Patent Application
20090287580
The present invention relates to the field of lottery games in general, and more particularly to a method and system for distributing, selling, and redeeming lottery tickets.
Instant win lottery tickets (e.g., scratch-off and pull-tab tickets) have been a staple of the lottery industry for many years. The industry is, however, continuously seeking ways to generate increased interest and excitement in the gaming experience, and to draw in new players. One potential new arena for lottery games that has been generally reticent to the distribution and sale of lottery tickets is the “social establishment” business sector that includes, for example, bars, taverns, restaurants, clubs, and the like. These establishments generally avoid carrying lottery game tickets because of the logistics of handling the product, for example the costs associated with carrying an inventory of unsold products.
The conventional lottery ticket distribution scheme works on a consignment basis wherein the central lottery authority provides packs or bundles of tickets to retailers. An inventory of tickets is maintained by the retailers as “manifested” products. The tickets are eventually “activated” for sale by the retailer, and at some triggering event, the retailer “settles” with the lottery authority for the purchase of the tickets. The settling event may be, for example, some designated time period after activation, or when a designated percentage of winning tickets from an activated pack have been redeemed, or when the next pack of tickets is activated, or when the designated pack of tickets is delivered, and so forth. The retailer is typically liable to the lottery authority for the sales value of the activated tickets, minus an agreed upon sales commission, typically in the range of about 5%-7%. Although quite efficient for certain types of retail establishments, this system does require employee time for maintaining a supply of manifested tickets, and accounting for purchase of activated tickets. Social establishment businesses generally do not have employees for this purpose.
Attempts have been made in the past to reduce the logistical burden discussed above by, for example, providing instant lottery tickets directly to the purchasing public via vending machines. In fact, automated instant lottery ticket vending machines have expanded into traditional lottery venues, such as grocery stores, convenience stores, and the like. However, for the most part, such machines have not been readily accepted in social establishments such as restaurants and taverns due primarily to cost and security issues and the fact that inventory for the machines still must be maintained by the establishment.
The present invention relates to a system and methodology for distributing and selling lottery tickets that addresses certain of the problems discussed above and, thus, may make lottery games more attractive to social establishment retail locations.
Objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the following description, or may be obvious from the description, or may be learned through practice of the invention.
In accordance with certain embodiments, a method for the distribution and sale of lottery tickets is provided. The method is not limited to any particular type or configuration of lottery tickets, and has particular utility with any conventional type of instant lottery ticket. Examples of instant lottery tickets include scratch-off and pull-tab lottery tickets having various themes. The lottery tickets are defined as sets, wherein each set is designated for a particular retail establishment. The sets may be provided as a pack, bundle, brick, or any other convenient or conventional package of tickets. The number and prize amount of winning tickets within each set are known by the lottery authority when the ticket sets are distributed. It should also be appreciated that the present method is not limited to distribution to any particular type of retail establishment, and may include any establishment wherein it is desired to provide lottery tickets to the public. The method is uniquely suited for distribution to social retail establishments, such as bars, pubs, taverns, restaurants, cafes, and the like, frequented by patrons, that have generally not been recognized as likely venues for lottery games.
The lottery ticket sets are provided to the respective designated retail establishments at a price that is a function of the a priori value of all of the tickets within the set. For example, the set may contain 100 tickets that are sold to the public for $1.00 per ticket, whereby the set has a total sales value of $100.00. Of this amount, a given percentage is designated to cover the prize awards for tickets within the set, for example a 65% payout for the lottery game implies that $65.00 of the total sales value is designated for prize awards. The remaining 35% is returned to the lottery authority. The price to the retail establishment may thus be $35.00 less an agreed upon sales commission, for example a commission of 5%-7%. The retail establishment may be invoiced at the time of delivery or acceptance of the tickets, or at some other agreed upon time or event.
The retail establishment sells the lottery tickets to its patrons, and the patrons are made aware that any winning lottery ticket sold by the retail establishment can only be redeemed at the retail establishment. This notice may be provided on any of the materials advertising the lottery, at materials provided at the point of sale of the tickets in the retail establishment, or by any other convenient means. It may be desirable to also provide such notice directly on the lottery tickets.
Accordingly, any winning lottery tickets are presented by the patrons to the retail establishment for their prize value, and the retail establishment only redeems winning tickets sold at the respective establishment.
The method may further include providing any manner of indicia on the lottery tickets that indicates the retail establishment at which the lottery tickets are sold and redeemed. This indicia may be, for example, any manner of advertising material.
The lottery ticket sets may be provided to the retail establishments by a central lottery authority or directly from the lottery ticket manufacturer via any suitable distribution system.
Inevitably, a certain percentage of winning lottery tickets in a pack or bundle are not redeemed by purchasers for any number of reasons. As an incentive to further promote the lottery game, the retail establishments may be allowed to keep any unclaimed prize awards. For example, in the scenario discussed above, the retail establishment would be allowed to keep any unclaimed portion of the $65.00 designated for prize awards.
The present invention also encompasses lottery tickets configured for use in the system and methodology discussed above, wherein lottery tickets incorporating any manner of lottery game in a designated game play area are provided to patrons of a retail establishment, particularly a social establishment. The tickets include any manner of indicia that visually indicates to purchasers the retail establishment where they are purchasing the ticket, with the indicia being unique to a particular retail establishment such that the lottery tickets are associated with only a single retail establishment. Indicia may also be provided on the tickets to notify purchasers that any winning lottery ticket must be redeemed at the retail establishment indicated on the lottery ticket. In this manner, the lottery tickets are thereby sold and redeemed only at the retail establishment indicated on the lottery tickets.
