KR20130085059A - Systems and methods for lottery-style games - Google Patents

Abstract

Systems and methods for playing lottery-draw style games are disclosed. In one specific embodiment, a computer-implemented method for lottery-style games comprises establishing an online game scheduled to have lottery drawing lots on a number of draw days, each lottery drawing lottery having one lottery- Done; Accepting registration of a plurality of players in the online game, each player being assigned at least one unique identifier and committing to participate in a plurality of lottery draw lots; Receiving, from each player, a specified number of tokens to be entered for each of the at least one unique identifier in each of the plurality of lottery draw lotteries that the player has committed to participate in, each designated number having at least one Maximum; And performing a lottery from the unique identifiers of the participating players to select one winner and providing a portion of the jackpot to the selected winner based on the calculated proportional value at each draw date, do. In an alternative embodiment, a map-based game that is scheduled to have multiple lottery draw lots associated with a plurality of grid units on a map may be established, and each registered player may be associated with at least one grid unit on the map. A lottery may then be performed to select at least one grid unit to win the first prize. Less prize money may be awarded to grid units based on their relative map positions to the first winning grid unit.

Description

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR LOTTERY-STYLE GAMES BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001]

Cross reference of related applications

This patent application is related to co-pending US patent applications Ser. No. ______ and No. ______ entitled " Systems and Methods for Lottery-Style Games ", each of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to games of chance. The present invention relates specifically to systems and methods for games of the lottery drawing style.

Lottery drawing is a popular transportation game that contributes to the formation of jackpots where many players are later awarded in whole or in part to one or more winners. Participating players pay for lottery tickets or offer other things worthwhile. Generally, each lottery has a combination of numbers or other symbols, and the winning lottery must at least partially match a randomly generated set of numbers or symbols. In a properly operated lottery drawing game, one of the lotteries that have been released may be selected as a winning lottery in a random lottery and be entitled to receive some or all of the jackpot prize money from his owner.

In the United States, betting games can be viewed as a special type of lottery games that are freely filed and usually sponsored by merchants for promotional marketing purposes. In the UK, technically a betting game is a lottery drawing game where prize money is earned through sold lotteries. Small betting games between individual parties (e.g., colleagues and classmates) can also be considered as lottery games that are often associated with ongoing sporting events.

Lottery drawing games have different formats. For example, the jackpot of the lottery drawing game may be a certain amount or a predetermined percentage of the lottery revenue. The combination of the respective lottery numbers may be a unique combination, or each player may be allowed to select his or her own lucky numbers so that it may be possible for a plurality of lotteries to share the same combination. Lottery drawing games can be run online or offline. Most popular lottery games, such as Powerball ™, Mega Millions ™ and Euro Millions ™, are now partly open to online participants, but most are paper-based, requiring the purchase of real lottery tickets. Some lottery games can be run entirely online. That is, instead of purchasing a paper lottery ticket and writing the desired numbers with a pencil, the online player can purchase an electronic (or virtual) lottery ticket through a web interface such as an Internet browser and select a desired combination.

In all traditional lottery games, lotteries are sold at a predetermined nominal amount, for example, $ 1 per lottery. Thus, one winning lottery ticket will qualify for the entire unit of the corresponding prize to his owner. Proportional rehabilitation games have been proposed, for example, in U.S. Patent Nos. 6,296,569 and 7,351,142, none of which appear to be commercially viable. Both of these patents describe the online or point-of-sale issue of proportional denomination lotteries. For example, in any transaction involving a change of less than $ 1, the change may be converted to a proportional par value of the total unit ($ 1) lottery. If the unit lottery is entitled to a prize, the owner of the proportional amount lottery will be entitled to a portion of the prize money. For example, if a $ 1 lottery that matches all winning numbers entitles his owner to the jackpot total, a 25 cents proportional lottery qualifies his owner for 25% of the jackpot.

All existing types of lottery games seem to share some common characteristics. First, all of them must issue certain types of lotteries, whether they are paper lottery, electronic lottery, full par value lottery, or proportional face value lottery. There are two purposes for issuing lotteries. Lotteries have numerical combinations or patterns to be compared with random winning winning combinations or patterns. Lotteries are also used as evidence of participation in lottery games. However, the overall mechanism for creating, drawing, and comparing lotteries can impose considerable overhead costs on the operation of lottery games.

Second, the participation of traditional lottery games depends heavily on the player's impulse or enthusiasm, which changes the lottery profit. The vast majority of people, except for a few betting fanatics, only buy lottery tickets occasionally. A loss in one game causes the normal player to stop playing for a while. In addition, the public's feelings about the lottery drawing game vary according to the amount of jackpot prizes available at that time. There seems to be a general belief that when the jackpot reaches more than a million dollars, the $ 1 lottery will have a slightly better chance of winning. Thus, as the total jackpot increases at a tremendous amount, the masses are often more and more interested in the game. When the jackpot is won, the stagnation period is usually followed by large prizes that become news stories. For all these reasons, lottery revenues from traditional lottery games fluctuate over time and rarely generate a constant cash flow.

Third, players in traditional lottery games do not have direct or recognizable incentives to allow more players to enter the game. Theoretically, existing players can benefit indirectly when more players participate in a lottery game because the increase in participation increases the size of the jackpot that an existing player can potentially receive . However, such potential benefits may not be realistic enough to encourage additional player recommendations. Also, the chances of winning an existing player do not increase with the number of new players.

Moreover, traditional lottery games including betting games are purely transportation games, and usually do not require any player skill or strategy. Every player's chance to win is only affected by the number of lotteries they have purchased. One player's chance to win is independent of the other player's chance to win. As a result, there is very little interaction between lottery participants.

In light of the above, it can be understood that there are significant problems and drawbacks associated with traditional lottery games.

