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Method and system for multiple in-lane lottery ticket sales at a retail establishmentMethod and system for multiple in-lane lottery ticket sales at a retail establishment description/claimsThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20090163263, Method and system for multiple in-lane lottery ticket sales at a retail establishment. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
The present application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/014,962, filed Dec. 19, 2007. Lottery tickets are sold at many types of retail locations including, stores, such as grocery stores, general merchandise stores, and the like. Many such stores feature one or more check-out points, commonly referred to as check-out lanes, with each check-out lane equipped with a point-of-sale (POS) terminal. In contrast, lottery tickets are typically sold at a separate lottery point-of-sale terminal or terminals within the same retail establishment. This system generally requires additional personnel to staff the lottery ticket POS terminal, or requires the store clerk to divide their time and responsibility between the lottery POS terminal and the store POS terminal. The conventional system and method also require a separate accountability and tracking system for lottery ticket sales, which can add significantly to the cost and burden of providing the lottery to players at the retail establishment. The present invention, referred to as Lottery InPlay, provides a system and method for providing lottery ticket sales at multiple POS terminals within a retail establishment that offer significant advantages over the conventional methodology. Objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the following description, or may be obvious from the description, or may be learned through practice of the invention. A lottery system and methodology are provided that can support sales of lottery products at multiple checkout lanes at a retail location. This may advantageously reduce wait times, as lottery consumers need not necessarily go to a separate lottery point-of-sale terminal to purchase lottery products. Additionally, the retailer may benefit from reduced labor costs, since employees at the checkout lanes can handle some or all of the work which otherwise would be handled by employees at one or more lottery point-of-sale terminals. In some embodiments, an in-lane lottery sales computing device is interfaced to the point-of-sale equipment at each checkout lane. Lottery customers present a bar coded or otherwise machine-readable lottery “token” to the cashier. The token may be any type of readable device, such as a coupon, ticket, chip, and so forth, and is scanned using the point-of-sale terminal and the in-lane lottery sales computing device that captures lottery data as the token is “rung up” at the point-of-sale terminal. Additionally or alternatively, the request can be entered at the point of sale terminal in any other suitable manner, such as by entering a price look up (PLU) code, manually entering UPC data, and/or by pressing a specific key or touch screen “button” mapped to the specific lottery product. In any event, the request data can then be forwarded on to a centralized lottery system for handling the request. Then, assuming a favorable response or verification from the centralized lottery system, one or more corresponding lottery tickets are printed in-lane on appropriate material, such as secure lottery paper stock. The data obtained by scanning or otherwise reading the token can be used to treat the lottery ticket sale(s) in the same manner as other items of inventory. Namely, the amount of lottery sales can be tracked using the retailer point-of-sale system, the retailer point-of-sale system can be used to handle funds tendered for lottery sales, and customers can be provided with an integrated purchase experience. In some embodiments, an in-lane system can advantageously avoid the need for substantial modifications to retail point-of-sale systems which would otherwise be required to integrate lottery and retailer sales. Instead, through use of a loosely coupled interface (which could be considered similar in at least some respects to the CONVENIENCE CENTRAL SYSTEM available from Scientific Games, Inc., of Alpharetta, Ga.), there is no lottery-specific software running on the retail point of sale system or terminals. Thus, setup, configuration, and maintenance of the system may proceed significantly faster than in the case of an interface that is not loosely-coupled. In certain embodiments, the in-lane lottery systems can comprise one or more monitors which are used to communicate marketing and other messages directly to players (or potential players) in-lane. For instance, for checkout lanes that include a marketing display, one or more monitors can be positioned at or near the display for the consumer to view upon entry to the checkout lane. Additionally or alternatively, the monitor(s) can be placed at or above the checkout counter for viewing while the customer is checking out. In some embodiments, the retailer could be allowed to use the lottery monitor(s) to display point-of-sale transaction information, advertisements, or other purposes. A full and enabling disclosure including the best mode of practicing the appended claims and directed to one of ordinary skill in the art is set forth more particularly in the remainder of the specification. The specification makes reference to the appended figures, in which: Continue reading about Method and system for multiple in-lane lottery ticket sales at a retail establishment... Full patent description for Method and system for multiple in-lane lottery ticket sales at a retail establishment Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this Method and system for multiple in-lane lottery ticket sales at a retail establishment patent application. 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Start now! - Receive info on patent apps like Method and system for multiple in-lane lottery ticket sales at a retail establishment or other areas of interest. ### Previous Patent Application: Lottery sales systems and methodology for supporting cross-platform reporting Next Patent Application: Gaming system and a method of gaming Industry Class: Amusement devices: games ### FreshPatents.com Support Thank you for viewing the Method and system for multiple in-lane lottery ticket sales at a retail establishment patent info. IP-related news and info Results in 2.32557 seconds Other interesting Feshpatents.com categories: Novartis , Pfizer , Philips , Polaroid , Procter & Gamble , paws |
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