Method of Conducting a Lottery

Abstract

An embodiment involves obtaining a number; associating consecutive digits of the number with consecutive rotatable cylinders arranged in an axial row, wherein each rotatable cylinder has a hole on its outer rim; causing a loading module, that is disposed above the rotatable cylinders and contains ten rotatable sections, to load balls from at least some of the ten sections into a rotatable cylinder, wherein each of the ten sections contains balls respectively labelled by way of RFID tags with a different digit; causing the rotatable cylinder to rotate and deposit a ball onto an inclined slot; receiving, from an RFID reader, a representation of a digit labelled on the ball; and based on the digit, causing the loading module to load additional balls from at least some of the ten sections into a next rotatable cylinder that is adjacent to the rotatable cylinder.

Claims

1. A method comprising: obtaining a number; associating consecutive digits of the number with consecutive rotatable cylinders of a plurality of rotatable cylinders arranged in an axial row, wherein each rotatable cylinder has a hole on its outer rim; causing a loading module, that is disposed above the plurality of rotatable cylinders and contains ten rotatable sections arranged in an axial row, to use axial and rotational movement to load balls from at least some of the ten rotatable sections into a rotatable cylinder of the plurality of rotatable cylinders, wherein each of the ten rotatable sections has a hole commensurate in size to the holes in the rotatable cylinders, and wherein each of the ten rotatable sections contains balls respectively labelled with a different digit in the range of 0 through 9, and wherein the balls are labelled by way of RFID tags; causing the rotatable cylinder to rotate and thereby deposit a ball onto an inclined slot that is disposed below and axially aligned with the plurality of rotatable cylinders; receiving, from an RFID reader at a distal end of the inclined slot, a representation of a digit labelled on the ball; and based on the digit, causing the loading module to use axial and rotational movement to load additional balls from at least some of the ten rotatable sections of the loading module into a next rotatable cylinder of the plurality of rotatable cylinders that is adjacent to the rotatable cylinder.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein causing the loading module to load additional balls into the next rotatable cylinder comprises: determining that the digit matches a corresponding digit of the number; and in response to the digit matching the corresponding digit of the number, causing the additional balls to only be loaded from sections of the loading module containing balls labelled with digits less than or equal to a next corresponding digit of the number.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein causing the loading module to load additional balls into the next rotatable cylinder comprises: determining that the digit is less than a corresponding digit of the number; and in response to the digit being less than the corresponding digit of the number, causing the additional balls to be loaded from all of the ten rotatable sections of the loading module.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0013] FIG. 1 shows the principle of creating ticket numbers at the moment of ticket purchase.

[0014] FIG. 2 shows the principle of creating numbered balls that can be drawn in the drawing device (lototron).

[0015] FIG. 3 shows the example of the device and its principle of operation.

[0016] FIG. 4 shows the example of construction of the drawing balls and the slot (cut view).

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0017] The lottery is conducted so that the participants become holders of certain drawing tickets, which are the simple sequential numbers assigned to each newly registered drawing ticket. In a lottery, the potential participants shall register their identification data on the lottery organizer's server website. The user data shall be correlated with the numbers assigned to the participant's application, which becomes the number of the electronic ticket for the drawing. The drawing of the prize fund is made only from within the numbers of registered applications.

[0018] A user shall lodge his or her lottery participation application and register it by paying a particular amount of money set for the game cycle. The number of lottery tickets acquired by one participant is unlimited. The payment of the contribution results in a civil-legal relationship, whereunder the participant is entitled to take part in the lottery and to claim the prize in case of winning.

[0019] The lottery is distinguished so that the drawing may be conducted in several levels (rounds). This means that for each level (round) the sum of prizes is different, e.g. for the main prize fund designed for the main drawing for the single ticket, the size of the win may be from 40% to 45% of the total prize fund. After conducting the drawing of the main prize fund, the remaining prize fund may be drawn based on special combinations of the participants' lottery ticket numbers, e.g. the drawing may involve tickets with at least three identical numbers 1, 2, 3 etc. in their queue number. For example, if the drawing involves the total number of 235567 tickets, the winning numbers of the secondary drawing will be those with at least three identical numbers matching the lotto ball dropping out of the device. Assuming that the ball with a number 7 has dropped out, the winning numbers will be: 777, 1777, 2777, . . . , 1777xx, where XX are any numbers from 00 to 67. These winning numbers share the remainder of the prize fund or a part of it and then one or more drawing rounds are conducted by analogy.

