Pre-Printed Lottery Ticket Activation Using Existing POS Readers
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing lottery ticket systems face challenges in securely merchandising pre-printed tickets without risk of loss from fraudulent redemption or shrinkage, and require additional lottery gaming hardware at point-of-sale systems.
Innovation Solution
Pre-printed lottery tickets are manufactured with unique identifiers and can be activated at point-of-sale terminals, allowing enrollment in lotteries without the need for additional hardware, and are processed through a central gaming system to determine winning status.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If pre-printed lottery tickets are displayed openly for secure merchandising, then loss from fraudulent redemption or shrinkage is reduced, but additional lottery gaming hardware is required at point-of-sale systems
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses a magnetic stripe on the lottery ticket as an electronic copy that can be read by existing POS magnetic stripe readers. This allows the system to identify and track tickets without requiring specialized lottery hardware at the point-of-sale location, resolving the contradiction between security and hardware complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The magnetic stripe acts as an intermediary between the physical ticket and the POS system. It enables communication between the ticket and existing POS hardware, allowing secure ticket management without requiring additional specialized hardware at the point-of-sale location
2Productivity
If pre-printed lottery tickets are activated at point-of-sale terminals, then processing efficiency is improved, but computer processing requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the lottery game logic and number generation from the point-of-sale terminal and places it in the central gaming system. This allows simple activation at the POS while complex processing occurs remotely, improving local efficiency without increasing local processing requirements
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces complex local processing with remote processing through a magnetic stripe reading system. The POS terminal only needs to read the magnetic stripe and transmit data, while the central gaming system handles the complex lottery logic, substituting mechanical/physical processing with electronic communication
Data Source
AI summary
A method including receiving an activation request including an identifier uniquely identifying the pre-printed lottery ticket for a pre-printed lottery ticket from a point-of-sale terminal, accessing a record associated with the pre-printed lottery ticket, determining if the activation request is valid, determining a set of attributes associated with the pre-printed lottery ticket based upon the identifier uniquely identifying the pre-printed lottery ticket, determining a central gaming system responsible for administering a lottery with which the pre-printed lottery ticket is associated, and enrolling the set of attributes associated with the pre-printed lottery ticket in the lottery with the central gaming system.