CA2181948C - Lotto ticket dispenser - Google Patents

Lotto ticket dispenser Download PDF

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Publication number
CA2181948C
CA2181948C CA 2181948 CA2181948A CA2181948C CA 2181948 C CA2181948 C CA 2181948C CA 2181948 CA2181948 CA 2181948 CA 2181948 A CA2181948 A CA 2181948A CA 2181948 C CA2181948 C CA 2181948C
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Canada
Prior art keywords
dispenser
slide member
housing
card
cards
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Expired - Fee Related
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CA 2181948
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French (fr)
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CA2181948A1 (en
Inventor
Diarmuid K. Connolly
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Individual
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Individual
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Publication of CA2181948A1 publication Critical patent/CA2181948A1/en
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Publication of CA2181948C publication Critical patent/CA2181948C/en
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Expired - Fee Related legal-status Critical Current

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  • Vending Machines For Individual Products (AREA)

Abstract

There is provided a new and useful dispenser for dispensing single cards from a stack of cards, the dispenser comprising a housing having top, front back and first and second sides. At least a first part of the housing is selectively moveable between an open and a closed position relative to a second part of the housing. The front is truncated at its bottom edge relative to the sides. The dispenser has a plurality of columnar compartments within and adjacent the front of the housing, each such compartment having a bottom support spaced below the bottom edge of the front. The compartments are accessible when the first and second parts of the housing are in the open position. Card pickup means is selectively moveable between first inner and second outer positions on respective ones of the bottom supports.

Description

TITLE OF THE INVENTION
Lotto Ticket Dispenser FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to dispensers for dispensing a single card or ticket from a stack of cards or tickets.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Various types of lotteries have become extremely popular in many countries of the world. One requirement for the success of lotteries is that there be a very wide distribution of lottery tickets. This requirement results in there being a very large number of individual ticket outlets. These may be in shopping malls, convenience stores and an endless number of similar locations.
A significant security problem has arisen at these outlets as a result of the following common practice. The most common lottery ticket dispensing device currently in use in North America comprises a plexiglass box. The box will normally display on a front surface facing customers samples of the lottery tickets which can be purchased from that box. The actual lottery tickets for sale are simply dumped into the box in a completely random fashion through an opening in the back of the box. The back of the box faces the ticket sales person.

..
When a customer indicates from the samples displayed on the front of the box the type of ticket which is desired to be purchased, the sales person simply reaches into the back of the box, locates a ticket of the appropriate type and provides that ticket to the customer.
There are frequently in excess of one thousand tickets in the box at any one time.
There is no practical way on an ongoing basis of relating tickets in the box to cash received for ticket sales, since it is completely impractical to remove the tickets remaining in the box for counting purposes on any regular basis.
The result is that unscrupulous sales persons can extract significant numbers of tickets without payment and with little fear of detection. Studies of the problem have indicated as many as twenty to forty tickets disappearing in a single shift.
There has thus been a significant need for an improved means of dispensing tickets which will enable the concessionaire to maintain control over the tickets. The problem is complicated by the fact that such a device must be inexpensive, must be capable of rapid operation from the sales point of view, and must provide means of providing on a shift by shift basis at least a reasonably accurate count of tickets in the device.
It is against this background that the present invention arises.
PRIOR ART
Applicant is aware of the following prior patents, none of which provides a solution similar to that proposed by the present invention:
U.S. Patent No. Issued Owner 969,135 August 30, 1910 Crabtree 1,366,275 January 18, 1921 Payzant 4,170,325 October 9, 1979 Pawlowski et al 4,217,985 August 19, 1980 Nasgowitz 4,305,628 December 15, 1981 Glasener 4,396,237 August 2, 1983 Henry 4,491,242 January 1, 1985 Trinidad 4,850,511 July 25, 1989 Kral et al 5,301,834 April 12, 1994 Lee et al Of these, Lee is directed at the dispensing of a single lottery ticket from a stack of such tickets, but is a coin-operated electro-mechanical device bearing no similarity to the device of the present invention.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A dispenser has now been devised which will permit a salesperson to ,,...

