Patent ID: 11911705
Assignee: SCIENTIFIC GAMES, LLC
Field: Control (Instruments)
Classification: CPC A  G | IPC A  G

Claim 7:
8. A method to encourage continued play of scratch-off lottery tickets remaining in a game after award of seeded top prizes in the game, the method comprising:
generating a total set of scratch-off lottery tickets for the game, each of the lottery tickets including a scratch-off coating covering game indicia that indicates a winning or losing status of the lottery ticket;
establishing a single multi-tier prize structure for the game that includes at least one top tier prize and a plurality of prizes at lower tier prize levels;
defining a plurality of subsets of the total set of scratch-off lottery tickets, each of the subsets comprising a predefined number of the scratch-off lottery tickets having a predetermined winning outcome at one of the lower tier prize levels assigned to the subset;
designating the scratch-off lottery tickets in each of the subsets into qualifying tickets and non-qualifying tickets, the qualifying tickets eligible for play in an additional game associated only with the respective subset and having an additional game prize, wherein the additional game prize of at least one of the subsets is at least equal in value to the top tier prize;
providing each of the qualifying tickets and the non-qualifying tickets within each subset with a printed mark that visibly and positively distinguishes the lottery ticket as either one of the qualifying tickets or the non-qualifying tickets within the respective subset; and
upon redemption by players of the qualifying tickets and the non-qualifying tickets for the respective lower tier prize assigned to each of the subsets, using the printed mark to identify and enter the qualifying tickets into the additional game associated with the respective subset to which the qualifying ticket belongs.