Patent ID: 7749080

Claim:
A method of authenticating a lottery ticket, comprising: prior to issuance of a lottery ticket to a player, providing both a public identifier and a first public decryption key, to be included on a lottery ticket that is to be issued; after the lottery ticket has been issued, as part of a request to authenticate the lottery ticket, receiving, with a lottery ticket authentication system, a the public identifier and the first public decryption key read from the lottery ticket; decrypting, with the lottery ticket authentication system, the public identifier using the first public decryption key to generate a second identifier, wherein the second identifier is maintained separately in a lottery ticket authentication database of the lottery ticket authentication system to prevent an insider from determining the public identifier for the ticket; searching the contents of a lottery ticket authentication database containing entries associated with authentic lottery tickets to find a match for the second identifier; and responsive to finding a match for the second identifier in the lottery ticket authentication database, confirming, with the lottery ticket authentication system, that the lottery ticket is an authentic lottery ticket.