dispense lottery tickets or the like cards one at a time and which is adaptable for good control of inventory. The general term "cards" is intended to include not only lottery tickets but any similarly thin flat product configuration which it is desirable to dispense in the manner to be described.
Thus, the invention provides a dispenser for dispensing single cards of minimal thickness from a stack of such cards, the dispenser comprising a housing having top, front, back and first and second sides. At least a first part of the housing is selectively moveable between an open and a closed position relative to a second part of the housing. The front is truncated at its bottom edge relative to the sides. the dispenser has a plurality of columnar compartments within and adjacent the front of the housing, each such compartment having a bottom support spaced below the bottom edge of the front, wherein the compartments are accessible when the first and second parts of the housing are in the open position.
Card pickup means is selectively manually moveable between first inner and second outer positions on respective ones of the bottom supports for pulling a bottom most card directly from the stack of cards within any one of the compartments.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
invention;
In drawings which illustrate embodiments of the invention:
FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of a dispenser according to the FIGURE 2 is a side elevation of the embodiment of FIGURE 1;
FIGURE 3 is a front view of the embodiment of FIGURE 1;
..F... .., FIGURE 4 is a rear view of the embodiment of FIGURE 1;
FIGURE 5 is a partially cut away view showing the slide arrangement of the embodiment of FIGURE 1; and FIGURE 6 is a partly cutaway front view of the slide arrangement.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
The dispenser 10 comprises a housing 12 having a front 14, back 16, top 18, and first and second sides 20 and 22 respectively.
Within housing 12 and adjacent front 14 are a plurality of columnar compartments 24. In the preferred configuration as illustrated, a rear wall 26 defines the back of compartments 24. First and second sides 20 and 22 of housing 12 and vertical dividers 28 define the sides of the separate compartments 24.
The bottom of the compartments 24 is defined by a support or a shelf 30.
Of note, the lower edge 32 of front 14 is truncated well above the lower edge 34 of first and second sides 20 and 22.
In the preferred configuration a drawer 36 is provided in a base section 38 of dispenser 10. Drawer 36 is preferably provided with slots 37 for easy insertion for storage of, for example, winning lottery tickets. An unobstructed area 40 is provided between top 42 of base section 38 and lower edge 32 of front 14.
In a preferred configuration slots 44 are provided below the shelf 30 and above drawer 36 to provide convenient hand grips for purposes of transporting the dispenser, which becomes rather heavy when filled with tickets.
Cards, such as lottery tickets are of a reasonably standard size or group of sizes, and each compartment 24 is sized to receive a column of cards fitting closely within it. In order to facilitate loading of the columns with cards, a first part 46 of housing 12 is connected by hinges 50 to a second part 48 or the remaining part of housing 12. In the most preferred configuration a lock 52 is provided for locking the first and second parts of the housing in a closed position.
When the lock 52 has been unlocked, the first part 46 of housing 12 can be swung away on its hinges to permit loading of compartments 24 with cards.
To facilitate removal of a single card from the bottom of the stack in a compartment 24, a card pickup means is provided. In the preferred configuration the pickup means comprises a slide member 54. The slide member preferably comprises a thin flat elongated plastic sheet which is slidable along shelf 30 between an inner position as illustrated in Fig. 1, and an outer position (not illustrated) in which the slide extends outwardly of front 14 of housing 12.
In the preferred configuration rear wall 26 is provided with a slot 60 adjacent shelf 30 in each compartment 24 to permit an inner end 62 of slide member 54 to pass through.
A top surface 64 of slide member 54 is provided with an upward projection or ridge 66 which is substantially the thickness of one of the cards to be dispensed. Ridge 66 is preferably of a height which is not greater than the _7_ thickness of one such card. Slot 60 is of a sufficient height to permit the ridge 66 to pass rearwardly through, so that when slide member 54 is in its inner position, a stack of cards in compartment 24 will rest on slide member 54 forwardly of ridge 66.
Thus, when slide member 54 is moved to the outer position, the ridge 66 will bring up against a card in the stack and cause the card to be moved forwardly and out of dispenser 10 with the forward portion of slide member 54.
For this purpose the lower edge 32 of front 14 of housing 12 is preferably spaced upwardly of shelf 30. It should be noted, however, that the forward edge 68 of shelf 30 is spaced rearwardly of front 14 to thereby leave an open area 40 below a front part of compartments 24. It is thus possible to move slide member 54 and an associated card forwardly of front 14 by pulling slide member 54 straight out or tilting an outer end of slide member 54 downwardly slightly as it is moved to the outer position 58. For this purpose the lower edge 32 of front 14 may be raised slightly in the area over slide member 54 to facilitate passage of a card.
This configuration is facilitated by the provision of cutout 74 in front 14.
In the preferred configuration the slide member 54 is provided with a downward projection 76 and shelf 30 is provided with mating slot 78. While slot 78 may be provided with forward and rearward ends to thereby limit travel of slide member 54, in the preferred case for convenience of construction slot 78 extends to and through the forward edge 68 of shelf 30. A stop member 80 is fixed to forward edge 68 of shelf 30 such that downward projection 76 will bring up against that member 80 and thus limit the forward travel of slide member 54.