Systems and methods for playing lottery-draw style games are disclosed. In one specific embodiment, a computer-implemented method for lottery-style games comprises establishing an online game scheduled to have lottery drawing lots on a number of draw days, each lottery drawing lottery having one lottery- Done; Accepting registration of a plurality of players in the online game, each player being assigned at least one unique identifier and committing to participate in a plurality of lottery draw lots; Receiving, from each player, a specified number of tokens to be entered for each of the at least one unique identifier in each of the plurality of lottery draw lotteries that the player has committed to participate in, each designated number having at least one Maximum; And, on each draw date, pooling the tokens entered for the lottery by the players participating in the lottery date with the carry-over tokens from at least one previous lottery date, if any, to form a jackpot for the lottery date Performing a lottery from the unique identifiers of the players participating in the lottery date to select one winner, and (a) the selected number of tokens entered by the selected winner for the lottery and (b) , And executing the online game by providing a portion of the jackpot to the selected winner based on the calculated proportional value.

In another specific embodiment, a system for games of the lottery drawing style comprises a processor; At least one storage device coupled to the processor; And a user interface coupled to the processor via one or more communication networks, the processor communicating with the at least one storage device and the user interface to play an online game scheduled to have lottery draw lots at a plurality of draw days Setting work - Each lottery draw lottery is done on one lottery day; Accepting a registration of a plurality of players in the online game, each player being assigned at least one unique identifier and committing to participate in a plurality of lottery draw lots; Receiving, from each player, a specified number of tokens to be entered for each of the at least one unique identifier in each of the plurality of lottery draw lots that the player has committed to participate in; each designated number comprises at least one Maximum; And to form a jackpot for the lottery date by joining the tokens entered for the lottery by the players participating in the lottery date with the tokens carried over from the at least one previous lottery date if present, Performing a lottery from the unique identifiers of the players participating in the lottery date to select one winner, and (a) selecting a predetermined number of tokens that the selected winner has entered for the lottery and (b) Calculating a proportional value, and executing instructions for executing the online game by providing a portion of the jackpot to the selected winner based on the calculated proportional value.

In another specific embodiment, a computer-implemented method for playing lottery-style games comprises: setting up a game scheduled to have a plurality of lottery draw lots; Authorizing registration of a plurality of players in the game, each player being assigned at least one unique identifier, committed to participating in a plurality of lottery draw lots by providing valuable tokens; Receiving, from each player, a specified number of tokens to be entered for each of the at least one unique identifier in each of the plurality of lottery draw lotteries that the player has committed to participate in, each designated number having at least one Maximum; And for each lottery drawing lottery, the tokens provided to the lottery by the players participating in the lottery drawing lottery, together with the tokens taken over from one or more previous lottery lottery draws if present, to the lottery drawing lottery Selecting at least one winner by performing a lottery from the unique identifiers of the players participating in the lottery drawing lottery, (a) selecting at least one winner from among the tokens provided in the lottery drawing lottery by the selected at least one winner And (b) executing the game by calculating a proportional value based on the predetermined maximum value and providing a portion of the jackpot to the selected at least one winner based on the calculated proportional value .

In yet another embodiment, a computer-implemented method for playing lottery-style games comprises: establishing a map-based game scheduled to have a plurality of lottery draw lots associated with a plurality of grid units on a map; Granting registration of a plurality of players within the map-based game, each player being associated with at least one grid unit on the map and committed to participating in a plurality of lottery draw lots by providing valuable tokens; Receiving, from each player, a specified number of tokens to be provided to each of the plurality of lottery draw lots in which the player has committed to participate, on behalf of each of the at least one grid unit; And for each lottery drawing lottery, the tokens provided in the lottery on behalf of the grid units participating in the lottery lottery draw, together with the tokens taken over from one or more previous lottery lotteries if present, Based game by performing a lottery from the grid units participating in the lottery draw lottery to select at least one first grid unit to obtain a first prize, . Also, one or more second grid units may be selected to obtain fewer prize, such selection being based on the relative map locations of the one or more second grid units for the at least one first grid unit.

In a further embodiment, a system for games of the lottery drawing style comprises a processor; At least one storage device coupled to the processor; And a user interface coupled to the processor via one or more communication networks, the processor communicating with the at least one storage device and the user interface to generate a plurality of lottery draw lots associated with a plurality of grid units on the map Setting up a map-based game scheduled to have; Accepting a registration of a plurality of players within the map-based game, each player being associated with at least one grid unit on the map and committing to participate in a plurality of lottery draws by providing valuable tokens; Receiving, from each player, a specified number of tokens to be provided to each of the plurality of lottery draw lots in which the player has committed to participate, on behalf of the at least one grid unit; And for each lottery drawing lottery, the tokens provided in the lottery on behalf of the grid units participating in the lottery lottery draw, if present, together with the tokens taken over from one or more previous lottery drawing lotteries, Based game by executing a lottery from the grid units participating in the lottery drawing lottery to select at least one first grid unit to acquire a first prize, Lt; / RTI >

One technical effect of the systems and methods of the present invention is that they facilitate a more efficient and more enjoyable implementation of lottery-draw style games on modern computers and communication systems. Another technical effect of the systems and methods of the present invention resides in specialized computer devices and / or game kiosks that can be configured and arranged to perform the lottery-style games described herein.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The invention will be described in more detail below with reference to embodiments of the invention as illustrated in the accompanying drawings. While the invention will be described in connection with the embodiments below, it should be understood that the invention is not limited thereto. Those of ordinary skill in the art having access to the teachings herein will recognize that additional implementations, improvements and embodiments within the scope of the present invention as described herein and in which the present invention may be of significant use, Other uses will also be recognized.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS For a more complete understanding of the present invention, reference is now made to the accompanying drawings, in which like elements are numbered alike. These drawings are not to be construed as limiting the invention, but merely as illustrative.
1 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method for facilitating lottery drawing style games in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the flow of tokens from the point of view of a lottery drawing game operator according to an embodiment of the present invention.
3 is a view showing a flow of tokens from the perspective of a player in a lottery drawing game according to an embodiment of the present invention.
4 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system for facilitating lottery drawing style games in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
5 is a block diagram illustrating exemplary software and data storage modules for facilitating lottery drawing style games in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
6 is a diagram showing a grid map of an exemplary GeoSweep game according to an embodiment of the present invention.
7A-B are diagrams illustrating an exemplary payment structure of an exemplary GeoSweep game in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.
8 is a diagram illustrating an alternative payment structure of an exemplary GeoSweep game in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.
Figure 9 is another alternative payment structure of an exemplary GeoSweep game according to one embodiment of the present invention.
Figure 10 is an illustration of an alternative method of setting the boundaries of a grid or land in an exemplary GeoSweep game according to an embodiment of the invention.
Figure 11 is a diagram illustrating yet another alternative method of setting the boundaries of a grid or land in an exemplary GeoSweep game according to an embodiment of the invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown a flow chart illustrating an exemplary method for facilitating lottery drawing style games in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

