WO2012002810A1

WO2012002810A1 - System for providing a lottery game

Info

Publication number: WO2012002810A1
Application number: PCT/NL2011/050469
Authority: WO
Inventors: Nick Green
Original assignee: Abacus Solutions International B.V.
Priority date: 2010-06-28
Filing date: 2011-06-28
Publication date: 2012-01-05
Also published as: CA2803915A1; NL2004982C2; EP2585991A1; AU2011101728A4; AU2011271797A1

Abstract

The invention relates to a system for providing a lottery game, various components of such system and methods performed by those components and the system. It is advantageous to provide lottery entry through a terminal with which also other transactions are being paid. To match lottery entry requests from different types of payment terminals and multiple different lottery services located on different servers, a lottery brokerage server is provided.

Description

System for providing a lottery game

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to the field of systems and methods for providing a lottery game. Aspects of the invention relate to brokerage of lottery games and a terminal for instruction payments and prosing lottery games.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Lottery tickets are usually presented and bought as a product in itself, provided using a dedicated infrastructure. A separate terminal is provided at a retailer location, contacting a dedicated server. The terminal issues a ticket as proof of entry in the lottery game. Such tickets are usually printed on thermal paper, of which the lifetime is limited; in certain cases not more than three months. And upon exposure to sunlight or other heat sources, information will be lost very quickly. Without the ticket, a participant to the lottery game will not be able to prove his or her entry.

OBJECT AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is convenient to offer entry in lottery games in a way that the risks related to loss of a ticket are reduced.

The invention provides in a first aspect a terminal for instructing payment transactions comprising: a visual communication unit; an input unit for receiving identification comprising account information of a customer and a confirmation of requesting entry of the customer to a lottery game; a remote communication unit; and a processing unit for controlling operations of elements of the terminal; wherein the processing unit is arranged to: display a first transaction amount for goods or services taken by a customer by means of the visual communication unit; propose entry in a lottery game to the customer by means of the visual communication unit; upon receiving a confirmation of requesting entry of the user to a lottery game by means of the input unit, display a second transaction amount being the first amount plus an amount for entry in the lottery game; control the remote communication unit to send out an instruction for executing payment of the second amount to a banking server; communicate the request of entry in a lottery game to a lottery server, the request comprising the account information; and receive lottery information sent by the lottery server in response to the request; upon receiving the lottery information, display at least part of the lottery information to the customer by means of the visual communication unit. By providing information related to the customer together witht the lottery entry request, participation of the customer can also be registered at another location like a remote server such as the lottery server or an auxiliary server operatively connected between the terminal and the lottery server. Account information - related to a bank account or payment card account - provides a unique identifier related to the customer. Such payment card could be a credit card, a debit card, other, or a combination thereof. Furthermore, this particular identifier enables automated pay-out of a prize won upon results of a draw being available, without further intervention of the customer. This makes a ticket as proof of participation superfluous, thus reducing risks of proof participation to a game being lost. Nonetheless, a ticket - or receipt - may still be issued as an additional proof. Furthermore, costs are reduced by providing a single terminal for instructing payment and enabling entry in a lottery game.

In an embodiment of the terminal according to the invention, the processing unit is further arranged to control the remote communication unit to send out an instruction to a further banking server for executing payment of a prize amount to an account identified by the account information of the customer.

This embodiment is particularly advantageous in conjunction with "instant win" lottery games. In such games, the draw has already taken place or a draw takes place upon receipt of the entry to the game by the customer. In such games, it is right after entry known whether the customer has won a prize. This information can be sent back to the terminal, which in turn, upon receipt of that information, inform the customer on the outcome. In case the outcome is that the customer has won a prize, the terminal can subsequently instruct a banking server to pay out the prize amount to the account of the customer of which account the number has already been received.

The invention provides in a second aspect a lottery brokerage server comprising: a communication unit; a storage unit; and a processing unit for controlling elements of the lottery brokerage server; wherein the communication unit is arranged to communicate with a customer terminal for receiving lottery entry requests comprising account information of a customer and with a lottery server for sending lottery entry requests, wherein the storage unit has validation data stored on it and wherein the processing unit is arranged to: extract identification data and account information of the customer from a customer lottery entry request received from the customer terminal; if the identification data corresponds to at least part of the validation data, control the communication unit to send a server lottery entry request to the lottery server, the server lottery entry request corresponding to the first lottery entry request; in response to receiving server lottery entry information sent by the lottery server in response to receiving the server lottery entry request, sending customer lottery information to the terminal, the customer lottery information corresponding to the server lottery information; and if the server lottery information indicates that the lottery entry request resulted in winning a prize, instruct, via the communication server, a banking server to pay a prize amount to an account of the customer identified by the account information.