[0020] Similarly, a lottery may be conducted when selling transportation documents, e.g. railway or air tickets by using their serial numbers. In this case, at the moment of ticket sale the passenger claims their wish to take part in the drawing and the cashier registers the participation and refers the necessary attributes in the ticket with the help of the ticket printing machine, including the queue number of the ticket. In this case, the travel ticket remains with the user as a lottery ticket after being used for direct purposes as a travel ticket and shall form the basis to claim the prize.

[0021] The advantage of the claimed method of conducting a lottery is the simplicity of participation, without requiring the participant to memorize any information and no need to undertake any actions, except for the confirmation of the wish to participate, on the one hand, while conducting such a drawing lot allows increasing the attractiveness and competitiveness of the basic service provided to the user in any service sector, on the other hand.

[0022] Method to conduct a lottery may be implemented as follows

[0023] Users 2 register on the server 1 by entering their registration data. At the moment of ticket purchase the server 1 assigns a number to ticket 3 based on the moment of lodging the application. The number shall be assigned based on the queue of the lodged application (see FIG. 1). The number of lodged ticket purchasing applications matches the total number of combination variants of the drawing. I.e. if N tickets have been purchased, all numbers with N combinations shall take part in the drawing. Drawing lots is performed by the drawing machine 12 (see FIG. 2), which may be implemented based on a sample device (see FIG. 2). A processor or a micro-controller 5 is installed inside of the device 12. An information collector 4 may also be installed, saving the data sent by server 1 from the database, or the information on the numbers taking part in the drawing directly reaches the processor or the micro-controller 5.

[0024] The start of operation of the drawing machine 12 depends on the combination of the digit, required to draw all possible combinations. E.g. if the total number of combinations N=ABCDEF, where A, B, C, D, E, F are any digits from 0 to 9, this means that the device shall roll six cylinders with the balls.

[0025] The processor or the micro-controller 5 triggers the loadingstarting with the first the cylinder on the left, which is loaded with 6 balls with numbers from 0 to 3.

[0026] The said loading may take place by means of the loading module 14 moving along the cylinders and loaded with balls 17 (see FIG. 3). The module 14 is divided into 10 sections, each of them contains balls respectively numbered from 0 to 9. When a ball 17 needs to be loaded into one of the cylinders 6, 7, 8, 9, module 14 approaches the respective section 15, the section moves around its axis and unloads one of the balls to the cylinder through the cavity 18, when the latter meets the loading cavity 16. When the cylinder contains all the balls with all the required numbers, it turns and spins the balls. Consequently, e.g. as can be seen from FIG. 3, the cylinder 6 is turned around with its cavity 16 down and only one ball 17 is unloaded there.

[0027] After falling out of the cylinder, the ball 17 drops into a special inclined slot 13 and rolls down where it contacts the RFID reader 19. Each ball 17 contains RFID tags inside 20 (see FIG. 4) matching the ball numbers. When the reader 19 triggers the tag 20, the data is transferred to a processor 5 or a micro-controller, which then calculates the possible numerical combinations with which the balls may be loaded into the next cylinder. Subsequently, the operation after loading the cylinder with the balls and the drawing of the second ball is repeated by analogy for the next cylinder 7, then for the remaining cylinders 8, 9 etc., by drawing the winning lots with larger numbers, where necessary. At the end of the drawing, the balls 17 may be loaded back to the module 14 manually or automatically.

[0028] The described example of the drawing machine (lototron) is only one of the possible variations of its technical implementation. A drawing machine may be realized as an electronic screen with the numbers dropping out on the basis of random generation. A simple drawing machine is also possible by manually loading and distributing the balls. Each of these implementation options are covered under the claimed method.

[0029] For instance, 347853 combinations must be played on the basis of a drop of any number from 000001 to 347853. The balls numbered from 0 to 3 are loaded into the left cylinder. If numbers 0, 1, 2 drop out, all balls numbered from 0 to 9 are loaded into the next cylinder. If number 3 drops out, only the balls numbered from 0 to 4 are loaded into the next cylinder. The balls are loaded into the remaining cylinders by analogy in sequence from left to right. This is how every other ball is played for the entire row of the six-digit number. As a result, the single number from within the numbers from 000001 to 347853 is drawn, and becomes the winning lot.

INFORMATION SOURCES

[0030] 1. Website: http://www.stoloto.ru/6x49 [0031] 2. Patent RU2053827 [0032] 3. Patent EA006282 [0033] 4. Application RU2010143479 (published on 10 May 2012)