AU1483800A - Lottery ticket having ultra-violet cured protective coating - Google Patents

Description

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AUSTRALIA

PATENTS ACT 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION FOR A STANDARD PATENT

ORIGINAL

.5 Name of Applicant/s: Actual Inventor/s: Address for Service: Invention Title: 4 t S Oberthur Gaming Technologies Inc Stephen John Holman BALDWIN SHELSTON WATERS MARGARET STREET SYDNEY NSW 2000 'LOTTERY TICKET HAVING ULTRA-VIOLET CURED PROTECTIVE

COATING'

The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me/us:- File: 26686AUP00 la Field Of The Invention The present invention is generally directed to lottery tickets in which an ultraviolet cured coating is provided as a protective layer over at least the removable scratch-off portion of the lottery ticket which improves ticket security and provides protection from fraudulent invasion by reducing the possibility of lifting printed indicia to reveal winning information in an unauthorized manner.

Background Of The Invention t.

.lllt= Lottery tickets are well known products of the lottery industry. Such tickets generally comprise a substrate typically having a graphics area and a game area. The I* game area includes printed indicia which determines if a prize has been won. Included among these types of tickets are scratch-off lottery tickets which include an overprint

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layer at least over the game area. The overprint scratch-off layer may be transparent "which allows the player to view printed indicia beneath the layer as disclosed in pending U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 09/208,228 filed December 9, 1998 owned' by the Assignee herein or includes a scratch-off layer which is opaque to purposely hide from view the printed indicia of the game area.

Various attempts have been made to provide added measures of security for lottery tickets to prevent tampering and counterfeiting as disclosed, for example, in 2 Desbiens Patent No. 5,704,647) and Borowski et al. Patent No. 5,403,039), and references cited therein, each of which is incorporated herein by reference.

The lottery industry requires lottery tickets to be difficult to counterfeit and at the same time strongly prefers tickets with elaborate and appealing graphic displays such as made possible by processes disclosed in, for example, Desbiens, U.S. Patent No.

5,704,647. Lottery tickets must also be as inexpensive as possible. There is therefore a continuing need in the lottery industry for lottery tickets which effectively prevent tampering and/or counterfeiting and yet are graphically appealing and as inexpensive to produce as possible. It would therefore be a significant advance in the art of ooooo preparing lottery tickets to provide a lottery ticket that is low cost yet provides enhanced oooo security.

Summary Of The Invention The present invention is generally directed to lottery tickets and methods of making the same in which all or part of the lottery ticket is provided with at least one ultraviolet cured overcoat layer. The application of the ultraviolet cured overcoat layer over the scratch-off portion significantly reduces the possibility of lifting the printed indicia from the game area and then replacing the game area intact. The ultraviolet overcoat layer also provides a nonstick surface that significantly reduces the possibility 3 of partially uncured ink or ink layers containing some residual chemicals from being transferred from the front surface of the ticket on to the back surface or vice versa.

The ultraviolet overcoat layer is particularly useful with scratch-off lottery tickets because it provides a protective barrier that significantly prolongs the scratchability of the scratch-off ink layers over the printed indicia. -This provides the ticket with an extended shelf life and added protection in harsh environmental conditions.

•Brief Description Of The Drawings The following drawings in which like reference characters indicate like parts are S. illustrative of embodiments of the invention and are not intended to limit the invention oo•.

o 10 as encompassed by the claims forming part of the application.

St Figure 1 is a schematic elevational view of a scratch-off lottery ticket employing an ultraviolet cured coating layer over the game area of the ticket; Figure 2 is an embodiment of a lottery ticket similar to Figure 1 in which the ultraviolet cured coating layer is provided over the entire top surface of the lottery ticket including the non-game area and the game area; 4 Figure 3 is an embodiment of lottery ticket in accordance with the present invention similar to Figure 1 in which the ultraviolet cured coating layer is provided between the overprint ink layers and the scratch-off layer and Figure 4 is a schematic view of typical equipment for forming lottery tickets of the present invention.

o* **-Detailed Description Of The Invention The present invention is generally directed to lottery tickets employing an ultraviolet cured layer over at least a portion of the lottery ticket. The ultraviolet cured layer provides added security features by significantly reducing the possibility of lifting printed indicia from the game area and also provides a nonstick surface which reduces the possibility of the having residual chemicals transfer from the front surface of the ticket to the back or vice versa. The ultraviolet overcoat layer also provides a protective barrier that improves shelf life of the ticket.