In step 102, a lottery drawing game may be set. The lottery drawing game may be a progressive game scheduled to have a plurality of lottery drawing lotteries over a predetermined period. For example, lottery draw lotteries can be done periodically, such as once every hour, every day on a calendar or at least once every business day, once a week or every month or a predetermined number of times a year. When a lottery draw game is set up, a set of rules, terms and conditions can be disclosed or communicated to potential participants. As will be described later, the rules define how the lottery drawing game operates and how the lottery draw lottery is performed, as well as the calculation and payment of the prize money. Terms and conditions may specify the rights and duties of the people participating in the lottery drawing game and lottery drawing lotteries.

In the preferred embodiments of the present invention, the lottery game is set online and can be accessed via an Internet web site. The lottery drawing game may also be implemented in connection with one or more social networking websites such as Facebook ™, MySpace ™ or LinkedIn ™. Alternatively, the lottery drawing game may be implemented in connection with one or more virtual reality games, such as Second Life ™ or other multiplayer video games. The lottery drawing game may be an add-on or an integral part of the relevant website, and participation in the drawing game may enhance the player's experience on the relevant website, or vice versa. According to some embodiments, the lottery drawing game and the lottery draw lottery may be implemented at least partially offline without requiring all participants to have computer or internet access.

In step 104, players may be registered in the lottery drawing game. Each person desiring to participate in a lottery drawing game may need to commit to participate in a number of scheduled lottery draw lots. In one exemplary registration process, the player must: (a) specify consent for a set of rules, terms and conditions set in the lottery draw game; (b) specify a set amount of money or other value Deposited or collateralized. The amount of the initial deposit or security may depend on factors such as how many players are obliged to participate in the lottery draw lottery, how many wagers the player makes for each lottery, and the player's credit rating.

Registration of the players can be done via the web interface, by mail, or through other communication means. When a lottery drawing game is implemented in relation to a social networking website or other member sites, registration within the lottery game can be simplified using existing member information. As an alternative, the lottery drawing game operator, manager or employee can register and approve directly. In some instances, new players may participate through referral and / or gift members.

In step 106, each registered player may be assigned one or more unique identifiers. Each player identifier (or player ID) may be a string, a serial number or other symbols. According to one embodiment, each player ID may be associated with a "Lucky Star" selected by the player. According to some embodiments, each player ID may include a machine readable portion (e.g., alphanumeric string) and a human recognizable portion (e.g., a logo, icon or catch phrase). For the player, one of the assigned player IDs may be used as a user name to log in to the internet based lottery game. Alternatively, the player can select a different username to log in, but he can still manage multiple player IDs assigned to that player. The assigned player IDs may be printed or encoded on the membership card.

In the draws and games described herein, each registered player may participate using one or more player IDs. When joining using multiple player IDs, the rules associated with each of the multiple player IDs are the same as when each player ID is owned and controlled by a single player. For ease of explanation, it is assumed in the following description that each player participates using a single player ID.

At step 108, each player may specify the number of tokens to participate in each lottery. That is, for each lottery draw lottery that the player has committed to participate in, the player can typically specify the bet amount measured by the number of tokens. As used herein, a "token" may or may represent any physical or virtual value that may be counted or quantified. For example, a token can be or represent one or more units of cash or bonds. Alternatively, the token may be or represents one or more points that are interchangeable with the valuable. According to one embodiment of the present invention, one token may be equivalent to one cent (1/100 dollars). According to another embodiment, one token may be or represent one value point that may be used to exchange music downloads, cell phone-tones, or other online or in-store purchases. According to another embodiment, one token may represent one unit of an online video game or a game score in a virtual society. According to another embodiment, one token may be or be exchanged with one or more units of mobile telephone talk time or long distance call time.

Players can purchase tokens with their initial deposit. They can set up electronic funds transfer and / or automatic credit card payments and recharge their accounts with tokens. The player's account can be automatically recharged as soon as the balance falls below a predetermined lower limit. Aside from winning or recharging the purchase, alternatively or additionally, players can acquire tokens by bartering or participating in certain activities. For example, the player may exchange credit card cashback bonus points for tokens. The player may obtain tokens by participating in online surveys, viewing online advertisements, or increasing the level of activity on social networking or blogger websites.

The number of tokens designated for each lottery draw lottery usually must be within a certain range. For example, for daily lottery draws, there may be a daily minimum and a daily maximum for the number of tokens that a player can provide per player ID. According to one embodiment of the invention, the daily minimum may be one token (e.g., 1 cent or 1 pence), and the maximum daily value may be 100 tokens (e.g., 1 dollar or 1 pound) . The number of tokens that the player designates for each lottery may be between a daily minimum and a daily maximum and any constant value including them. Alternatively, the player can configure the daily bet amount to be a variable amount. In order to have the minimum level of lottery drawing game participation (and thus more predictable revenue from the game), the gaming system is configured to prevent players from lowering their pre-set daily bet amount for any upcoming lotteries .

For each lottery draw lottery, at step 110, the jackpot prize money is awarded to two sources: (a) the tokens provided by the players participating in the lottery, and (b) Tokens. The tokens from the two sources can be joined together into one jackpot. The jackpot (or any portion thereof) may represent the maximum amount payable to the winner of the lottery draw lottery.

At step 112, a random lottery from the player IDs may be performed to select at least one winner. The word "random" does not require randomness in the strictest statistical sense, because such randomness is difficult to achieve. Instead, the word "random" means a fair lottery process that does not seem to favor any player over any other player. A random (fair) lottery from player IDs can be achieved with various calculation methods as is known in the game industry. According to some embodiments of the present invention, a single winner may be selected for each lottery draw lottery. According to some alternative embodiments, more than one winner may be selected for each lottery, and they may distribute the prize money at the same amount or according to the winning system.