Lottery games may be provided by different lottery operators, each having different interfaces and requirements for receiving lottery entry requests. On the other hand, terminals for instructing payments may be provided by various suppliers and those terminals may have different interfaces, depending on the suppliers. This may yield compatibility issues that need to be resolved. By resolving providing the lottery brokerage server, such compatibility issues are handled in only one location. Furthermore, such lottery brokerage server enables constitution of a trusted third party between the customer. Such trusted third party is well suited for coordination of payment instructions, in particular with respect to a prize amount. In case the lottery brokerage server coordinates payment of prize amounts, the account number does not have to be sent to the lottery server, thus removing a security issue. The lottery brokerage server still sends the lottery entry request to the lottery server, though without the bank account information and another identifier for identifying a specific participant instead.

In an embodiment of the lottery brokerage server according to the invention, the processing unit is further arranged to extract geographical data from the customer lottery entry request; the storage unit has a lookup table stored in it and the processing unit is arranged to: identify a country of origin of a first lottery entry request received from the customer terminal; look up in the lookup table a lottery server that operable for the country of origin; and control the communication unit to send a second lottery entry request to the lottery server looked up previously, the second lottery entry request corresponding to the first lottery entry request.

Legislation on lottery entries varies to a large extent per jurisdiction. One lottery brokerage server may be provided to communicate with transaction terminals and lottery operators in multiple countries. To properly relay lottery entry requests from customers to lottery servers, the country of origin is an important factor to be taken into account. In a further embodiment of the lottery brokerage server according to the invention, the processing unit is further arranged to extract lottery game information from the customer lottery entry request; identify a lottery server related to the lottery game information; and; control the communication unit to send the server lottery entry request to the lottery server identified.

With this embodiment, a terminal with which lottery entry requests are sent out only needs to communicate with one type of server, being the lottery brokerage server, rather than with various lottery servers that may have different types of interfaces. The lottery brokerage server in turn communicates with further lottery servers, depending on the type of game or types of games played. This allows transaction terminals to be designed and/or programmed in a relatively simple and cheap way. The additional design and/or programming is only required for a limited number of lottery brokerage servers, which results in an overall reduction of cost.

The invention provides in a third aspect a system for providing a lottery game comprising: the terminal according to claim 1 ; the lottery brokerage server according to claim 8; and a lottery server operatively to the lottery brokerage server; wherein the terminal is arranged to communicate with the lottery server via the lottery brokerage server.

The invention provides in a fourth aspect a method of operating a terminal for instructing payment transactions comprising: display a first transaction amount for goods or services taken by a customer by means of the visual communication unit; propose entry in a lottery game to the customer by means of the visual communication unit; upon receiving a confirmation of requesting entry of the user to a lottery game from the customer, display a second transaction amount being the first amount plus an amount for entry in the lottery game; send out an instruction for executing payment of the second amount to a banking server; communicate the request of entry in a lottery game to a lottery server; receive lottery information sent by the lottery server in response to the request; and upon receiving the lottery information, display at least part of the lottery information to the customer by means of the visual communication unit. The invention provides in a fifth aspect a method of operating a lottery brokerage server comprising: identify a country of origin of a first lottery entry request received from the customer terminal; look up in a lookup table a lottery server that operable for the country of origin; send a second lottery entry request to the lottery server looked up in the previous step, the second lottery entry request corresponding to the first lottery entry request; in response to receiving first lottery entry information sent by the lottery server in response to receiving the second lottery entry request, sending second lottery information to the terminal, the second lottery information corresponding to the first lottery information.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention and embodiments thereof will now be elucidated in conjunction with Figures. In the Figures,

Figure 1 : Shows an embodiment of a lottery system;

Figure 2: shows an embodiment of a wireless payment terminal;

Figure 3: shows an embodiment of a lottery brokerage server;

Figure 4 A: shows a first part of a flowchart depicting an embodiment of the method according to the invention;

