Patent ID: 7704139

Claim:
A method of facilitating a lottery ticket transaction, comprising: receiving, by a lottery device, a request by a player to purchase a lottery ticket for a lottery drawing, wherein the lottery ticket is assigned a lottery number combination; determining, by the lottery device, whether a request to limit the number of occurrences of the lottery number combination has been made by the player, the request indicating that the lottery number combination be exclusively assigned to only a single lottery ticket for the lottery drawing, such that the lottery number combination will not be assigned to any other lottery ticket purchased for the lottery drawing; performing, by the lottery device, one of (a) or (b): (a) if a request that the lottery number combination be exclusively assigned to only a single lottery ticket has been made by the player, in response to the request by the player that the lottery number combination be exclusively assigned to only a single lottery ticket for the lottery drawing, determining the lottery number combination such that the lottery number combination is exclusively assigned to only a single lottery ticket for the lottery drawing, in which determining the lottery number combination comprises using a random process to select at least one number of the lottery number combination; and preventing the lottery number combination from being assigned to at least one additional lottery ticket for the lottery drawing; or (b) if a request that the lottery number combination be exclusively assigned to only a single lottery ticket has not been made by the player, determining the lottery number combination such that it is possible that at the time of the lottery drawing the lottery number combination could be assigned to more than one lottery ticket for the lottery drawing; and outputting, by the lottery device, an indication of the lottery number combination determined according to either (a) or (b).