Aspects of the invention are described in greater detail below by reference to the embodiments illustrated in the figures.
Reference will now be made to embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the drawings. Each embodiment is provided by way of explanation of the invention, and not as a limitation of the invention. For example, features illustrated or described as part of one embodiment may be used with another embodiment to yield still a further embodiment. It is intended that these and other modifications and variations to the embodiments described herein be within the scope and spirit of the present invention.
The sets 12 may be provided to the retail establishments 16 from a central lottery authority 22, who receives the sets 12 from a ticket manufacturer 24. In other embodiments, the sets 12 can be delivered directly to the retail establishments 16 from the manufacturer 24 per instructions from the lottery authority 22. The ticket sets 12 are made by the manufacturer 24 so as to be uniquely identifiable with a particular retail establishment 16.
Each of the ticket sets 12 contains a predetermined number of winning tickets 14 having a given prize value, with such information being provided to the lottery authority 22 by the ticket manufacturer 24. Thus, the number and prize amount of winning tickets 14 within each set are known by the lottery authority 22 when the ticket sets 12 are distributed to the retail establishments 16.
As mentioned, it should also be appreciated that the present method is not limited to distribution to any particular type of retail establishment 16, and may include any establishment wherein it is desired to provide lottery tickets to the public. As described herein, the method is uniquely suited for distribution to social retail establishments, such as bars, pubs, taverns, restaurants, cafes, and the like, frequented by patrons, but is not limited to such places.
Still referring to
The retail establishments 16 sell the lottery tickets 14 to their patrons, and the patrons are made aware that any winning lottery ticket 14 sold by the retail establishment can only be redeemed at the retail establishment. This notice may be provided on any of the materials advertising the lottery, at materials provided at the point of sale of the tickets in the retail establishment, or by any other convenient means. In a desirable embodiment, this redemption notice is provided directly on the lottery tickets 14, as indicated by the notice indicia 20 on the tickets 14 of
It should be appreciated that the particular type of lottery game is not a limiting feature. For example, the game play area 32 may incorporate any manner of instant scratch-off lottery game wherein a purchaser determines if the ticket is a winner by removing an opaque layer from scratch-off layer 34 to reveal underlying game indicia. The lottery game play area 32 may include any other features commonly found on lottery tickets, such as indicia 38 advertising or describing the game, rules of the game, prize payouts, and so forth. A bar code 40 or other feature may be provided for any number of reasons, including security, validation, inventory, or any other desired option related to administration of the lottery game.
Thus, the presence (branding) of the establishment's name and logo ties the ticket to the selling establishment. The branding of the ticket allows the establishment to pay prizes only for tickets sold at that location. This makes ticket redemption more personal with the consumer receiving prizes only from the same establishment that sold the ticket. Historically, this type of personal interaction reduces fraud and builds up long-term relationships. More importantly, only redeeming tickets at the establishment where they were sold, allows the lottery to discount the purchase price of a pack of tickets by the total of all prizes contained in that pack.
Thus, the branding of tickets with the selling establishment's name and logo may be a highly desirable feature for social establishments, helping the retailer with security as well as reduced inventory carrying costs. However, the logistics of preprinting a limited number of tickets for each social establishment at the time of manufacture may be expensive and cumbersome.
Part of the logistical manufacturing problem can be addressed by inkjet imaging the back of the tickets when printed. Lottery ticket printers typically have ink jet imaging equipment available inline for printing barcodes on instant tickets. By ink jet imaging the social establishment's name and logo at the same time the instant tickets are printed, the tickets can be produced and packaged ready for the designated store/establishment.
With the use of ink jet imaging (or other variable imaging technology) the cumbersome and time-consuming task of swapping out printing plates or cylinders (e.g., Flexographic, offset, gravure, etc.) is eliminated, allowing the printing press to run continuously printing all of the tickets for all establishments in a lottery's domain at one time. Therefore the cost of semi-customized ticket production is greatly reduced.
In different embodiments, the instant lottery tickets may be branded when received at the establishment that will sell the tickets. This secondary ticket customization process can be accomplished with a one-dimensional print head to brand the tickets as they were advanced that would allow for both monochromatic and color printing including: ink ribbon, ink jet, xerography, phaser, etc.
Another embodiment of the brand-when-received concept is a customization device that punches a series of identifier holes in a non-critical area of the instant ticket. These holes could be small and printed in a matrix fashion that would allow the unit to spell out the name of the establishment, or provide any other manner of identifying the establishment. This type of branding has the advantage of not requiring consumables, like ink jet dye.
Yet another embodiment of the brand-when-received concept is to customize an instant ticket with the use of thermal printing on a predetermined area. In this embodiment, the ticket would be preprinted with thermally sensitive ink that remained transparent unless a high degree of heat was applied. Once the heat was applied, the heat sensitive ink would shift from transparent to black or some other predetermined color. Obviously, to be of utility for branding, the heat sensitive ink would be of a phase shifting nature, i.e., once the ink was transformed it would not shift back to its previous transparent state even when cooled to room temperature.
In yet another embodiment of the brand-when-received concept the customization of an instant ticket is achieved with the application of a sticker to the ticket. In this embodiment, the ticket would have white space where the branding sticker will be applied. The branding stickers could be delivered in rolls that permit automatic application of the stickers to the back of the tickets by a machine.
All of the above embodiments for a brand-when-received at the establishment could be implemented in a vending machine, as conceptually illustrated by the vending machine 25 in
It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that modifications and variations can be made to the embodiments of the invention described herein without departing from the scope of the appended claims or their equivalents.
The present application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/054,269, filed May 19, 2008.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61054269 | May 2008 | US |