Figure 4 B: shows a second part of a flowchart depicting an embodiment of the method according to the invention;

Figure 4 C: shows a third part of a flowchart depicting an embodiment of the method according to the invention; and

Figure 5: Shows another embodiment of a lottery system.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Figure 1 shows a lottery system 100 as an embodiment of the system according to the invention. The lottery system 100 comprises a payment terminal 102 that is operatively connected to a so-called EPoS or Electronic Point of Sale terminal 104 that will be referred to as point of sale terminal 104. The payment terminal 102 comprises a banking card reader, either a credit card or a debit card, an input unit like a keypad and a display for displaying payment details. Through the payment terminal 102, a customer is enabled to identify himself or herself by means of a banking card and to authorise payment of a transaction amount to a retailer. The payment terminal 102 is coupled to the point of sale terminal 104 via a wired or wireless connection or integrated in one apparatus. Further specific features of the payment terminal 102 will later be discussed in further detail. The point of sale terminal 104 is an advanced version of a cash register. It can be coupled to a barcode reader for reading barcodes on products, allowing convenient registration of goods purchased. The total amount of the purchase is provided to the customer via a display on the point of sale terminal and/or the display on the payment terminal. The point of sale terminal 104 is in this embodiment coupled to a retailer server 106.

The retailer server 106 is in this embodiment used to handle further communications between the retailer and other parties. A bank is one of those parties to arrange payment from the customer to the retailer, but a supplier would also be one of those parties. The retailer server 106 may also serve as a stock administration system, where the sale of goods is automatically taken up in the stock administration of for example a supermarket. If stocks of a product drop below a certain threshold, the retailer server 106 can automatically send out an order for that product to replenish stock. The retailer server 106 is also connected to a lottery brokerage server 130 for handling purchase of lottery tickets by means of the point of sale terminal 104.

The lottery system 100 further comprises a wireless payment terminal 1 12. The wireless payment terminal 1 12 is a simplified version of a combination of the payment terminal 102, the point of sale terminal 104 and the retailer server 106. The wireless payment terminal 1 12 does not have a stock keeping application or an electronic cash register application; the amount to be settled is entered by the retailer and subsequently confirmed by the customer, after the customer has been identified by means of a banking card. Subsequently, a payment instruction is send out to the bank of the customer.

The wireless payment terminal 1 12 is via a gateway 1 14 connected to the lottery brokerage server 130. The wireless payment terminal 1 12 communicates in this embodiment to the gateway 1 14 via a GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) connection. The gateway 1 14 in turn couples the wireless payment terminal 1 12 to the lottery brokerage server 130. The lottery system 100 further comprises a lottery server 150 that is connected to the lottery brokerage server 130. The lottery server 150 issues lottery information to the lottery brokerage server 130 upon receiving a lottery entry request of the lottery brokerage server 130. The lottery information may be numbers for entry in a draw. These numbers are to be generated by the lottery server 150. Additionally or alternatively, the lottery information may be information whether a customer has won a prize. In this alternative, the lottery server runs a routine upon receiving a lottery entry request, which routine directly yield whether the request is a winning request or not. Figure 1 further discloses a banking server 160 that is operatively connected to the retailer server 106, the gateway 1 14 and the lottery brokerage server 130. The banking server 160 manages accounts of clients like the customer and the retailer. Additionally, the banking server 160 manages transaction between the several accounts of its clients. In this embodiment, only one banking server 160 is shown for only one bank. A person skilled in the art will readily appreciate that in practice, there are far more banks, each with one or more servers for receiving transaction instructions issues by customers through payment terminals as discussed above. The word bank should be interpreted broadly in this case; is also includes credit card companies, other payment card companies, PayPal and other companies or institutions where one can keep an account for payment, savings and/or investment purposes.

It is noted that the connections between the various servers and terminals discussed in this description are not necessarily direct and hard (physical) connections. In most cases, the connections will be constituted by communications between the various elements over an internet protocol (l/P) or X25 protocol.