Then, in step 114, the proportional value may be calculated based on the maximum number of tokens authorized per player ID, based on the number of tokens provided by the selected winner (s). Assuming that only one selected winner exists, the proportional value (F) is determined by dividing the number of tokens (n) provided by the winner by the maximum number (M) that the player is allowed to provide to the individual lottery draw lottery Can be calculated. In other words,

F = n / M.

If there are multiple winners, a proportional value can be calculated for each winner. For example, if the selected winner provided the maximum number of tokens for the lottery draw lottery, then the proportional value to that winner would be 1 or 100%. If the selected winner provided half the maximum number of allowed tokens, the proportionality value would be 1/2 or 50%. The proportional value calculated at this stage can be expressed in fractions or percentages.

In step 116, a portion of the jackpot (or maximum payable prize) may be provided to the selected winner (s) according to the proportionality value calculated in step 114 above. That is, whatever the maximum prize amount (P) that a winner may qualify for in the case of providing the maximum number (M) of tokens, the actual payment amount p is proportional to the number of tokens provided (n) It can be reduced to a portion of its maximum prize amount. In other words,

p = F x P = n / M x P.

The same proportional payment rules apply to multiple winner scenarios as well as single winner scenarios. The actual payment may be made by depositing tokens in the winner's account in the gaming system. As an alternative, the winner may receive cash in the form of cash, points, call or long distance call times, other valuables, or combinations thereof. Other payment devices are possible.

At step 118, the remainder of the jackpot prize money may be carried over to the next lottery. If one or more of the selected winners has not placed the maximum number of tokens and thus fails to acquire the entire jackpot, there will always be a predetermined remaining jackpot to be added to the next lottery jackpot. The registration rules also ensure continued participation in the ongoing lottery draw lotteries. As a result, the jackpot will rapidly increase to a large amount, which will further increase players' interest in the game.

For business benefit, it may be desirable to set the maximum number of tokens that each player ID can provide for each lottery to a relatively low value. For example, if the daily maximum that you can put on a daily lottery is $ 1, the player can offer as low as 1 cent but not more than $ 1. The player will not feel any serious financial impact or burden and will continue to play lottery games for many lottery days. By betting the pocket change on a daily basis, the player can continue to enjoy a great opportunity to earn a substantial sum.

FIG. 2 shows the flow of tokens from the point of view of the lottery drawing game operator according to an embodiment of the present invention. For convenience of explanation, it is assumed that the lottery drawing lottery of the lottery drawing game is performed every day. On each draw date, the pie chart 202 represents the jackpot prize money and its sources, while the pie chart 204 represents the same jackpot prize money (but shown separately for clarity) and the payouts therefrom. The pie chart 202 indicates that the first portion of the jackpot of the current draw date contains tokens carried over from one or more previous draws. The pie chart 202 also indicates that the second portion of the jackpot includes tokens provided by individual players for the current lottery. The pie chart 204 indicates that at least a portion of the jackpot prize money may be paid to the winner of the day. Assuming a single winner exists and the player has provided 40 tokens out of the maximum allowed value of 100, 40% of the jackpot prize money may be paid to the winner. In this case, the remaining 60% of the jackpot can be carried over to the next draw date.

Figure 3 shows the flow of tokens from the perspective of the player in a lottery drawing game according to an embodiment of the present invention. Player K, an exemplary player, may commit to participate in N lottery draw lots on N consecutive days, where N is an integer greater than one. The bucket of the dollar denotation tokens represents the account balance of the player K. Player K began with a "full bucket" of tokens purchased at the time of registration. As described above, the player K may designate one or more tokens to be provided to each daily lottery. The number of tokens specified may be constant or may change daily. As lottery days pass, if player K has not won at least one lottery draw lottery, player K's account will be slowly emptied and may need to be recharged. If player K is elected as a winner in one of the lotteries, the proportional payment from that lottery may recharge the account of player K to some extent.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, player K may enjoy other source-recommended rewards of tokens. In order to encourage player K to recommend additional players to participate in the lottery draw game, player K may be paid multiple tokens for each new player drawn into the game. The referral rewards can simply be deposited into the account of Player K. Alternatively, the referral rewards may be automatically provided on behalf of the player K and on the daily lotteries in addition to providing the player K himself for the daily lotteries. For example, for each new player pulled by player K, one or more tokens may be added to the player's daily bet amount. These additional tokens may be paid to Player K while the newly recommended player remains an active participant in the lottery draw lottery. Moreover, the amount of referral rewards can be linked to the recommended new player's activity level.

4 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system 400 for facilitating lottery drawing style games in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

The system 400 may be or include a computer system. Such an embodiment of the invention may be described in general in connection with computer-executable instructions, such as program modules, being executed by a computer. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. A series of programmable instructions that perform the lottery-style game functions described herein and achieve the technical effects in accordance with the present invention may be stored on a computer-readable medium. More exemplary software and data storage modules are described below with respect to FIG.

The lottery drawing style games described herein may be entered and / or executed within one or more game terminals or kiosks within or near the premises of a casino, department store, shopping mall or other suitable commercial venue. For example, potential contestants of a lottery drawing style game may be restricted by laws prohibiting online betting using payment cards. It may be advantageous for such participants to visit commercial outlets with the above-mentioned game terminals or kiosks for which they can legitimately register and / or play games in lottery-draw style games, or have someone else visit them on their behalf . When a player registers and funds money, the player can continue to monitor the progress of the game every day through the Internet or other means of communication. If desired, the player may occasionally revisit game terminals or kiosks to recharge accounts associated with his player IDs.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the invention may be practiced with other computer systems, including handheld wireless devices such as mobile phones or personal digital assistants (PDAs), multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, minicomputers, mainframe computers, ≪ RTI ID = 0.0 > system configurations. ≪ / RTI > The invention may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules may be located within local and remote computer storage media including memory storage devices.