ella Referring to the drawings and particularly to Figure 1, there is shown an embodiment of a scratch-off lottery ticket in accordance with the present invention. The scratch-off lottery ticket 1 includes a substrate 11 that may be comprised of one or more layers, with only one layer being shown, having a front surface 3 and a back surface The front surface 3 is typically provided with a graphic or non-game area 7 and a game 5 area 9. The substrate 11 may be any material suitable for making a lottery ticket and especially a scratch-off lottery ticket. Such materials include foil laminates, virgin or recycled paper and the like. Foil laminates have come under attack because they are not biodegradable or recyclable. Accordingly, the substrate is preferably made of virgin or recycled paper. The back surface 5 of the substrate 11 may be provided with indicia 13 such as instructions for claiming a prize or optional validation information such as a bar code or even in some tickets, the back surface 5 may be provided with a second graphic area with or without a game area. As used herein, the term "printed indicia" shall mean words, symbols, designs, pictures, combinations thereof and the like, 10 whether in black and white or in color, that convey information about the lottery ticket, S" including, but not limited to, whether the ticket holder has won a prize.

a In the embodiment shown in Figure 1, printed indicia 41 which are the game symbols and prize amounts, overlie the game area 9. The printed indicia 41 are •9 covered typically by at least one layer of clear or colored varnishes. As shown in Figure 15 1, for illustrative purposes only, two layers 43 and 45 of varnishes are applied over the printed indicia 41 to protect the same and to allow for easier removal of the scratch-off layer, as described hereinafter.

A scratch-off layer 46 is shown in Figure 1. The scratch-off layer 46 is typically comprised of multiple layers of scratch-off material which is applied over the varnish layers 43 and 45. As shown specifically in Figure 1, and by way of example only, the 6 scratch-off layer 46 comprises a layer of black elastomer 47, a layer of medium gray elastomer 49, and several layers of white elastomer shown by numerals 51, 53, 55 and 57, respectively. The use of a white elastomer as the top layers of the scratch-off layer 46 is preferred to provide an acceptable surface upon which to apply a desired overprinting layer 58, such as a photograph or other graphics. The overprinting layer 58 may be a single layer of color or can comprise more complex graphics as described in Desbiens Patent No. 5,704,647), incorporated herein by reference. In the embodiment shown in Figure 1, the overprinting layer 58 is comprised of four overprint layers 59, 61, 63, and 65 which correspond to four different process colors such as 10 yellow, magenta, cyan and black.

999999 regard to the scratch-off layer 46, the layer may be opaque which hides the 9o99 printed indicia 41 from view of the ticket holder. In some instances, the scratch-off layer 46 may be transparent to allow observation of the printed indicia such as may be o9 desired in a bingo-type scratch-off lottery game. It will be understood that the 5 employment of a transparent scratch-off layer may be in the form of a clear layer or one that is colored. The term "transparent" as used herein means that light readily passes through the layer and allows full visualization of the printed indicia below the scratch-off layer without significant distortion.

In accordance with the present invention there is provided at least one ultraviolet cured coating layer 67 which may be placed over the entire surface of the lottery ticket -7 or over just the game area as specifically shown in Figure 1. The ultraviolet cured coating layer or layers are comprised of resins which can be cured using high intensity ultraviolet light. Such coating layer or layers are made from formulations which include oligomer and monomer based resins or resins based on a combination of oligomers and monomers, plus photoinitiators and optional additives.

The ultraviolet cured coating layer or layers are comprised of resins which can be cured with ultraviolet light with the desirable addition of photoinitiators and cophotoinitiators to properly initiate the curing mechanism. Such oligomer resins include, for example, epoxy bisphenol A acrylates, polyester acrylates, polyurethane acrylates, polyether acrylates, cycloaliphatic epoxides and mixtures thereof. Monomeric resins operational in the present invention are numerous and may be monofunctional, bifunctional and/or polyfunctional. Examples of suitable monomers for UV coatings in accordance with the present invention include, for example, 1,6 hexanediol diacrylate, **o trimethylolpropane triacrylate, octyl/decyl acrylate, caprolactone triol, and mixtures 15 thereof. The selection of photoinitiators for such resins may be made from a wide range of compounds, with the most common example being benzophenone with a tertiary amine as a co-photoinitiator.

The materials used to form the ultraviolet cured coating layer may be formulated by blending one of the selected oligomers with typically more than one monomer to give specific properties needed to achieve one or more desired end use characteristics and 8 also to print and cure the overcoat layer. Monomeric compounds are used, for example, to reduce the viscosity of the formulation (a viscosity modifier), to modify the final film characteristics like tensile strength and flexibility and the like.

