Patent ID: 8827794

Claim:
A method for selecting the winning tickets in a lottery game, comprising: a plurality of tickets by a plurality of players at a plurality of locations, said method further comprising; said lottery game having an ordered number of prize levels wherein a higher prize level is expected to yield a higher payout than a lower prize level; wherein each said prize level either has an allocated portion of the pot to be distributed between the winning tickets at said prize level or a fixed prize amount per winning ticket; presenting said plurality of players with a tool to make connections to other players wherein said connections and players will form a social network; registering said tickets to be associated with said players in said social network; operating upon said received plurality of said tickets and said social network within said central processor to determine the winning tickets, said determination comprising: selecting winning tickets for at least one prize level based on the criterion that a winning ticket at said prize level must be registered to a player that has a direct connection in said social network to a player with a registered ticket that won a higher prize level.