Patent ID: 7788482

Claim:
A method for vending printed on-line lottery tickets from a plurality of terminals connected to a central server over a network, and for subsequent authentication of the lottery tickets presented for redemption, said method comprising: for each of the terminals that prints a lottery ticket with a player's entry in a lottery game, generating an asymmetric key pair at the terminal that is unique to the respective terminal, the asymmetric key pair comprising a first private key that is stored at the respective terminal and a corresponding second public key; encrypting the second public key using a permanent terminal private key to create a certificate, wherein the first private key is different from the permanent private key of the terminal; communicating the certificate to and storing the certificate in the central server, the central server storing respective certificates for the plurality of terminals; at a vending time of a lottery ticket at a terminal, communicating a request by the terminal to the central server for a unique serial number and other data piece to be printed in plain text on the lottery ticket by the terminal; upon receiving the request for the unique serial number and other data piece, the central server verifying that a certificate has been generated and stored for the respective requesting terminal, and upon satisfying the verification, the central server assigning a plain text data piece and unique serial number to the lottery ticket to be printed at the requesting terminal; upon receipt of the plain text data piece and unique serial number, the requesting terminal generating an authentication code by encrypting the unique serial number and plain text data piece using the first private key, and printing the authentication code, plain text unique serial number, and plain text data piece on the lottery ticket along with the player's entry in the lottery game without transmitting the authentication code back to the central server at the time of purchase and printing of the lottery ticket, and wherein the plain text data piece comprises a multi-digit date corresponding to the date of purchase of the lottery ticket; upon subsequent verification of a lottery ticket presented for redemption, transmitting the authentication code and plain text unique serial number and data piece printed on the presented lottery ticket to the central server, the central server then retrieving the certificate corresponding to the unique first private key used to create the authentication code on the lottery ticket at time of printing the lottery ticket, deciphering the second public key from the certificate using a permanent terminal public key, and deciphering the authentication code using the second public key; and the central server verifying the lottery ticket as authentic if the authentication code is validly deciphered using the second public key such that the deciphered authentication code matches the plain text serial number and data piece printed on the lottery ticket.