A computer system may include a general purpose computing device in the form of a computer including a system bus that couples various system components including a processing unit, system memory, and system memory to a processing unit.

Typically, computers include various computer readable media that form part of the system memory and that can be read by a processing device. By way of example, and not limitation, computer readable media may comprise computer storage media and communication media. The system memory can include computer storage media in the form of volatile and / or nonvolatile memory such as read only memory (ROM) and random access memory (RAM). A basic input / output system (BIOS), containing the basic routines that help to transfer information between elements, such as during start-up, is typically stored in ROM. Typically, the RAM includes data and / or program modules that can be accessed immediately by the processing unit and / or are currently being executed by the processing unit. The data or program modules may include an operating system, application programs, other program modules and program data. The operating system may be a Microsoft Windows® operating system, a Unix operating system, a Linux operating system, a Xenix operating system, an IBM AIX ™ operating system, a Hewlett Packard UX ™ operating system, a Novell Netware ™ operating system, / 2 ™ operating system, BeOS ™ operating system, Macintosh ™ operating system, Apache ™ Operating System, OpenStep ™ Or may include various operating systems, such as operating systems or other platform operating systems.

At a minimum, the memory includes at least one set of instructions that are permanently or temporarily stored. The processor executes stored instructions to process the data. The set of instructions may include various instructions that perform particular tasks or tasks, such as those shown in the accompanying flowcharts. A set of such instructions for performing a particular task may be characterized as a program, a software program, a software, an engine, a module, a component, a mechanism or a tool. The system 400 may comprise a plurality of software processing modules stored on a memory as described above and executing on a processor in the manner described herein. Program modules may be in the form of any suitable programming language that is translated into machine language or object code to enable the processor or processors to read instructions. That is, programming code written in a particular programming language or lines of source code can be translated into a machine language using a compiler, assembler, or interpreter. The machine language may be binary coded machine instructions specific to a particular computer.

Any suitable programming language may be used in accordance with various embodiments of the present invention. For example, the programming language used may include assembly language, Ada, APL, Basic, C, C ++, COBOL, dBase, Forth, FORTRAN, Java, Modula-2, Pascal, Prolog, REXX and / . Also, a single type of instruction or programming language need not be used in connection with the operation of the system and method of the present invention. Rather, any number of different programming languages may be used as needed or desirable.

In addition, the instructions and / or data used in the practice of the invention may utilize any compression or encryption technique or algorithm, as may be desired. Data can be encrypted using an encryption module. In addition, files or other data can be decrypted using an appropriate decryption module.

The computing environment may also include other removable / non-removable, volatile / non-volatile computer storage media. For example, a hard disk drive may read or write to non-removable, non-volatile magnetic media. A magnetic disk drive may read from or write to a removable, nonvolatile magnetic disk and the optical disk drive may read from or write to a removable, nonvolatile optical disk such as a CD-ROM or other optical media. Other removable / non-removable, volatile / nonvolatile computer storage media that may be used in the exemplary operating environment include, but are not limited to, magnetic tape cassettes, flash memory cards, digital versatile disks, digital video tape, semiconductor RAM, Do not. Typically, storage media are connected to the system bus via a removable or non-removable memory interface.

The processing unit for executing the instructions and instructions may be a general purpose computer, but may be a general purpose computer, a microcomputer, a minicomputer, a mainframe computer, a programmed microprocessor, a microcontroller, a peripheral integrated circuit device, a Customer Specific Integrated Circuit (CSIC) Programmable logic devices such as Programmable Logic Arrays (PLDs), RFID integrated circuits, smart chips, and the like, as well as programmable logic devices (ASICs), logic circuits, digital signal processors, field programmable gate arrays , Or any other various devices or arrangements of devices capable of implementing the steps of the inventive processes.

It should be noted that the processors and / or memories of the computer system need not be physically co-located. Each of the processors and memories used by the computer system may be at geographically different locations and may be connected to communicate with each other in any suitable manner. It is also understood that each of the processors and / or memories may be configured with different physical devices.

A user may enter commands and information into a computer via a user interface that includes input devices such as a keyboard and pointing device generally referred to as a mouse, trackball, or touch pad. Other input devices may include a microphone, joystick, game pad, satellite antenna, scanner, voice recognition device, keyboard, touch screen, toggle switch, push button, These and other input devices are often connected to the processing unit via a user input interface coupled to the system bus, but may also be connected by other interface and bus structures, such as a parallel port, game port or a universal serial bus (USB).

One or more monitors or display devices may also be connected to the system bus via an interface. In addition to the display devices, the computers may also include other peripheral output devices that may be connected through the output peripheral interface. Computers embodying the invention may operate in a networked environment using logical connections to one or more remote computers, and typically remote computers may include many or all of the elements described above.

Various networks, including wired or wireless local area network (LAN) and wide area network (WAN), wireless personal area network (PAN), and other types of networks may be implemented in accordance with embodiments of the present invention. When used in a LAN networking environment, computers may be connected to the LAN via a network interface or adapter. When used in a WAN networking environment, computers typically include a modem or other communication mechanism. The modems can be internal or external and can be connected to the system bus via a user input interface or other appropriate mechanism. Computers may be connected via the Internet, intranet, extranet, ethernet, or any other communication providing system. Some suitable communication protocols may include, for example, TCP / IP, UDP or OSI. For wireless communications, the communication protocols may include Bluetooth, Zigbee, IrDa or other suitable protocols. Moreover, components of the system may communicate through a combination of wired or wireless paths.

Although many other internal components of a computer are not shown, one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that such components and interconnections are known. Thus, additional details regarding the internal configuration of a computer need not be disclosed in connection with the present invention.

More specifically, system 400 may include at least one game server 402 coupled to one or more databases 404 and / or other data sources. The game server 402 may execute a plurality of software modules to facilitate lottery drawing style games according to embodiments of the present invention. The database (s) 404 may maintain data records associated with players and lottery draw lots. One additional data source may be a bank or payment provider 406 that performs payment and / or credit services to the lottery gaming operator and players. Through the network 401, players can communicate locally or remotely with the game server 402 to register for a lottery game, participate in lotteries, and manage player accounts. The players may utilize various computing devices 408, such as personal computers, mobile computers, personal digital assistants, or handheld devices, to communicate with the game server 402.

