A controller is configured to obtain first image data from a camera associated with a ticket processing apparatus; transmit the first image data to an application server; receive, from the application server, a dispense command for the ticket processing apparatus; cause the ticket processing apparatus to dispense, based on the dispense command, a ticket having a scratching area; receive a user-provided scratching command from the application server; and cause a robotic scratching device to scratch, or remove an opaque substance from, the scratching area of the ticket in accordance with the user-provided scratching command.

A pack of lottery tickets includes a plurality of inter-connected lottery tickets fan-folded into a stack, wherein each lottery ticket comprises a first side edge. A code on each lottery ticket identifies the pack and an order or position of the lottery ticket in the pack. A marking pattern is printed along the first side edge of each of the lottery tickets and includes at least one mark. The pack has a side face defined by the stacked first side edges of the tickets in the stack, wherein the marking pattern on the lottery ticket side edges align so as to form a unique identification image on the side face of the pack. The marking pattern on each lottery ticket is unique to the respective ticket such that each lottery ticket in the pack can be separately authenticated at a later time by comparing its marking pattern to a retrieved or replicated image of the marking pattern based on the pack identification and order of the lottery ticket in the pack provided by the ticket code.

A security-enhanced document including a substrate, variable indica applied to an area of a first side of the substrate, a scratch-off-coating applied over the variable indicia to maintain the variable indicia unreadable until the scratch-off-coating is removed by being scratched off, and digital imaging applied to an area of a reverse side of the substrate from the variable indicia, wherein the digital imaging applied to the area of the reverse side of the substrate includes the same materials as the variable indicia, is uniformly spread over the area of the reverse side of the substrate, and such that the digital imaging overlaps at least 50% of the variable indica applied to the area of the first side of the substrate, such that the variable indicia exhibits an insufficient signal-to-noise ratio relative to the signal-to-noise ratio of the digital imaging on the reverse side of the substrate so that the variable indicia cannot be discerned so long as the scratch-off-coating remains intact.

A controller is configured to obtain, from a first video camera in proximity to a ticket dispensing machine, a first video stream; transmit the first video stream to an application server for delivery to a user device; receive, from the application server, a dispense command for the ticket dispensing machine; cause the ticket dispensing machine to dispense, based on the dispense command, a ticket having a scratching area; receive a user-provided scratching command from the application server; and cause a robotic scratching device to scratch the scratching area in accordance with the scratching command.

There is provided a shuffled playing card, wherein a suit and a rank are printed on one surface of a card base sheet, and a back pattern is printed on another surface, different sheet IDs for one card base sheet or each of a plurality of card base sheets are printed on the card base sheet, one deck or a plurality of decks are formed by individual cards cut by a cutting machine from the card base sheet, the one deck or the plurality of decks are shuffled by a shuffle machine to form a set of shuffled playing cards, different shuffled playing card IDs for each set are assigned to the shuffled playing card as ID codes, and the sheet ID of the playing card constituting the shuffled playing card and the shuffled playing card ID are associated with each other in a database.

A fortune telling device provides touting services. The fortune telling device is linked to remote touting services and uses the information to make sporting event outcome predictions. The fortune telling device may include an interface for allowing users to place sports bets and sign up for an account with a third-party sportsbook.

A controller is configured to obtain, from a first video camera in proximity to a ticket dispensing machine, a first video stream; transmit the first video stream to an application server for delivery to a user device; receive, from the application server, a dispense command for the ticket dispensing machine; cause the ticket dispensing machine to dispense, based on the dispense command, a ticket having a scratching area; receive user-provided scratching data from the application server; and cause a robotic scratching device to scratch the scratching area in accordance with the scratching data.

A security-enhanced document including a substrate, variable indica applied to an area of a first side of the substrate, a scratch-off-coating applied over the variable indicia to maintain the variable indicia unreadable until the scratch-off-coating is removed by being scratched off, and digital imaging applied to an area of a reverse side of the substrate from the variable indicia, wherein the digital imaging applied to the area of the reverse side of the substrate includes the same materials as the variable indicia, is uniformly spread over the area of the reverse side of the substrate, and such that the digital imaging overlaps at least 50% of the variable indica applied to the area of the first side of the substrate, such that the variable indicia exhibits an insufficient signal-to-noise ratio relative to the signal-to-noise ratio of the digital imaging on the reverse side of the substrate so that the variable indicia cannot be discerned so long as the scratch-off-coating remains intact.

A method is provided of digitally imaging a secure portion and a non-secure portion of scratch-off-coating protected documents of at least one game using middleware. The method includes: (a) generating the secure variable indicia in non-vector raster format; (b) generating vector graphics to be imaged on physical document locations; (c) assigning the secure variable indicia in a non-vector raster format to documents in and shuffling the documents throughout a print run; and (d) linking via middleware the secure variable indicia in the non-vector raster format to associated vector graphics variable indicia to be digitally imaged on the documents and to generate vector graphics-formatted data for each document in the print run. The secure variable indicia assignment and shuffling are executed by non-vector raster game generation software output that is reinterpreted by the middleware to produce related vector graphic output for the secure variable indicia.

A security-enhanced document includes a substrate and variable indicia comprising ink having a signal. The variable indicia is of a specific type and is applied to the substrate using a specific application technique. At least one other printed portion, which is a back of the document, has background ink noise, and the type of ink of the back of the document is of the same type of ink applied to the substrate using the same application technique as the ink of the variable indicia. The document also includes a scratch-off-coating applied over the variable indicia. The document has a signal-to-noise ratio of the ink of the variable indicia relative to the background ink noise of the back of the document that is not appreciable, thereby making the variable indicia unreadable with reference to the back of the document when the scratch-off-coating remains intact.