Patent ID: 8915780

Claim:
A lottery data transfer method for processing lottery ticket data that piggybacks on a merchant's existing debit or credit card interchange system without establishing an actual debit or credit card account, the method comprising acts of: assigning a bank identification number (BIN) to lottery tickets that is unique in the merchant's credit or debit card interchange, the lottery BIN recognized by a processor in the interchange system as being unique to the lottery tickets and associated with a lottery data blob also provided on the lottery ticket, wherein the unique lottery BIN does not require an actual credit or debit card account at an issuing processor; entering the unique lottery BIN and lottery data blob into the merchant's existing credit or debit card activation protocol to initiate transfer of lottery data from the lottery ticket to a central lottery site via the interchange; at the issuing processor within the interchange, recognizing the unique lottery BIN as a flag to initiate special routing to and further processing of the lottery data blob at the lottery central site and not as being associated with an actual credit or debit card account at the issuing processor; and processing the lottery data blob at the lottery central site outside of the interchange's debit or credit card data transfer and processing procedures used for transactions with actual credit or debit card accounts.