advantage of learning immediately whether he

is a winner or not.

By reducing the probability of having a winner, the lottery agency has a

great benefit and it allows them to increase the chances and the amount to be

won by the player, which generally improves the chance of the player to be a

winner, compared to the conventional lottery.

For example, in the Ohio Super Lotto (Pick 6 from 1 to 47), matching four

numbers out of six, with a probability of 1/11891 , wins only $70-120. With the

current invention for the same game, the lottery agency can increase the prize

up to $10,000, or can increase the chance of winning by awarding match 3 or

2 numbers out of the six.

Overall, the current invention increases the chances of winning and

benefits for the players as well as the lottery agency.

Figures 3, 4, and 5 show some of the varieties of games with the prizes

varying with changing the set of numbers the player has to choose from.

While this invention has been described as having a preferred design, it

is understood that it is capable of further modification, uses and/or adaptations of the invention following in general the principles of the invention and including

such departure from the present disclosure as comes within the known or

customary practice in the art to which the invention pertains and as may be

applied to the central feature hereinbefore set forth, and fall within the scope of

the invention and the limits of the appended claims.

An example of this modification is the association of the fields with letters

or symbols or even no association with anything, just presenting fields as fields

for selection by a player.

Claims

1. A tamper resistant lottery ticket for preventing payoff of invalid tickets

comprising:

a ticket body;

a plurality of numerical symbols formed on the ticket body, a game field

associated with each of said numerical symbols on the body, the game fields

choosable by a lottery player;

at least one winning symbol for the ticket positioned in a game field and

associated with a numerical symbol;

a scratch-off material covering the game fields to hide contents of the

game fields and therefore hide the at least one winning symbol, the scratch-off

material removable by a lottery player to reveal the contents of a game field

when the game field is chosen;

a readable security code printed on the scratch-off material of the game

fields, the security code being removable when the scratch-off material is

removed to reveal the game field contents;

whereby the security codes of the ticket may be read to ensure that the

proper number of game field contents are revealed and the lottery ticket is valid.

2. The tamper resistant lottery ticket of claim 1 further comprising a serial

number field, the serial number field including a serial number for the ticket

associated with at least one of said game fields containing a winning symbol.

3. The tamper resistant lottery ticket of claim 2 wherein said serial number

includes a readable serial number code.

4. The tamper resistant lottery ticket of claim 2 wherein said serial number

is also associated with the number of game field contents which may be

revealed for the ticket for a valid ticket.

5. The tamper resistant lottery ticket of claim 1 further comprising a plurality

of winning symbols in the game fields.

6. The tamper resistant lottery ticket of claim 5 wherein said plurality of

winning symbols is a predetermined number of winning symbols for fixing the

proper number of game fields which are revealable.

7. The tamper resistant lottery ticket of claim 1 wherein said readable security code is a bar code.

8. The tamper resistant lottery ticket of claim 2 wherein said readable serial

number code is a bar code.

9. A tamper resistant lottery ticket for preventing payoff of invalid tickets

comprising:

a ticket body;

a plurality of game fields formed on the body, the game fields choosable

by a lottery player;

a scratch-off material covering the game fields to hide contents of the

game fields, the scratch-off material removable by a lottery player to reveal the

contents of a game field when the game field is chosen;

a readable security code printed on the scratch-off material of the game

fields, the security code being removable when the scratch-off material is

removed to reveal the game field contents;

whereby the security codes of the ticket may be read to ensure that the proper number of game field contents are revealed and the lottery ticket is valid.

10. The tamper resistant lottery ticket of claim 9 further comprising a serial

number field, the serial number field including a serial number for the ticket

associated with at least one of said game fields.

11. The tamper resistant lottery ticket of claim 10 wherein said serial number

includes a readable serial number code.

12. The tamper resistant lottery ticket of claim 10 wherein said serial number

is also associated with the number of game field contents which may be

revealed for the ticket for a valid ticket.

13. The tamper resistant lottery ticket of claim 9 wherein said readable

security code is a bar code.

14. A method for playing a lottery game with tickets and preventing payoff of

an invalid lottery ticket comprising:

providing a ticket to a player having a plurality of game fields thereon

which are choosable by a lottery player;

providing a scratch-off material on the ticket for covering the game fields

to hide contents of the game fields, the scratch-off material being removable by

a lottery player to reveal the contents of a game field when the game field is

chosen by the player;

providing a readable security code on top of the scratch-off material of the

game fields, the security code being removable when the scratch-off material is

removed to reveal the game field contents;

instructing the lottery player to choose a predetermined number of the

game fields and to remove the scratch-off material and the readable security

code for the chosen game fields to reveal the contents of the game fields;

reading the security codes of the game fields after the lottery player has

chosen to determine the number of game fields having the scratch-off material

removed by the player;

comparing the game fields with the scratch-off material removed to the

predetermined number of game fields to determine if the proper number of game

fields were chosen by the player;

determining the validity of the lottery ticket based upon said comparison step.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising providing a serial number field

on the ticket, the serial number field including a serial number for the ticket

associated with the predetermined number of choosable game fields.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein said serial number includes a readable

serial number code.

17. The method of claim 15 further comprising reading said serial number to

determine the predetermined number of choosable game fields for a valid ticket.

18. The method of claim 14 wherein at least one of said game fields includes

a winning symbol positioned therein to indicate a winning game field on the ticket.

19. The method of claim 14 wherein said readable security code is a bar code.