Photoinitiators are added to the resin blend to initiate the curing mechanism by forming free radicals upon exposure to high intensity UV lamps. As an example 400 watts per square inch medium mercury vapor lamps are preferred high intensity UV f lamps for use in the present invention.

Additives are optionally employed in formulations used to form UV coatings for *o example to minimize foaming of the coating during the printing process and also to 10 modify surface tension to improve surface wetting of the substrate. Once the coating formulation is applied high intensity UV radiation is applied. Free radicals are formed by the excitement and breakdown of the photoinitiator when it is exposed to UV

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radiation in the 200-400 nm waveband. The free radicals react with double bonds in the UV curable resins as described above to form propagating chain species. The further reaction of the propagating chain species forms polymer chains. If the growing molecules contains more than one double bond, a cross linked network is produced.

Other UV curing mechanisms may be employed in the present invention to cure the UV coating layer dicluding cationic curing or photo-induced ionic polymerization.

Cycloaliphatic epoxides rapidly polymerize in the presence of strong cationic initiators 9 like onium salt photoinitiators that were developed to undergo photolysis once exposed to high-intensity ultraviolet light to form a highly efficient cationic species.

Although only one ultraviolet cured coating layer is shown in Figure 1, it will be understood that multiple layers may be used depending on need. It will be further understood that the lottery ticket of the present invention may contain additional or fewer layers as is customary in the production of lottery tickets including scratch-off lottery tickets. For example, a UV release coating may be provided over the varnish layers 43 and 45 to provide a smooth surface on which to apply the scratch-off layer 46.

This UV release coating assists in maintaining the integrity of the game data and also S 10 serves as a control release layer for proper ease of removal of the scratch-off layer 46.

Otto oo to. Referring to Figure 2, there is shown an embodiment of the invention in which :the ultraviolet cured coating layer is the topmost layer and covers the entire surface of the lottery ticket. Specifically referring to Figure 2, the ultraviolet cured coating layer 67 .covers both the non-game area 7 and the game area 9. Although printed indicia are not placed in the non-game area 7, the ultraviolet cured coating 67 can effectively be used for its nonstick properties and anti-ink migration properties.

The ultraviolet cured coating layer tickets shown in Figures 1 and 2 provide for the ultraviolet cured coating layer 67 to be the topmost layer. However, the ultraviolet 10 cured coating layer may be present in any location on the lottery ticket in accordance with the present invention so long as it is above the scratch-off layer.

Referring to Figure 3, the ultraviolet cured coating layer 67 (shown covering the entire surface of the lottery ticket) is positioned between the scratch-off layer 46 and the overprint layer 58. The type of ultraviolet cured coating layer 67, its composition and the manner in which it is placed on the lottery ticket is the same as for the embodiments ,of Figures 1 and 2.

S.

The lottery tickets of the present invention as represented by the embodiments Ito.: shown in Figures 1-3 may be produced in the following manner. Referring to Figure 4, 10 a three step printing operation is shown in which, in a first station 21, graphics are •l&0

S

printed on the non-game area 7 of the lottery ticket 1. The graphics may include printed indicia which for the non-game area 7 may include, for example, the name of the lottery game, illustrations, textural material, issue numbers, background colors and the like.

The back surface may also be printed with printed indicia 13 such as instructions for S 15 claiming a prize, and the like. The printing is carried out using known technologies such as flexography, gravure printing, screen printing, lithography, dry off set printing and the like.

The second stage of operation noted by numeral 23 is concerned with printing printed indicia on the game area which printed indicia determines whether a prize has 11 been won. The printed indicia 41 appearing in the game area 9 may include game symbols, numbering and prize amounts, and the like. This stage of operation is typically carried out with tapes containing the printed indicia which are used to drive an ink jet imager 27 to print the printed indicia 41 on the game area 9.

The next step of the operation is indicated by numeral 25 and involves covering the game area 9 so that the printed indicia 41 may be hidden from view. It will be noted in this regard that not all printed indicia 41 need be hidden such as in bingo-type games. However, at least some of the printed indicia is hidden from view. In this stage of operation, one or more layers of varnish 43 and 45, a UV release coating layer (not 10 shown), the scratch-off layer 46, the overprint layer 58, and the ultraviolet cured coating layer 67 are applied. This operation may be accomplished with a multi-station web flexographic press 29 equipped with in-setting capacity so that the press can precisely register the ticket and keep it aligned to ensure that the printed indicia 41 are completely covered by the scratch-off layer 46 and the overprint layer 48.

15 In operation of the multi-station web flexographic press 29, the first and second stations may be used to apply the clear or colored varnishes 43 and 45 either to the entire front surface 3 or to the game area 9 only. As previously indicated, the varnish layers protect the printed indicia 41 and are resistant to some forms of chemical counterfeiting such as through the use of bleaching agents.

