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A method and apparatus for operating a lottery system. Customers purchase lottery entries using their customer stations to send lottery entry data to a toll switching system equipped to prompt customers and accept lottery entries. Customer identification data for identifying purchasers is transmitte

A method and apparatus for operating a lottery system. Customers purchase lottery entries using their customer stations to send lottery entry data to a toll switching system equipped to prompt customers and accept lottery entries. Customer identification data for identifying purchasers is transmitted to that toll switching system in the form of automatic number identification signals from switching systems connected to the customers and personal identification codes keyed by customers. Lottery data is stored in the toll switching system and transmitted to a centralized lottery data base system for determining lottery winners. Advantageously, customers may purchase entries in existing, periodic draw lotteries from their own customer stations, using the shared facilities, and the high peak capacity for handling lottery traffic of a public switched network.

대표청구항 ▼

A method of operating a lottery comprising the steps of: responsive to reception of a lottery access number from a purchaser\s customer telephone station, establishing a connection from a switcing system of a publicly accessible common carrier telephone network having a mass announcement means for p

A method of operating a lottery comprising the steps of: responsive to reception of a lottery access number from a purchaser\s customer telephone station, establishing a connection from a switcing system of a publicly accessible common carrier telephone network having a mass announcement means for processing a large number of lottery entries simultaneously, for accessing a lottery entry data base to said customer station; receiving lottery entry data from said customer station in said switching system over said connection for storage in said lottery entry data base, receiving data in said switching system for identifying a purchaser of a lottery entry for storage in said lottery entry data base, said receiving data for identifying a purchaser comprising receiving, from another switching system, data identifying said customer station; transmitting said lottery entry data and said data identifying a purchaser to a centralized lottery data base for searching said centralized lottery data base to identify a purchaser of a winning lottery entry in response to receipt of identified lottery winner numbers established in a periodic lottery drawing; wherein said data identifying said customer station comprises a customer station number; further comprising; sorting lottery entries by customer station numbers, said numbers sorted by telephone number office codes and numbering plan area codes of said customer station numbers, for generating reports identifying how many lottery entries were purchased by each of a plurality of blocks of customer station numbers.