Patent Publication Number: US-2004058726-A1

Title: World wide lotto game method and system

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001] The present invention relates in general to a system and method of conducting lotto games. More particularly, the present invention relates to the management of and the participation in worldwide lotto games via the Internet.  
       [0002] The conducting of lotto games has traditionally been made by selling tangible tickets by official organizations usually under governmental supervision.] Traditionally, in order to participate in a lotto game, a tangible ticket had to be purchased from an official organization usually acting under the auspices of a governmental authority.  
       [0003] Therefore, participation in official or “real” lotto games is limited to those who resident or present in the country or territory where the lotto games are held and the participation requires physical presence for the purchase of a ticket.  
       [0004] Today many private virtual lottery games (as distinct from official or governmental games) are available on the Internet. However, the major disadvantage of such private virtual lottery games is lack of credibility. Contrarily to the private lottery games, the traditional national-official lotto games are well known, reliable and conducted by large official organizations. Consequently most people trust the official lotto games and are wiling to invest money in the form of a purchase of a ticket in such games only.  
       [0005] Indeed, several web-sites such as OSA—“overseas subscriber agent” offer Internet users participation in official lotto games. Yet, those web-sites are limited to certain official lotteries, and moreover they constrain the gambling options by not allowing to bet on a single specific draw. The participation in official lotto games through such web-sites is permitted only to members who undertake to participate in multiple draws. It is thus the prime object of the invention to provide a virtual lotto game system and method which can be trusted by the participants and to remove the fear of the results being “fixed”.  
       [0006] It is an additional object of the invention to enable participation in official lotto games worldwide and to provide users with a large range of optional official lotto games.  
       [0007] It is a further object of the invention to enable users to compare and choose between official lotto games with different risk/investment options.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
     [0008] These and further features and advantages of the invention will become more clearly understood in the light of the ensuing description of a preferred embodiment thereof, given by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein  
     [0009]FIG. 1 is a general diagrammatic representation of the lotto game system according to the present invention;  
     [0010]FIG. 2 is a general scheme of managing lotto games as operated by the present invention;  
     [0011]FIG. 3 is a general scheme of participating in lotto games as operated by the present invention;  
     [0012]FIG. 4 is a general scheme of managing lotto games as operated by the present invention; 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
     [0013] The basic concept of the present invention is to provide a new worldwide lotto game (hereinafter called the “global lotto game”), which is based on official lotto games from different countries. The basic idea, is to take advantage of the participants&#39; trust in the official games results, and build new global lotto games, thus creating new opportunities for residents of certain countries to take part in different countries official lotto games. Moreover, such global lotto game provides its participants with advanced game possibilities, changing the basic gambling rules of the official games or even combining the opportunities of at least two official games.  
     [0014]FIG. 1 illustrates the environment in which the global lotto game system is practiced as suggested by the present invention. As seen in FIG. 1, global lotto game web site  10  is connected through the Internet, to users  12 .  
     [0015] The lotto game management application  14  retrieves updated information of original official lotto games  18  and provides the users with the opportunity to take part in the global lotto game. This application is associated with an Internet server, which provides communication interface to official lottery information and supports a designated web-site. (Hereinafter the “global lotto game web-site”). The retrieved information is recorded in a lottery history database  16  wherein the information is classified according to country, official authority, prize amounts, winning numbers etc.  
     [0016] The system further comprises users/members database  20 , storing gambling records of current games and optionally history data for each member.  
     [0017] The management of the global lotto game web site is illustrated in FIG. 2 and  3 . As seen in flow chart of FIG. 2 lottery games information is collected from different local official games. The collected information is classified and organized according to an information source, gambling opportunities, due dates of games and gambling rules. Such information includes: prize amounts, game type and regulation, odds for winning the game, prize divisions, draw schedule, draw results etc.  
     [0018] The information is recorded in the history database  16  and processed to calculate statistical parameters and comparison indexes.  
     [0019] The execution of the global lotto game according to the present invention is based upon the rules and regulation of the original games. However, the rules can be modified according to economic, commercial and promotional strategies.  
     [0020] According to a further improvement of the present invention, the system provides the user with additional gambling rules, thus it is possible to use a combination of the different game results, creating new virtual games, which are not identical to the original games.  
     [0021] The analyzed information and comparing tables of the different available games are presented to all Internet users in the global lotto game web site. The official lottery games are compared according to their changing factors such as winning prize, jackpot size, history results of winning odds etc.  
     [0022] Furthermore, members of the global lotto game web-site can be provided with their own history data of participation in the games, which is stored in database  20 .  
     [0023] The global lotto game website enables the users to take part in worldwide official lottery games, according to defined rules and regulations. Furthermore, the web site enables users to become global lottery members and enjoy automatic gambling options.  
     [0024] According to such options, a member can set rules for regular gambling such as amount of investment or game selection according to changing factors (e.g. choose every week the game with largest winning amount or winning odds). As the global lottery game is based upon a wide selection of possible lottery games, the users are provided with many games combinations using different criteria such as winning amounts, winning odds, Jackpots etc.  
     [0025] The process of participating in the global lotto game is illustrated in FIG. 4. All Internet users can enter the global lotto web site and find information on all or most official lottery games available around the world. The users can compare the different games according to history results and the current games options. The users can select one or more games and participate in the virtual version as proposed by global lottery web site. The user will be asked to fill in personal details including credit card number or any other payment procedure details.  
     [0026] At the end of each original official lottery draw, the global lottery web site management system will collect all winning results and record them in the history database.  
     [0027] The users&#39; draws are checked in comparison to the official results, to determine the winners out of all participants of the respective game. All participants are informed of the winning draws. Users who guessed the winning numbers according to the original lottery rules and results, will receive prizes based on the amounts of the prizes in the original draw. The wining results of members are recorded in a history file, in database  20 .  
     [0028] According to a further embodiment of the present invention it is suggested that an insurance policy will be purchased to ensure payment of the prizes or the jackpots. Traditionally, lottery game winning amounts are based on total revenue of previous draws. As the winning amounts in the global lotto games web site are based on original lottery games, the revenues of the world global lotto games web site may not be sufficient to cover these winning prizes. Therefore, it is suggested that an insurance policy be purchased to ensure payment of the prizes or the jackpots.  
     [0029] While the above description contains many specificities, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the invention, but rather as exemplifications of the preferred embodiments. Those skilled in the art will envision other possible variations that are within its scope. Accordingly, the scope of the invention should be determined not by the embodiments illustrated, but by the appended claims and their legal equivalents.