Patent ID: 7962362

Claim:
A method for promoting customer loyalty comprising: (a) establishing a lottery event comprising a main event and a customer loyalty event; (b) tracking lottery ticket purchases for respective players associated with said lottery event, said tracking comprising: processing, in a data processing system, lottery ticket purchase orders respectively associated with the lottery ticket purchases; receiving, at an input device, identification numbers respectively associated with each of said respective players; and storing in a central database connected to said data processing system said identification numbers and said lottery ticket purchase orders; (c) said data processing system determining a prize pot from said lottery ticket purchases; (d) said data processing system programmed to reserve a first portion of said prize pot for said main event and a second portion of said prize pot for said customer loyalty event; and (e) said data processing system determining a payout for qualifying ones of said respective players from said second portion based on a pre-determined formula, said qualifying ones of said respective players being determined based at least in part on the lottery ticket purchase orders; wherein said step of determining a payout for qualifying ones of said respective players from said second portion is contingent on each of said qualifying ones of said respective players from said second portion winning said main event.