As discussed, the connections between the various terminals and servers are provided over one single network like the internet, over a PSTN network, a .X25 network. Alternatively, network or connections may be provided over multiple networks using one or more different communication protocols. In both cases, the network connections may be provided over virtual private networks (VPNs). So the connections drawn in Figure 1 may be provided over one single (physical) network or multiple networks, either physical or virtual. Using virtual private networks, a first virtual private network may be created where one or more point of sale terminals like point of sale terminal 104 shown by Figure 1 and multiple wireless payment terminals like the wireless payment terminal 1 12 shown by Figure 1 can communicate with the lottery brokerage server 130. Additionally, a second virtual private network may be created to where one or more point of sale terminals like point of sale terminal 104 shown by Figure 1 and one or more wireless payment terminals like the wireless payment terminal 1 12 shown by Figure 1 can communicate with multiple banking servers like the banking server 160 shown by Figure 1 . Furthermore, a third virtual private network may be created where the lottery brokerage server 130 can communicate with multiple lottery servers like the lottery server 150 shown by Figure 1 . Servers - or clients, for that matter - not being part of such virtual private networks cannot connect to servers that are part of such virtual private networks, keeping communications sent over the network private. Typically, virtual private networks can be set up when required and closed in case not required anymore. Virtual private networks are dynamic networks.

The point of sale terminal 104, connected to the payment terminal 102, is firstly arranged to instruct transfer of money upon purchase of goods and services by a customer from a retailer. The total cost of goods and/or services is calculated by means of the point of sale terminal 104, acting as an electronic till. Subsequently, the total amount is shown to the customer for settlement, preferably by means of a credit or debit card. Upon receiving identification of the customer's card, either by magnetic strip, contact chip or contactless chip like RFID, and confirmation of the payment by the customer, the point of sale terminal 104 sends an instruction to the banking server 160 to settle the payment, via the retailer server 106. The wireless payment terminal 1 12 acts in a similar way, where the amount to be settled is usually directly entered in the terminal.

Figure 2 discloses the wireless payment terminal 1 12 in more detail. It has been noted that the most of the functionality of the wireless payment terminal 1 12 is also provided by a combination of the payment terminal 102, the point of sale terminal 104 and the retailer server 106. Therefore, only the wireless payment terminal 1 12 will be discussed in further detail.

The wireless payment terminal 1 12 comprises a microprocessor 202 as a processing unit for controlling the various elements of the payment terminal 1 12. The wireless payment terminal 1 12 further comprises a memory 204 as a storage unit for storing data, a keypad 206 as an input unit, a card reader 208, also acting as an input unit, a display 210 acting as a visual communication unit, a printer 212 also acting as a visual communication unit and a communication processor 214 coupled to an antenna 216, acting as a remote communication unit.

The card reader 208 is enabled to read data from a magnetic strip on a banking card or from an integrated circuit integrated in a banking card, either by means of electrical contacts or contactless, for example by means of RFID (radio frequency identification). Alternatively, the card reader 208 is only able to read data from a banking card by a subset of these technologies. The display 210 is preferably embodied as an LCD (liquid crystal display) display and more in particular a dot-matrix LCD display where alphanumerical characters are build up from coarse pixels. In this way, information can be visualised to the customer and/or the retailer. The printer 212 is enabled to print tickets with information relevant to the customer and the retailer. Also in this way, information can be visualised to the customer and/or the retailer. The communication processor 214 comprises a baseband processing part and an RF (radio frequency) processing part. The communication processor 214 decodes information to be transmitted to for example the banking server 160 and subsequently mixes the data with a radio-frequency signal carrier to create a signal suitable to be transmitted by means of the antenna 216.

Alternatively, the remote communication unit can be embodied with another communication unit that is arranged to send data over a wired network like a telephone line or another wired network using for example the X25 network protocol or the l/P network protocol. These protocols may be used either over the telephone line or another network. It will be apparent that in this alternative, a payment terminal is not constituted that is not wireless. As a wireless payment terminal is preferred, a standalone payment terminal, so a payment terminal that is not coupled to a point of sale terminal, will be referred to as a wireless payment terminal in the rest of the description. In any case, it will be apparent that the scope of the invention and embodiments thereof are not limited to either wired or wireless connections between the several components.

Figure 3 shows the lottery brokerage server 130 in further detail. The lottery brokerage server 130 comprises a microprocessor 302 as a processing unit for controlling the various elements of the lottery brokerage server 130. The lottery brokerage server 130 further comprises a mass memory 304 for storing data relevant to the lottery brokerage server 130 and a communication processor 306 coupled to an antenna 308 as a communication unit. In this embodiment, the communication unit is provided as a wireless communication unit. In other embodiments, the communication unit is a wired communication unit to communicate over one or more networks using one or more network protocols. The lottery brokerage server 130 may comprise multiple communication units for communication over multiple networks, either multiple physical networks, multiple open networks, multiple virtual private networks, multiple proprietary networks or other networks.