_8_ Rearward movement of slide member 54 may be limited by the rearward end 82 of slot 78 or may also conveniently be limited by simply choosing the length of slide member 54 such that inner end 62 of slide member 54 will bring up against back 16 of housing 12 when slide member 54 is in the inner position. Slide members 54 are preferably also provided with a turned down tongue 55 to facilitate gripping by a user. The tongue 55 may also function to limit inward movement of slide member 54.
Display slots 84 on front 14 and 86 on back 16 provide a convenient means of displaying to both the customer and the sales person the particular type of card or ticket which is available for sale from specific ones of compartments 24.
A further slotted gripping means 88 on top 18 is provided for insertion of an advertising card.
In a highly preferred embodiment, the front 14 adjacent each said compartment 24 is provided with gradations 90 over at least a part of said compartments. The gradations will preferably be numbered to indicate number of cards remaining in this graduated section of each compartment.
Cards are preferably placed into the compartments in groups of, say, 100, separated by divider cards (not illustrated). If the gradations then indicate the number of cards remaining from the bottom group of 100, the total remaining in the compartment can then readily be determined. Accurate inventory can then be kept within the limits of the gradation measurement. Thus, the secondary problems outlined above are overcome.

Claims (12)

1. A dispenser for dispensing single cards from a stack of cards wherein each of said cards is of minimal thickness, said dispenser comprising:
a housing having top, front, back and first and second sides, at least a first part of said housing selectively moveable between an open and a closed position relative to a second part of said housing;
a plurality of columnar compartments within and adjacent said front of said housing, each said compartment having a bottom support spaced below a bottom edge of said front;
wherein said compartments are accessible when said first and second parts of said housing are in said open position; and a plurality of card pickup each comprising an elongated planar slide member having on a top surface thereof at least one upward projection with a height substantially equal to the thickness of one said card, said slide member being means selectively manually moveable between first inner position and a second outer position on respective ones of said bottom supports, wherein in use, a bottom most card in said stack rests on side member, forward of said projection when said slide member is in said first inner position and, when it is desired to remove said card, said slide member is manually pulled to said second outer position thereby pulling said bottom most card directly from said stack within one of said compartments, wherein said card may be manually removed from said slide member and said member then may be manually returned to said first inner position wherein a next bottom most card in said stack will rest on said slide member forward of said projection.
2. The dispenser of claim 1 wherein said projection extends across the width of said slide member.
3. The dispenser of claim 1 including first stop means preventing movement of said slide member outwardly beyond said second outer position.
4. The dispenser of claim 3 wherein said bottom support of each said compartment includes a slot therein closed at a forward end thereof and said first stop means comprises a downward projection slidable in said slot to bring up against said closed forward end of said slot.
5. The dispenser of claim 1 wherein a forward end of said bottom support of each said compartment is spaced inwardly of said front of said housing.
6. The dispenser of claim 1 wherein each said compartment includes a back wall and wherein each said back wall includes a slot therein through which said slide member and said upward projection may pass when said slide member is in said first inner position.
7. The dispenser of claim 1 wherein said slide member includes second stop means preventing movement of said slide member inwardly beyond said first inner position.
8. The dispenser of claim 7 wherein said second stop means comprises a finger grip member at an outer end of said slide member.
9. The dispenser of claim 4 wherein said slot is closed at a rearward end whereby to limit inward movement of said downward projection to thereby define said first inner position of said slide member.
10. The dispenser of claim 1 wherein said first part of said housing is hingedly connected to said second part of said housing.
11. The dispenser of claim 1 wherein said first and second parts of said housing include locking means for maintaining said parts in said closed position.
12. The dispenser of claim 1 including reference indicators on said front of said housing for indicating the number of said cards in each said compartment.
CA 2181948 1995-07-24 1996-07-24 Lotto ticket dispenser Expired - Fee Related CA2181948C (en)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US50589795A 1995-07-24 1995-07-24
US08/505,897 1995-07-24

Publications (2)

Publication Number Publication Date
CA2181948A1 CA2181948A1 (en) 1997-01-25
CA2181948C true CA2181948C (en) 2001-04-24

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Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
CA 2181948 Expired - Fee Related CA2181948C (en) 1995-07-24 1996-07-24 Lotto ticket dispenser

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