JPH0316664B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a lottery ticket discriminating device that automatically determines whether a lottery ticket such as a lottery ticket has won or not.

Basically, a device that automatically determines whether a lottery ticket or other lottery ticket has won or lost is to register the winning ticket number (winning number) in a storage device, and then store the number of the entered lottery ticket. The ticket is compared with the winning number on the device, and if it matches, it is determined to be a winning ticket, and if it does not match, it is determined to be a lost ticket. For example, the device disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 56-23715 also follows the above basic configuration.

Incidentally, lottery tickets and the like are often issued frequently, and winning numbers are determined each time they are issued. In addition, lottery tickets have an expiration date, and any lottery ticket after that expiration date is invalid, regardless of whether it is a win or a loss. Therefore, in the lottery ticket discriminating device, whenever a new winning number is determined, it must be immediately registered, and winning numbers that have passed their expiration date must be frequently updated, such as being deleted or invalidated.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a lottery ticket discriminating device that can rationally perform the above-mentioned winning number updating process.

As mentioned above, when a new winning number for a lottery ticket is determined, it must be transmitted to and registered in the lottery ticket discriminating device in each place as soon as possible. In order to perform such a quick update process, it is generally advantageous to transmit the winning number data to each lottery ticket discriminating device via a communication line. This method is also adopted in the lottery ticket discriminating device according to the present invention.

By the way, in the lottery ticket discriminating device, as mentioned above, it is necessary to update the winning numbers that have passed their expiration date to invalidate them. This update process involves receiving all the winning number data that should be invalidated via the communication line, just as when registering a new winning number, and modifying or erasing the winning number data corresponding to the received data to invalidate it. It can also be executed in this way. However, since the amount of update data to be transferred via the communication line at this time is quite large, the transfer time becomes considerably long, resulting in problems such as increased line costs.

Therefore, more specifically, the purpose of the present invention is to provide a lottery ticket that solves the above-mentioned problems by minimizing the amount of data that must be received via a communication line when invalidating expired winning number data. The object of the present invention is to provide a discrimination device.

Therefore, the lottery ticket discriminating device according to the present invention includes a first means for receiving data sent via a communication line, and a winning number table based on the data of the winning numbers and their expiration dates received by the first means. a second means for creating a lottery ticket in the storage means, a third means for reading data written on the entered lottery ticket, and a winning number table in the storage means for storing the data read from the lottery ticket by the third means. a fourth means for checking the contents of the lottery ticket to determine whether or not the lottery ticket is a winning ticket within the expiry date; and a fifth means for subjecting the storage means to a process for invalidating winning number tables whose expiration dates are earlier than the relevant date among the winning number tables in the storage means. That is.

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is an external view of the lottery ticket discriminating device.
1 is a lottery ticket insertion hopper, into which the lottery ticket is inserted. 2a is a winning ticket stacker, 2b is a losing ticket stacker, and 2c is an invalid ticket stacker, in which the determined lottery tickets are outputted separately. 4 is a magnetic disk device for storing a winning number table (described later). 3 is an operation panel;
Includes power switches and other switches.

FIG. 2 shows the conveyance mechanism of the lottery ticket discriminating device.

Lottery ticket 5 inserted into lottery ticket insertion hopper 1
is delivered between the rotating roller 7b and the separation belt 6 by the pick-up roller 7a which rotates in contact with the lowest lottery ticket. The rotating roller 7b rotates in the same direction as the pick-up roller 7a, but the separation belt 6 rotates in the opposite direction. Therefore, the lottery tickets are separated one by one on the conveyor belt 8.
sent upwards.

This lottery ticket is conveyed while being held between the conveyor belt 8 and a roller or belt (not shown), and the lottery number is optically read by a reader 15 provided along the way. Winning tickets, losing tickets, and invalid tickets are determined from the lottery numbers read by the reader 15, which will be described later.

The lottery tickets that have passed through the reader 15 are transferred to the conveyor belt 8
It is further conveyed by and sent to the position of the switching gate 9a. When it is determined that the lottery ticket is a winning ticket, the switching gate 9a guides the lottery ticket to the rotating belt 10 side.
Therefore, the lottery ticket is discharged to the winning ticket stacker 2a by the rotating belt 10 and the conveyor belt 8. A lost ticket or an invalid ticket (ticket whose validity period has expired) is sent to the next switching gate 9b by the switching gate 9a. The lost ticket is sent between the rotating belts 11 and 12 by the switching gate 9b, and is discharged to the lost ticket stacker 2b. The invalid ticket passes through the switching gate 9b, is guided between the rotating belts 13 and 14, and is discharged to the invalid ticket stacker 2c.

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of the lottery ticket discriminating device.

Reference numeral 20 denotes a reception control circuit that receives data sent via a communication line and performs related controls. 3 and 4 are the operation panel and magnetic disk device shown in FIG. 1, and 23 is the lottery ticket conveyance mechanism shown in FIG. 22 is a mechanism control circuit for controlling the transport mechanism 23, and 15 is the reader shown in FIG. 2, the output of which is sent to the microprocessor 21 via the mechanism control circuit 22. The microprocessor 21 is a part that controls each part, generates and updates a winning number table, discriminates lottery tickets, etc. That is, the microprocessor 21 implements the aforementioned second, fourth, and fifth means as common hardware through microprogram control.