Operation of the lottery system 100 and the various elements thereof will now be disclosed by means of a flowchart 400 shown by Figure 4 A, Figure 4 B and Figure 4 C. An indication of the steps of the flowchart 400 is provided in the table below.

Ref. No. Step

402 Payment request by retailer

404 Receive card

406 Present total transaction amount

408 Propose lottery entry

410 Confirmation of lottery entry received?

412 Receive number of entries to lottery

414 Number confirmed?

416 Present new total transaction amount

418 Confirmation of payment?

420 Send payment instruction to banking server 160

422 Receive payment instruction

424 Process payment instruction

426 Send response to payment instruction to wireless payment terminal

1 12

428 Receive response

430 Print payment receipt

432 Lottery entry confirmed?

434 End of process

436 Send lottery entry request to lottery brokerage server 130

438 Receive lottery entry request

440 Extract identification information from entry request

442 Look up identification information in validation data

444 Identification data verified?

446 Send an error message to the wireless payment terminal 1 12

448 Receive error message 450 Display error message on display

452 Extract country identifier from entry request

454 Look up country information

456 Identify lottery server specific to country

458 Send entry request to lottery server specific to country

460 Receive entry request

462 Process entry request, generate lottery information

464 Send the lottery information to lottery brokerage server 130

466 Receive the lottery information

468 Process the lottery information

470 Does the lottery information indicate a winning entry?

472 Instruct pay-out

474 Send information to the wireless payment terminal 1 12

476 Receive the lottery information

478 Present the lottery information, end of process

The process starts with the retailer asking the customer for settlement for the goods or services purchased in step 402. Subsequently, the wireless payment terminal 1 12 receives and reads a banking card of the customer in step 404. In step 406, the payment terminal 1 12 presents the transaction amount to the customer via the disply 210. This may be preceded by the retailer entering the transaction amount in the wireless payment terminal 1 12 in case this is not done automatically.

Subsequently, entry in one or more lottery games is proposed in step 408, via the display 210. Upon confirmation of the entry in the lottery game, which is checked in step 410, the wireless transaction terminal prompts for the number of entries in the lottery game in step 412. In step 414, the wireless transaction terminal 1 12 asks for confirmation of the number of entries. Upon confirmation of the number of entries, the total amount of the settlement, including the amount for entry in the lottery game, is provided to the customer in step 416. In case the customer does not wish to participate in a lottery game, the process branches to step 416 from step 410.

Subsequently, the customer is prompted to confirm payment of the total amount to the retailer in step 418. In case the customer does refuses to confirm the amount to be settled, the process branches back to step 404. In case the customer confirms payment of the total amount prompted on the display 210 of the wireless transaction terminal 1 12, the wireless transaction terminal 1 12 sends out a payment instruction for transfer of the total amount confirmed to the banking server 160 in step 420.

Upon receiving a payment instruction in step 422, the banking server 160 processes the payment instruction in step 424. Though represented as a single step here, the processing implies multiple steps, including indentifying accounts, checking the balance of the account from which money is debited whether the requested transaction can be executed and the actual transferring of the requested amount. Furthermore, contact with only one banking server 160 is discussed. As already noted, multiple servers of multiple banks may be involved here, where operations between those servers of different banks are controlled by another server. In this embodiment, only one banking server 160 is discussed for reasons of clarity.

After executing the transaction or after verifying whether the transaction can take place, the banking server 160 sends out in step 426 a response message to the wireless transaction terminal 1 12 indicating either success or failure for executing the payment instruction.

The response message is in step 428 received by the wireless transaction terminal 1 12. Upon receipt of the response message, a payment receipt is printed by the printer 212 in step 430. The payment receipt provides among other information on whether the payment instruction has been executed successfully or unsuccessfully.

After printing of the payment receipt, two checks are made. In a first check in step 432, it is verified whether the customer indicated to enter in a lottery game. If this is not the case, the process ends in terminal 434. If this is the case, a second check verifies whether the payment has been executed successfully. If this is not the case, the process ends in terminal 434. The order of the first check and the second check is not relevant. If the payment has been executed successfully and the customer has indicated that he or she wants to enter in a lottery game, the wireless payment terminal

1 12 sends in step 436 a lottery entry request to the lottery brokerage server 130.

