EP0707507B1

EP0707507B1 - Improvements relating to game tickets

Info

Publication number: EP0707507B1
Application number: EP94918990A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Victor Benson; Jon Bedford
Original assignee: Scientific Games International Ltd
Current assignee: Scientific Games International Ltd
Priority date: 1993-07-03
Filing date: 1994-07-01
Publication date: 1998-08-12
Anticipated expiration: 2014-07-01
Also published as: WO1995001821A1; AU7007894A; CZ347695A3; NO310277B1; HU9503954D0; RU2135249C1; GB9313806D0; OA10253A; PL312382A1; NO955297D0; HU215676B; MX9405080A; EP0707507A1; EE03207B1; HUT73575A; DK0707507T3; PL179191B1; FI956309A0; FI106294B; CZ283756B6

Description

This invention relates to game tickets, and in particular relates to lottery tickets of the so called "instant game" type.

Lottery tickets of the instant game type are such that when played by a user, the user will know immediately or "instantly" from the use of the ticket whether or not a prize has been won. Typically, instant game tickets comprise a base or substrate on which is printed information concerning the game. Information may be symbols, words, numbers or any combination of indicia and in one particularly popular form of instant game, the game indicia is covered by means of a scratch off or abradable material which conceals the indicia. The user simply scratches away this material in order to reveal the indicia either in whole or in part, in accordance with the rules of play, in order to reveal the said game indicia and to assess usually from information printed on the ticket whether or not the ticket is a winner or a loser.

These instant games can be used for the distribution of prizes which can in some instances be considerable. It is usual to arrange the tickets in sets and they are sold at a fixed price and as the prizes are usually pre-determined the promoter will know exactly the income to be derived from a set of tickets. In any one set there may be a range of winning tickets and may comprise one major prize, a group of larger prizes, and a much greater group of smaller prizes. Tickets may on the other hand be based on probability and winners and losers will depend upon the manner in which the user by his own selection abrades the removable material.

Whatever the prize structure, it is regrettable that the tickets are subjected to scrutiny with a view to fraud and promoters and agents and other people into whose hands the tickets come will often endeavour to predetermine the winning tickets and extract same from the set. Such fraudsters will go to extreme lengths in order to determine winning tickets so much so that tickets have had to be designed to be "secure" from the established and sometimes sophisticated pre-identification techniques which are used.

The main pre-identification technique of a ticket of the type involving scratch off material needs to use high intensity lighting in order to in effect view the game indicia through the ticket before tampering with the abradable material. If the concealed indicia can be ascertained by the use of a high intensity light, then winners can be pre-identified and extracted. In order to defeat this fraud, manufacturers have had to resort to special measures and these in particular have involved the use of base or substrate materials which are described as "secure". Such materials prevent the passage therethrough of high intensity light and typically comprise laminates involving foil or specially designed base boards which are resistant to light penetration. These boards unfortunately are expensive and generally are environmentally objectionable. There is therefore a need to improve lottery tickets, both from a cost point of view and an environment point of view by adopting the use of more standard and less expensive substrate materials which compared to the secure materials can be described as "non- secure".

The use of confusion patterns consisting of irregular opaque areas printed on the toop surface of card stock has previously been proposed, and for example in US Patent No. 4095824, to prevent photocopying through an opaque mask, a confusion pattern is printed over the indicia using a transparent media having a colour differing from the colour of the indicia. However, if the confusion pattern is not completely transparent, its existence will be apparent to persons wishing to compromise the ticket, and in any event it is not particularly effective in preventing compromise by the shining of a high intensity light through the ticket.

The present invention has been conceived with this objective in mind, and specifically the invention has as an object to permit the use of commercially available and somewhat standard materials (non-secure) such as white carton board as the substrate. By adopting the measures of the present invention it is believed that less expensive and more commercially available and commercially used materials may be adopted for the substrate.

The invention can be applied to tickets which comprise a single substrate layer, or tickets where two substrate layers are adopted in the form of the so called "window" tickets wherein one of the substrates has windows which are torn back to expose information concerning the game carried by the other substrate.

In accordance with the invention a game ticket comprises a non-secure substrate having game indicia printed thereon which is covered by opaque material which conceals the indicia and is abradable in order to reveal the game indicia, and wherein a confusion pattern layer registers with the same indicia and lies under the abradable material so that the confusion pattern is not visible to the naked eye but will lead to confusion results if an attempt is made to identify the game indicia by the shining of intense light through the ticket, and wherein said confusion pattern layer is removable by abrasion and is applied over the game indicia and is covered by the opaque abradable material

It can be seen that by the provision of the hidden confusion pattern, an effective and simple means is provided for rendering the ticket as secure as a ticket which may be provided with a specially selected secure substrate. The confusion pattern preferably is made up of patterns, symbols, numbers, words or other indicia corresponding to the indicia of the game proper, but arranged in a form in order to enhance the confusion effect.

Thus, when the same indicia as made up of a number of symbols for example of two types, such as "O's" and "X's" the confusion pattern may be made up of the same symbols but in mirror image arrangement so that at each location in the pattern if the ticket is illuminated by a high intensity light from the rear, the viewer will see a shape represented by a 'O' superimposed on an "X" and will be unable to tell which symbol is in the game indicia and which is in the confusion pattern. The above is only one specific example but any arrangement of symbols may be adopted. Thus if the game indicia is made up of three types of symbols, it may be necessary to put down two confusion pattern layers so that all three types of symbols are laid down at each location.