5 is a block diagram illustrating exemplary software and data storage modules for facilitating lottery drawing style games in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Exemplary modules include a user interface module 502, a registration module 504, an accounting module 506, a game execution module 508, a management / service module 510, a player data module 512 and a game data module 514 ). These software modules may be programmed or configured to communicate with each other or with data storage modules.

The user interface module 502 may provide computer and / or internet access to players and game operators / administrators to communicate with other software modules. Registration module 504 may perform functions related to registration of new players, such as verification of player information, assignment of player IDs, and creation of player records. Accounting module 506 may be responsible for managing player accounts and handling debit and credit transactions for player accounts, including daily wagers and winner payouts. The game execution modules may perform functions such as scheduling and performing lottery draw lotteries, generation and presentation of lottery results, and calculation of proportional and payout amounts. The management / service module 510 may facilitate management and customer service operations to be performed by an operator or employee of the lottery game system.

The player data module 512 may include and manage data records associated with each player, such as player ID, personal information, bet preferences, account history, and the like. The game data module 514 may include and manage data records associated with lottery draw lots, such as lottery results, winner IDs, jackpot pays and carry amounts.

As variations and / or improvements of the aforementioned lottery drawing style games, other embodiments of the present invention may provide similar member-based games in relation to virtual and / or actual maps. These types of lottery drawing style games can be referred to as GeoSweep ™ games and are intended to be sold or promoted as GeoSweep ™ games. In a typical GeoSweep ™ game, a grid pattern can be overlaid on a map to divide the land into grid units. A player may have a virtual land ownership of one or more grid units and register with the game by agreeing to participate in a series of scheduled lottery draw lots. The player may participate in the draw by providing valuable tokens on behalf of at least one grid unit owned by the player. During any such lottery, if the grid unit owned by the player is selected as the (1st, 2nd, etc.) winner, that player may receive the total or proportional prize amount. Additional winners in the lottery may be selected to earn less than the first place winner. Additional winners are selected based on the map locations of additional winners for the first winner, and their payouts are determined.

Figure 6 shows a grid map for an exemplary GeoSweep game in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. The game may be referred to as "GeoSweep Texas" where the map of Texas is overlaid with the grid 602. Each grid unit 604 may be a rectangle or square of the same or similar size. In general, the grid unit may have any other shape, such as triangular, hexagonal (honeycomb) or other polygonal. In some GeoSweep games, grid units may have different shapes and / or sizes without significantly affecting the operation of the games. As a result, the grid 602 may divide the land of Texas into a plurality of small sections having well defined boundaries. Each of the segments (or grid units 604) may be uniquely identified.

To participate in a GeoSweep Texas game, a player may need to register to become a member. During registration, the player may select one or more of the available segments to become his virtual owner. The prepaid costs may or may not exist to "own" the compartment. Both single and joint ownership may be possible for one compartment. In some instances, it may be advantageous to conduct an auction among a number of interested players to determine which player will acquire a particular zone. The player may also commit to participate in a plurality of scheduled lottery draw style draws involving one or more compartments. Multiple scheduled lottery draw style draws can be done one or more times a day, every day or every few days, or periodically, such as several times a week or a month. In each lottery, each participating compartment may need to provide a predetermined number of tokens to the prize pool or the jackpot. The predetermined number may be a fixed number set by the game operator or administrator, or alternatively a variable number designated by the respective individual owner of the participating segments. In any case, at the time of registration, each player may need to fund his arrangements to participate in the draws by depositing or providing a certain amount of money.

In each lottery, one or more segments or grid units 604 may be randomly selected as the sole winner (s) or first place winner (s). For convenience of explanation, it is assumed below that each lottery selects a single grid unit as a single winner or a first place winner. In the case of a single winner, the total amount of the jackpot or a portion thereof calculated may be paid to the owner of the winning winning grid unit. More generally, in addition to the first place winner, one or more winners of smaller amounts may be determined based on their relative map positions relative to the first place winner. According to some embodiments, the lottery may be limited to compartments already owned or billed by the participating players, thus ensuring that at least one player is entitled to the prize money as will be described in more detail below . According to some embodiments of the present invention, the divisions or grid units may each have the same opportunity to be drawn as first-place winners. According to other embodiments, the divisions or grid units may have different opportunities to be selected as winners. For example, if one compartment costs more to own than the other compartments, the compartment can enjoy a better winning opportunity.

The prize money in each lottery may contain valuable tokens provided to the lottery by the participating parcels. Prize money may also include carry-over from previous lotteries. Additionally or alternatively, prizes may include others of value. For example, a marketing partnership may be formed between the game operator and other businesses. As a reward for promotional or advertising activities on the GeoSweep gaming platform, business partners can provide products and services to be paid as prizes. If it is justified by the cost or reward for the investment, part of the actual land or other real estate may be awarded to the first prize winner or the sole jackpot winner.

Figures 7A-B illustrate an exemplary payment structure for the GeoSweep Texas game described above.

Figure 7a shows one grid unit selected as the first place winner. The first winning grid unit has eight neighboring grid units, of which six grid units are owned by participating players, while the other two (702, 704) are not owned by any player. The grid units 706, 708, 710 owned by some players do not share any common boundaries with the grid unit selected as primary.