The lottery entry request is received by the lottery brokerage server 130 receives in step 438 the lottery entry request. In step 440, identification data is extracted from the lottery entry request. Such identification data comprises an identifier for identifying a retailer, a wireless payment terminal, or for identifying a retailer server (in case the retailer uses an electronic point of sale terminal instead of a stand-alone payment terminal), or a Card Acceptor Number, a customer identification like the number of a credit card or other banking card, the name of the customer, the country from which the terminal is operated, or a combination of two or more of the previous or other or more information. Subsequently, in step 442, validation data stored in the mass memory 304 of the lottery brokerage server 130 is looked up to verify that the origin of the lottery entry request is correct. Preferred identifiers for doing this are a terminal identifier and/or the Card Acceptor Number and/or a relation between both. In step 444 is checked whether the lottery entry request can indeed be validated, so whether the origin of the lottery entry request is known and accepted. Additionally, it may be checked whether the lottery entry request is in the correct format. If this is not the case, the lottery brokerage server 130 sends an error message to the wireless transaction terminal 1 12 in step 446, which is received by the wireless transaction terminal 1 12 in step 448 and displayed on the display 210 in step 450 upon which the process is terminated. It is stipulated that sending this error message is optional. In case it is not possible to validate the lottery entry request, there may be an issue of fraud, in which case it may not always be prudent to notify the other side that fraud has been detected.

In case the lottery entry request has been validated, regional information is extracted from the lottery entry request in step 452. In particular, the country where the wireless payment terminal 1 12 is used is extracted. Following this, information on the identified country is looked up in a country lookup table or other searchable data medium stored on the mass memory 304 of the lottery brokerage server 130 in step 454. Upon finding the identified country in the country lookup table, a lottery server specific to that country is identified in step 456. In a significant amount of countries, lotteries are state monopolies. In that case, only one lottery server per country can be contacted. In case multiple lottery operators have business in a country, a lottery server may be picked based on the lottery game selected by the customer.

Upon finding the correct lottery server, the lottery brokerage server sends a further lottery entry request to the lottery server 150 in step 458. This further lottery entry request sent to the lottery server 150 corresponds to the lottery entry request sent out earlier by the wireless transaction terminal 1 12. In particular, the further lottery entry request sent out by the lottery brokerage server 130 to the lottery server 150 comprises an entry request to the game indicated earlier by the customer, plus the number of entries. The further lottery entry request sent out by the lottery brokerage server 130 to the lottery server 150 does not necessarily comprise information on the customer, the retailer, the wireless transaction terminal 1 12 or other information identifying the origin of the lottery entry request. However, information is provided by the lottery brokerage server 130 to properly identify the further lottery entry request and communications from the lottery server 150 related to that further lottery entry request.

Upon receiving the lottery entry request in step 460, the lottery server 150 processes the further lottery entry request. The processing of the further lottery entry request depends on the type of game for which entry is requested. A game may be played with or without a pre-determined identifier per entry request. The pre-determined identifier may be provided by the customer, like a bank account number, but is can also be a number related to a sequence with which entries are received by the lottery server 150. An example of the latter is that every millionth or every hundredth customer entering in the game receives a prize. Alternatively, for example the 2345th, the 37643th and the 98734^th customers receive a prize - or entries at other random sequence numbers.

Without a pre-determined identifier being available, an identifier may be provided on the fly, like a random generated number. This random generated number subsequently can indicate whether the entry into the lottery game is a winning entry or not, based on predetermined criteria like which randomly generated number is a winning number or above what threshold a randomly generated number is a winning number - or a losing number for that matter. Alternatively, one or more numbers are randomly generated for being sent back the customer. Whether this game entry is a winning entry can at a later moment be determined by means of a draw.

The information generated is either compiled or not and sent to the lottery brokerage server 130 in step 464. A method of compiling is providing only information whether the game entry was a winning or losing entry. The lottery information sent is received back by the lottery brokerage server 130 in step 466. Upon receipt of the lottery information, the lottery information is processed in step 468. Processing the lottery information preferably comprises checking for which wireless payment terminal 1 12 the received lottery information is intended, for which customer the information is intended or to which banking card the information is related.