12 A third station of the flexographic press 29 may be used to apply a release coating, a previously described. If necessary, one of the subsequent layers may be omitted, such as one of the white elastomer layers layer 53). Elimination of some of the layers may be preferred so that the entire printing process can take place within the number of available stations of the press 29.

In a four-color process system for printing the overprint layer 58, a full-color design, photograph, painting or other complex image may be reproduced and applied to the lottery ticket 1 in stations 9 through 12. This overprinting is preferably accomplished according to the method described in Desbiens Patent No.

5,704,647).

In the printing of a lottery ticket of the type shown in Figures 1 and 2, the UV cured coating layer 67 is applied to the lottery ticket in the final stage of printing.

Referring again to Figure 4, the UV cured coating layer 67 is preferably applied using S-a flexographic printing station to either apply the UV coating over the game area only or over the entire web to cover up the game and non-game area on each ticket. The UV coating layer is then cured using one or more high intensity UV lamps depending on press line speed and curing mechanism of the formulation used.

The UV cured coating layer of the present invention provides multiple advantages over prior art tickets and in particular provides added security at relatively 13 low cost. The ultraviolet cured coating layer increases ticket security and protection from fraudulent invasion by making it difficult to lift and then replace the scratch-off layer. Both mechanical and chemical lifting of the scratch-off portion are substantially reduced and in many cases completely eliminated. Fraudent attempts to intrude upon the game data of lottery tickets by immersing the tickets in various chemicals in an attempt to lift the scratch-off portion are likewise rendered difficult.

Mechanical means of altering a lottery ticket are also common such as by making use of a self adhesive tape applied onto the scratch-off surface and lifting this portion of the ticket to see the game data. The ultraviolet cured coating layer of the present invention provides protection against this threat because the UV coating layer has a smooth surface which resists adhesion by adhesive tapes. The ultraviolet cured coating layer also provides a nonstick surface which substantially reduces ink migration and also provides a protective barrier that extends the shelf life of the lottery ticket.

°ooeo° S•It will be understood that modifications of the present invention including other locations for the UV curable layer and the employment of multiple UV curable coating layers is within the skill of the art and is encompassed by the present invention.

Claims (11)

1. A lottery ticket comprising: a) a substrate; b) a game area comprising printed indicia provided over at least a portion of the substrate; c) at least one scratch-off layer provided over at least the game area; d) at least one ultraviolet cured overcoat layer placed over at least the scratch-off layer.

2. The lottery ticket of claim 1 wherein the lottery ticket further comprises an 10 overprint layer, said ultraviolet cured overcoat layer positioned between the scratch-off layer and the overprint layer. The lottery ticket of claim 1 wherein the ultraviolet cured overcoat layer is the topmost layer of the lottery ticket.

4. The lottery ticket of claim 1 wherein the ultraviolet cured overcoat layer is obtained from a formulation including at least one material selected from oligomers, monomers and mixtures thereof. 15 The lottery ticket of claim 4 wherein the oligomers are selected from the group consisting of epoxy bisphenol A acrylates, polyester acrylates, polyurethane acrylates, polyether acrylates, cycloaliphatic epoxides and mixtures thereof.

6. The lottery ticket of claim 4 wherein the monomers are selected from the group consisting of 1, 6 hexanediol diacrylate, trimethylolpropane triacyclate, octyl/decyl acrylate, capralactone triol and mixtures thereof.

7. The lottery ticket of claim 1 further comprising a photoinitiator.

8. The lottery ticket of claim 7 further comprising at least one additive selected from the group consisting of viscosity modifiers, tensile strength modifiers, film 10 flexibility modifiers and mixtures thereof. a.

9. The lottery ticket of claim 1 wherein the scratch-off layer is opaque.

10. The lottery ticket of claim 1 wherein the scratch-off layer is transparent.

11. A method of producing a lottery ticket comprising constructing a game area including printed indicia printed over at least a portion of the substrate; applying a scratch-off layer over at least the game area and applying at least one ultraviolet cured overcoat layer over at least a portion of the scratch-off layer. 16

12. A lottery ticket substantially as herein described with reference to any one of the embodiments of the invention illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

13. A method of producing a lottery ticket substantially as herein described with reference to any one of the embodiments of the invention illustrated in the accompanying drawings. DATED this 1st Day of February 2000 OBERTHUR GAMING TECHNOLOGIES INC. Attorney: STUART M SMITH Fellow Institute of Patent Attorneys of Australia of BALDWIN SHELSTON WATERS oo