Referring to FIG. 7B, the first-place winning grid unit may be awarded a prize amount corresponding to 20% of a jackpot valid for the lottery. The winner's neighbors, the eight grid units, can each be allocated 10% of the jackpot. Thus, if all of the eight grid units of the winner's neighbors were owned by participating players, the entire jackpot would have been paid among the owners of the nine compartments (i.e., 1 x 20% + 8 x 10% = 100 %). However, since two of the winner's neighbors 702 and 704 are not occupied or owned by any player, the two 10% payouts (i.e., 20% of the jackpot) that would have been assigned to the owners of the grid units 702 and 704, Can now be regarded as not being won by anyone and can be carried forward with the next lottery. Grid units 706, 708, 710 farther away from the winning prize grid unit than the winner's neighbors do not acquire anything in this lottery.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, a GeoSweep game may include mechanisms for encouraging player recommendations. For example, in a GeoSweep Texas game where Texas is divided into 20 million compartments, a player who owns 20 compartments can receive additional units for each new player he recommends. Each compartment has the same chance to win 1st place. Thus, the effect of the referral reward may be somewhat different from the effect in the proportional lottery drawing style game described above. In the lottery draw style game, the referral reward has the effect of increasing the percentage of the prize money that the recommended player can obtain. In GeoSweep games, referral rewards have the effect of increasing winning opportunities.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the GeoSweep game may also have a proportional lottery drawing mode. In this case, at the time of registration or immediately after registration, the player of the GeoSweep Texas game may designate how many tokens to draw for the lottery on behalf of the compartment owned by the player. The number of tokens placed in each lottery on behalf of each compartment may be within a predetermined range, e.g. between 1 and 100, and between them. In a lottery, if one compartment is selected as the first-place winner, the proportional value can be calculated based on the number of tokens that have been walked on behalf of the compartment. For example, if the maximum number of tokens that can be executed for each compartment is 100, and 45 tokens are actually substituted for the first-ranked compartment, the proportional value is calculated to be 45% (ie 45/100). This proportional value can then be applied to all applicable payment structures, so that the holder of the 1st place prize partition can only receive a portion (eg 45%) of the first prize total. According to some embodiments, the owners of the winner's neighboring blocks may be subject to the same proportional value as applied to the first place winner. Alternatively, in accordance with some other embodiments, the payment for the neighboring section of the winner may be subject to another proportionality value calculated based on the number of tokens provided on behalf of that particular section. Thus, the map-based payment structure described above can be used to determine the total prize amount for the winner's neighbors, such that the total prize amount can be reduced according to the individual proportional values computed for each such compartment.

The above description of the GeoSweep Texas game is just an example. Various modifications or modifications, such as payment structures, grid structures, and map subjects, may be applied to such exemplary games.

Figure 8 illustrates an alternative payment structure in an exemplary GeoSweep (TM) game according to one embodiment of the present invention. In a grid with rectangular or square units, cell D-6 may be selected as the primary winner during the draw. Next, the four closest neighbors (ie, D-5, D-7, C-6, E-6) of cell D-6 sharing one side with cell D- . Four different neighbors (ie, C-5, C-7, E-5, and E-7) of cell D-6 sharing only one intersection with cell D-6 may qualify as third. The third prize money may be less than the second prize money, and the second prize money may be less than the first prize money. For example, the third prize money may be 5% of the jackpot total, the second prize money may each be 10% of the jackpot total, and the first prize money may be 40% of the jackpot amount. According to another embodiment, the first prize money may be 60% of the jackpot, the second prize 30% (ie 7.5% each) and the third prize 10% (ie 2.5% each) You can get a dividend.

Figure 9 illustrates another alternative payment structure in an exemplary GeoSweep game according to one embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, cell D-6 is again selected as a single first-order winner. Eight neighbors in cell D-6 can be a second-place winner. The next 16 closest neighbors of cell D-6 farther from cell D-6 may be the third-place winners. For example, the first prize money may be 68% of the jackpot, the second prize may be paid 16% (ie 2% each) of the jackpot, the third prize 16% (ie 1% . According to other embodiments, additional "rings" of neighbors may be included as much less prize winners.

According to some embodiments of the invention, more than one grid unit may be selected as the primary winner. A set of rules can be set to determine which other grid units are eligible for a second, third, etc. winner. For example, grid units that are the immediate neighbors of selected first-place winners can win the second prize. Then, if the first winning grid units are distant from each other, there may be a plurality of pockets or clusters of prize winners, and each pocket or cluster may be centered around a first prize winner.

Figure 10 illustrates an alternative method of setting grid or land boundaries in an exemplary GeoSweep game according to an embodiment of the invention. In this version of the GeoSweep Texas game, actual boundaries between Texas counties can help define grid units of various sizes and shapes, rather than overlaying a uniform grid on a Texas map. Alternatively, the actual land boundaries may define the grid units of the GeoSweep game, and thus the GeoSweep grid units correspond to the actual land divisions. According to one embodiment, all grid units (e.g., counties or smaller segments) may still have the same cost to "own " and / or may have the same opportunity to be selected as a winner. According to another embodiment, grid units or counties can have different costs and / or have different winning opportunities based on the size and popularity of each county or compartment. In some embodiments, game parameters associated with a segment on a GeoSweep map may be correlated or related to the conditions, market value, and popularity of the corresponding portion of the real-world land.

Since grid units have an irregular shape in a non-uniform grid, different grid units may have different numbers of neighbors. For example, county A has eight neighbor counties, county B has five, county C has only one neighbor county. Depending on which grid unit is selected as the first place winner, there can be at least one to at most eight immediate neighbors that can be given second place qualification. One solution is to specify the fixed percentage of jackpots given to each second-place winner. For example, if each second-ranked winner has 2% of the jackpot, 9 neighbors of the first-place winner are allocated 18% of the jackpot, while 2 neighbors (if only two exist) . Alternatively, a fixed percentage of the jackpot may be allocated between the second place winners, regardless of how many second place winners may be present. In this case, if the first place winner has only one neighbor, as in the case of county C, then this single neighbor would be the only second place winner with the total amount allocated to the second place. If the first prize winner has eight neighbors, as in county A, then eight neighbors will each have one eighth of the total amount allocated to the second.

Many variations of prize distribution schemes can be implemented for GeoSweep and / or proportional lottery drawing style games. In one embodiment, players introduced to the game by existing players may distribute some of their prize money to the original (recommended) player. In a further embodiment, the groups of players may form prize distribution clusters or syndicates.

Maps of other types of geographic areas (e.g., towns, cities, counties, states, oceans, islands, and continents) are also used in GeoSweep games according to embodiments of the present invention It should be noted that it may be appropriate. For example, GeoSweep USA, GeoSweep Europe, GeoSweep London, GeoSweep Hawaii, and so on. Indeed, a GeoSweep game can be set up for a travel destination and can help encourage travel by providing images associated with such destinations or parts thereof. For example, a GeoSweep Alaska game can offer free round-trip air tickets as a first prize or in addition. In addition, the game may provide free hotel accommodation for hotels located within the winning grid unit. As is known to those of ordinary skill in the advertising and marketing arts, GeoSweep games are unique to the map base and / or location, so promotional opportunities and variations are almost endless.