The substrate preferably is a layer of plain cardboard or paper of appropriate caliper to give the desired handling and feel characteristics.

In one example, the game indicia is laid down on the substrate. The confusion pattern is applied over the indicia, and then the confusion pattern is covered by the opaque abradable layer. The confusion pattern is also abradable, and will be removed by abrasion of the abradable covering layer.

The tickets may be treated with other layers such as protective varnish, and other security printing in accordance with conventional practice. Steps should be taken to ensure that the game indicia will effectively bond to the substrate and will not be removed during the abrading process.

An embodiment of the invention corresponding to the abovementioned example, will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying diagrammatic drawing, wherein:-

Fig. 1 is an exploded perspective view of the various layers of a lottery ticket according to the embodiment of the invention; and

Fig. 2 shows in a series of steps how the various layers of the Fig. 1 ticket are laid down on the ticket substrate.

Referring to the drawings, and firstly to Fig. 1, this figure shows in exploded elevation a lottery ticket according to an embodiment of the invention. The view shows that the ticket comprises a base layer or substrate 10, which is of a material of essentially conventional and commercially available construction, and may typically be a white conventional carton board of appropriate caliper.

The figure also shows by a series of superposed rectangles the various layers which are laid down, for example by printing, on the substrate 10. Although these layers are indicated by rectangles, it is to be mentioned that in fact each layer may not be rectangular and may be made up for example of a plurality of symbols to form the game indicia. It is convenient however to adopt the rectangular representation for the purposes of illustration. Also, the sequence of illustrations (a) to (g) of Fig.2 shows the top of the ticket after the respective layers have been deposited on the substrate.

Additionally, it should be mentioned that the various superimposed layers in the illustration give the impression of having a substantial thickness, but in fact each layer will be only a few micron in thickness such that when all of the layers are laid down on the ticket, they will not contribute substantially to increasing the ticket thickness.

Bearing the above explanations in mind, the various layers are now described in more detail.

Referring to Fig. 1, a non-special non-secure substrate layer 10 is utilised, this being a particular advantage of the invention, and the layers which are applied and the order in which they are applied are as follows.

The first layer 30 is in the form of a pattern, which is conventional in nature, and is known as a benday pattern layer, the purpose of which is to prevent cutting up and resticking of the ticket. On top of this is applied the game indicia layer 32. The game indicia is applied by conventional printing techniques.

The next layer is a varnish layer 34 of conventional form applied over the game indicia to protect same from abrasion, and on top of the varnish layer is applied a first scratch off layer 36 which comprises the confusion pattern. The ticket if viewed at this stage will have the appearance as indicated in Fig. 2 (d) which is a useful figure to examine because it illustrates how the game indicia and confusion pattern interfere, making it well nigh impossible for the game indicia to be identified by shining an intense light through the ticket.

On top of the confusion pattern is applied a covering layer preferably of solid black silk screened ink which can be abraded. This layer is indicated by reference 38. The purpose of this layer is to prevent the variable information being read if the ticket has been delaminated or split.

The subsequent layers are a conventional opaque scratch off layer 40, which is used to some extent simply because of its colour characteristic and customer familiarity, and the final layer is an overprint layer 42 applied to the opaque layer 40 to prevent solvent removal of the layer 40.

The various views (a) to (g) in Fig. 2 correspond to the appearance of the layers 30 to 42 as they are laid down on the substrate.

In the embodiment of the invention, the confusion pattern (layer 36) is buried within the layers of the ticket and cannot be seen by the user of the ticket prior to removal of the scratch off layer or layers and if the user intends to shine a light through the ticket to ascertain the nature of the game indicia, he will be thwarted by virtue of the interaction of the confusion pattern and the game pattern, which is conveniently illustrated by Fig. 2 (d).

There may be two or more confusion pattern layers if the degree of confusion is to be increased.

Conventional materials may be used for the application of the various layers, and conventional printing processes may be adopted although silk screening is preferably used for the solid confusion black layer 38. The game indicia layer, and any layers under it, are laid so as to bond to the substrate so as not to be removed by the abrading action.

The present invention provides the considerable advantage that standard and relatively inexpensive and commercially available materials can be used for the substrates instead of specialist light obstructing secure substrates such as foil coated board or specially adapted board. As well as saving costs, this feature also has environmental advantages.

Claims

A game ticket comprising a substrate (10) having printed game indicia (32) thereon which is covered by opaque material (38, 40) which conceals the indicia and is abradable in order to reveal the game indicia (32) characterised in that the substrate is non-secure and a confusion pattern layer (36) registers with the game indicia (32) and lies under the abradable material (40) so that the confusion pattern (36) is not visible to the naked eye but will lead to confusion results if an attempt is made to identify the game indicia by the shining of intense light through the ticket, and wherein said confusion pattern layer (36) is removable by abrasion and is applied over the game indicia and is covered by the opaque abradable material.
A ticket according to Claim 1, characterised in that the game indicia (32) is made up of a number of different symbols, numbers and/or letters or the like arranged in a plurality of locations and the confusion pattern (36) is also made up of the same symbols, numbers and/or letters in the same plurality of locations but arranged so that the symbols numbers, and/or letters in the confusion pattern (36) overlie different symbols numbers and/or letters in the game indicia (32).
A ticket according to Claim 1 or 2, characterised in that the substrate (10) comprises a layer of plain cardboard or paper of appropriate caliper.