Patent ID: 8342959

Claim:
A method for pari-mutuel betting, wherein a server communicates with clients via a distributed computing network, the method comprising the steps of: (a) enrolling gamblers in a server database for at least one pari-mutual wager event by presenting betting rules associated with the at least one pari-mutual wager event on clients associated with the gamblers; (b) assigning point awards to categories associated with the at least one pari-mutual wager event as part of the betting rules; (c) collecting wagers from the gamblers and updating the server database based on the wagers; (d) forming a pool from the wagers, the pool being less than a total of the wagers and storing data representing the pool in the server database; (e) accepting predictions from each gambler for discrete events within the categories for the at least one pari-mutual wager event, wherein the predictions are received from the clients by the server, which updates the server database based on the predictions; (f) allocating points to the gamblers based upon the correct and incorrect predictions and updating the server database based on the points, wherein correct predictions are worth more points than incorrect predictions; (g) in the server, determining rankings of the gamblers based upon the points allocated thereto; and (h) distributing at least a portion of the pool according to the rankings, wherein the at least one event is a lottery where a subset of numbers are chosen sequentially from a preselected range by a method selected from the group consisting of reading manually completed sheets, receiving Internet submissions, receiving text message wagers and predictions, receiving wagers and predictions from mobile telephones and combinations thereof, wherein the lottery is multi-jurisdictional and progressive with a large initial payout, and at least one winner is determined by a lowest score based upon an accumulated sum for each drawn number of an absolute value of a difference between a predicted number and the drawn number.