Patent ID: 7458580

Claim:
A scratch-off lottery game card with a Sudoku puzzle theme, comprising: a substrate; a plurality of game spaces displayed on said substrate in a Sudoku puzzle format having an N (column)×N (row) matrix, said matrix further divided into a block matrix having M (column)×M (row) blocks; a plurality of game symbols comprising N different symbols, with a single game symbol placed in each of said game spaces such that said matrix defines a completed Sudoku puzzle wherein each different game symbol occurs only once in each said row, column, and block; a plurality of said game spaces, but less than all of said game spaces, covered by a removable scratch-off material such that less than all of said completed Sudoku puzzle is visible to a player; a plurality of player game indicia provided on said substrate and covered by a removable scratch-off material, said player game indicia identifying game spaces positions on said matrix or selected ones of said game symbols; and wherein upon playing of said game, a player removes said scratch-off material from said game spaces and said player game indicia, and if said identified game space positions identified by said player game indicia forms a predefined pattern in the completed Sudoku puzzle, a prize is awarded to the player.