Next, the operation will be explained.

When a winning number is determined by a lottery agent for a lottery ticket issued in a certain issue, the winning number (including the grade) and its expiration date are transmitted to the lottery ticket discriminating device through a communication line. When this data is received by the reception control circuit 20, the microprocessor 21 creates a winning number table in the magnetic disk device 4 based on the received data. Actually, since the winning number table for the lottery tickets issued earlier already exists in the magnetic disk device 4, the winning number table is additionally updated.

The format of the winning number table created in the magnetic disk device 4 in this way is conceptually shown in FIG. A table is created by associating the expiration date, grade, and winning number for each issue number as shown in the figure. The issue number is of course also printed on the lottery ticket, and is essentially treated as a part of the lottery number. Furthermore, the winning number table is updated for each issue number.

What was described above was the process of adding and updating the winning number table for a newly determined winning number, but in addition to this, there is also an updating process to invalidate the winning number table that has expired. also need to be done. This process is executed when the current date data (the date on which the lottery ticket discriminating device is in operation) is received via the communication line.

That is, when the current date data is transmitted via the communication line and received by the reception control circuit 20, the microprocessor 21 compares the current date with the expiration date of the winning number table. Then, processing is performed to invalidate the winning number table of the issue number having the expiration date before the current date. Specifically, for example, the issuing number of the winning number table that has expired is deleted or corrected to a specific value. As described above, in the apparatus of the present invention, the only data that needs to be transferred via the communication line to invalidate an expired winning number table is the current date data, and the transfer time is extremely short.

The lottery ticket discrimination operation will be described in detail below. One or more lottery tickets are inserted into the lottery ticket insertion hopper 1, and a specific switch on the operation panel 3 is operated to start the discrimination operation. When the microprocessor 21 receives this activation signal, it starts the mechanism control circuit 2.
2, the transport mechanism 23 is activated.

As described above, the lottery tickets in the lottery ticket input hopper 1 are taken in one by one, and the lottery numbers (including the issue number) written thereon are read by the reader 15. The lottery number data read by the reader 15 is transferred to the microprocessor 21 via the mechanism control circuit 22.

The microprocessor 21 searches the magnetic disk device 4 using the issue number of the transferred lottery number data. If there is no winning number table for the corresponding issue number, the switching gate 9 is operated via the mechanism control circuit 22 to determine that the lottery ticket currently being determined is an invalid ticket and discharge it to the invalid ticket stacker 2c.
a, 9b. When the winning number table of the corresponding issue number is found, the microprocessor 21 compares the winning number of each grade in the winning number table with the lottery number read from the lottery ticket. If there is no match in any of the grades, the microprocessor 21 determines the lottery ticket as a winning ticket, and stores it in the winning ticket stacker 2.
The switching gate 9a is controlled so that the liquid is discharged to b. If a match is found, microprocessor 2
1 controls the switching gate 9a to discharge the winning ticket to the winning ticket stacker 2a.

By the way, for the purpose of simplifying the explanation,
Although it has been explained that the winning tickets are simply discharged to the winning ticket stacker 2a, it is also easy to configure the system so that the winning grade is made clear. For example, a printing mechanism is provided in the middle of the conveyor belt 8, and the microprocessor 21
The printing mechanism can be configured to print the matching winning number on the winning ticket. Alternatively, a configuration in which the lottery number of the winning ticket and its grade are paired and sequentially printed or displayed is also possible.

Although one embodiment has been described in detail above, the present invention is not limited to the configuration thereof, and various modifications are allowed without departing from the gist of the present invention.

As explained above, the present invention is configured to invalidate the winning number table that has expired by simply receiving the data of the date of operation of the device via the communication line. The time required to use a communication line for communication is greatly reduced, which is extremely advantageous in terms of line costs, and there are other effects such as eliminating delays in processing due to waiting for data transfer.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The figures show an example of a lottery ticket discriminating device according to the present invention, in which FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of the device, FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the internal mechanism of the device, FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of the device, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a diagram conceptually showing the format of the winning ticket number table. 1... Lottery ticket insertion hopper, 2a... Winning ticket stacker, 2b... Lost ticket stacker, 2c... Invalid ticket stacker, 3... Operation panel, 4... Magnetic disk device, 9a, 9b... Switching gate, 15...
Reader, 20... Reception control circuit, 21... Microprocessor, 22... Mechanism control circuit, 23...
Conveyance mechanism.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A first means for receiving data sent via a communication line, and a second means for creating a winning number table in a storage means from the data of the winning numbers and their expiry dates received by the first means. and a third means for reading the data written on the entered lottery ticket, and the data read from the lottery ticket by the third means is compared with the contents of the winning number table in the storage means, and the lottery ticket is determined. a fourth means for determining whether or not the winning ticket is within the expiration date;
When the data of the current date is received by the means, a process is performed on the storage means to invalidate the winning number tables whose expiration date is earlier than the corresponding date among the winning number tables in the storage means. A lottery ticket discriminating device comprising five means.