Method of Facilitating Online Group Play of a Lottery Game

Abstract

A method of facilitating online group play of a lottery game. Lottery players each having their own personal profile are permitted to join an online lottery group by linking their personal profile with the lottery group profile. The lottery group is administered by one of the group members. Group members are able to purchase lottery tickets online using personal financial information, such as a credit card number, stored in their personal profile and are able to ascribe the purchased lottery tickets to the group. Group members are able to view the numbers of tickets ascribed to the group and are able to communicate with one another using a message posting means viewable only by group members. Group members are notified electronically in the event that one of the tickets ascribed to the group is a winning ticket. The method facilitates the keeping of electronic records of which group members are playing in any particular draw, reducing the likelihood of a future dispute over attribution of any group winnings.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. patent application 60 / 729,199 filed Oct. 24, 2005, which is incorporated herein by reference.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The invention relates to the online group play of lottery games. More particularly, the invention relates to a method of facilitating the online group play of lottery games using an online tool accessible to members of an online lottery group using the internet. BACKGROUND [0003] Lottery games are a form of gambling entertainment wherein a lottery player purchases a lottery ticket comprising a group of numbers, either selected from a set of available choices or randomly selected. A drawing event is held wherein a group of winning numbers is randomly determined, typically using a rotary drum containing a plurality of numbered balls, and the lottery player having a lottery ticket with at least a sub-set of the group of winning numbers wins a prize amount. This form of gambli...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0010] According to an aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of facilitating online group play of a lottery game, the method comprising: providing an online tool accessible to a plurality of lottery players; permitting each lottery player to create and store an online personal profile using the online tool; permitting at least a first lottery player to create and store an online group profile using the online tool, thereby forming an online group; permitting at least a second lottery player to join the online group by linking the online personal profile of the second lottery player with the online group profile; and, permitting a purchase of at least one lottery ticket ascribed to the online group profile using the online tool.

[0015] The online tool may include message posting means permitting communication between lottery players. The message posting means may include a group area that permits group members to post messages that can only be viewed by other group members. This allows group members to communicate with one another using the online tool without having those communications viewed by non-group members.

[0017] The present invention advantageously facilitates group play of lottery games by relieving a group leader from the responsibility of collecting money, purchasing lottery tickets, and / or keeping records of who is playing in any particular game, thereby reducing the likelihood of a dispute over attribution of any winning prize. This increases the overall enjoyment of the game for the group leader and, as a result, more group leaders are willing to form online groups. By harnessing the communication power of online play, groups are able to form comprising individuals who are not physically located near to one another; this permits people to play in a group who, for example, travel extensively for work, work at home, work in remote locations, or who otherwise do not have regular access to conventional ticket purchase locations or regular access to other group members. Since practical constraints on group size brought on by the need to collect money are alleviated in online group play, larger groups are permitted to form; this increases the group's chances of winning as compared with a smaller group. Anonymous groups are able to form online comprising lottery players who only know one another by their online pseudonyms; this permits people to join a group who otherwise would not normally find themselves in social settings that lend themselves to group play. The overall effect is an increase in the number of players who are able to participate in group play and an increased enjoyment of the game as a result of the social interaction and increased chance of winning that accompanies group play.

Problems solved by technology

A lack of proper record keeping has been known to result in legal challenges to the distribution of group winnings.

The responsibilities of a group leader can therefore prove to be quite onerous and time consuming and this discourages many groups from forming and otherwise diminishes the entertainment value of group play for the group leader.

However, these websites are focused on individual lottery players and none of these websites permit the formation of online groups or online group play.

Also, these tools do not permit the online purchase of lottery tickets, do not record personal financial information of lottery players and do not automatically link the collection of money with a listing of who is playing in a particular draw.

Images