Figure 11 shows a portion of a New York City map to be used in an exemplary game that may be referred to as "GeoSweep Big Apple. &Quot; As shown, the actual distances and roads in the center of Manhattan can be used to define the grid units of the GeoSweep game. Local residents, businesses and / or travelers may be encouraged to participate in the game. Different incentives can be provided to each potential group of players. Local residents may be interested in the virtual possession of the street block in which they actually live, and participation in the GeoSweep game may be a social networking opportunity with other community members. Local businesses may be interested in sponsoring promotions and putting his name on the GeoSweep map. In fact, a GeoSweep map can be an online interactive map with promotional and informational features. Travelers can also be interested in games for a variety of reasons, such as getting familiar with the area and obtaining travel-related prizes offered by local businesses.

It should be understood that the above description includes many details and specificities, but they are included for illustrative purposes only and are not to be construed as limiting of the present invention. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that other changes to the embodiments described above may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of the present invention and to include them in the following claims and their legal equivalents.

Claims (19)

A computer-implemented method for lottery-style games,
Setting up an online game scheduled to have lottery draws on multiple lottery days, each lottery draw being on one lottery day;
Approving the registration of a plurality of players in the online game, each player being assigned at least one unique identifier and committed to participate in a plurality of lottery draws;
Receiving, from each player, a specified number of tokens to be put in for each of the at least one unique identifier in each of the plurality of lottery draws that the player has agreed to participate in, each specified number being at least one to predetermined; Up to the maximum-; And
On each lottery day, the tokens entered for the lottery by the players participating in the lottery, if present, are combined with the tokens carried over from one or more previous lottery days to form a jackpot for the lottery day, and on the lottery day Draw a prize from the unique identifiers of the participating players and select one winner, and (a) a specified number of tokens entered by the selected winner for the draw and (b) a proportional value based on the predetermined maximum value. Calculating and executing the online game by providing a portion of the jackpot to the selected winner based on the calculated proportional value.
Lt; / RTI > The computer implemented method of claim 1 further comprising carrying over the remainder of the jackpot to a next draw date. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein paper lotteries are not issued to players participating in the draw date. The computer implemented method of claim 1 further comprising rewarding an existing player for a recommendation of a new player registering for the online game. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the existing player is paid one or more tokens for each draw day when the new player participates in a lottery draw. 6. The computer implemented method of claim 5 wherein the one or more paid tokens are automatically entered into the lottery draw on behalf of the existing player. The computer implemented method of claim 1 wherein the draw dates are consecutive calendar dates, consecutive business dates, or selected dates of each week. The computer implemented method of claim 1 wherein each player commits to participate in the lottery draws for at least a predetermined period of time. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein each token represents a value unit selected from the group consisting of one or more cash units, one or more credit units, and one or more points exchangeable with valuables. The computer implemented method of claim 1 wherein each player registers with the online game by at least partially funding an agreement of the player participating in the plurality of lottery draws. As a system for games of lottery drawing style,
A processor;
At least one storage device coupled to the processor; And
A user interface coupled to the processor via one or more communication networks
Lt; / RTI >
The processor is in communication with the at least one storage device and the user interface,
Setting up an online game scheduled to have lottery draws on multiple lottery days, each lottery draw being on one lottery day;
Approving the registration of a plurality of players in the online game, each player being assigned at least one unique identifier and committing to participate in a plurality of lottery draws;
Receiving, from each player, a specified number of tokens to be put in for each of the at least one unique identifier in each of the plurality of lottery draws that the player has agreed to participate in, each specified number being at least one to predetermined; Up to the maximum-; And
On each lottery day, the tokens entered for the lottery by the players participating in the lottery, if present, are combined with the tokens carried over from one or more previous lottery days to form a jackpot for the lottery day, and on the lottery day Draw a prize from the unique identifiers of the participating players and select one winner, and (a) a specified number of tokens entered by the selected winner for the draw and (b) a proportional value based on the predetermined maximum value. Calculate, and play the online game by providing a portion of the jackpot to the selected winner based on the calculated proportional value.
A system that is configured to execute instructions to perform a task. As a computer implemented method for lottery style games,
Setting up a game that is scheduled to have a plurality of lottery draws;
Approving the registration of a plurality of players in the game, each player being assigned at least one unique identifier and committing to participate in a plurality of lottery draws by providing valuable tokens;
Receiving, from each player, a specified number of tokens to be put in for each of the at least one unique identifier in each of the plurality of lottery draws that the player has agreed to participate in, each specified number being at least one to predetermined; Up to the maximum-; And
For each lottery draw, the tokens provided in the lottery draw by the players participating in the lottery draw, if present, are combined with the tokens carried from one or more previous lottery draws, the lottery draw Form a jackpot for, perform a draw from unique identifiers of players participating in the lottery draw and select at least one winner, and (a) the token provided to the lottery draw by the selected at least one winner; And (b) calculating the proportional value based on the predetermined maximum value, and executing the game by providing a portion of the jackpot to the selected at least one winner based on the calculated proportional value.
Lt; / RTI > The method of claim 12,
The multiple lottery draws in the game
Every hour;
Several times daily;
everyday;
Every business day;
Several times a week;
Several times a month; And
Several times per year
A computer implemented method that is scheduled according to a frequency selected from the group consisting of: The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the game is implemented online via a website. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the game is implemented online in connection with a social networking website. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the game is implemented in connection with a virtual reality game. 13. The computer implemented method of claim 12 wherein at least a portion of the game is implemented in an offline environment. The computer implemented method of claim 12 wherein each player commits to participate in the plurality of lottery draws by depositing a predetermined amount. 19. The computer-implemented method of claim 18, wherein the predetermined amount is worth at least a portion of the total number of tokens that each player specifies to provide to the plurality of lottery draws.

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