In step 470, the lottery information is checked on whether the information indicates that the lottery entry was a winning entry. In case the entry is indeed a winning entry, the process branches to step 472 to instruct pay out of a winning amount. The pay out of the winning amount is sent to the banking server 160. Alternatively, the instruction for pay out is sent by the retailer or the lottery server 150. In cases where there is no direct relation between the retailer and the lottery operator, the lottery brokerage server 130 is preferred to perform this action as the lottery brokerage server 130 has a relation with both the retailer and the lottery operator.

After processing of the lottery information and, in case the lottery information comprises information that the entry is a winning entry, after instructing pay out of a winning entry, further lottery information is sent to the wireless payment terminal 1 12 in step 474. The further lottery information sent out by the lottery brokerage server 130 corresponds to the lottery information sent by the lottery server 150 that relates to the same entry. In case the lottery entry was a winning entry, the further lottery information also comprises information that the entry was a winning entry. In case the lottery entry was a request for receiving random numbers, the further lottery information comprises random numbers.

Upon receipt of the further lottery information by the wireless payment terminal 1 12 in step 476, a lottery ticket with at least a part of the further lottery information is printed by the printer 212 in the final step 478 of the flowchart 500. The lottery ticket may provide information whether the entry was a winning or losing entry, in case of a winning entry an indication of the amount won or a discount coupon with a purchase or in case an entry in a future draw is requested, one or more entry numbers to the draw. Additionally or alternatively, the further lottery information is displayed on the display 210.

In the embodiments disclosed thus far, the point of sale terminal 1 14 and the wireless payment terminal 1 12 contact the banking server 160 and the lottery brokerage server 130 directly. This requires the retailer server 106 and the wireless payment terminal 1 12 to be able to do so. As the transfer of information relates to transfer of money, contacting entities other than banking entities may not be allowed in certain cases. And even directly contacting banks, card issuers or other financial institutions may not be allowed or possible under regulations in force in certain countries. In such cases, the retailer server 106 and the wireless payment terminal 1 12 can only contact a central processing server.

Figure 5 shows the lottery system 100 disclosed before, with a payment processing gateway server 502 coupled to the retailer terminal 106 and the gateway 1 14 on one side and the lottery brokerage server 130 and the banking server 160 on the other side. Though the various servers and terminals may be coupled to one and the same global network like the internet, setting up a logical connection between servers and terminals on the left side of the payment processing gateway server 502 and the servers on the right side of the payment processing gateway server 502 is not possible for security reasons. The payment processing gateway server 502 serves as a gateway between servers and terminals on both sides.

In one scenario, the payment processing gateway server 502 forms part of an existing infrastructure for communication of payment instructions from payment terminals to banking servers, where the lottery system 100 is coupled to. In this scenario, it is preferred to introduce the lottery system 100 in the existing infrastructure with the least amount of modifications to the existing infrastructure. In such an existing infrastructure, transaction instruction messages include an identifier of the banking card and/or the banking server where the account is located from which money is to be debited. In this scenario, lottery related messages take the same form as 'normal' transaction instruction message, with an identifier indicating the lottery brokerage server 130 as the appropriate banking server. In the payload of the lottery entry message, a lottery entry request is provided instead of a transaction instruction.

In this scenario, upon receiving a lottery entry request from the point of sale terminal 104, the retailer server 106 sends a lottery entry request message to the lottery brokerage server 130 via the payment processing gateway server 502. The payment processing gateway server 502 recognises the lottery entry request message as a transaction instruction message, with the lottery brokerage server 130 as destination.

Upon recognition of this, the payment processing gateway server 502 routes the lottery entry request message to the lottery brokerage server, where the lottery entry request message is processed upon receipt according to the method discussed before. Return messages from the lottery brokerage server 130 carrying for example lottery information are packaged as return messages that the banking server 160 would send to the retailer server 106 or the wireless transaction terminal 1 12 in order to be recognised and correctly routed by the payment processing gateway server 502. This implementation of the lottery system 100, with payment processing gateway server 502, requires only minor modifications to the existing infrastructure. The lottery brokerage server 130 and the payment processing gateway server 502 should be arranged to be coupled and exchange information and a routing table of the payment processing gateway server 502 should be modified to be able to properly route messages to the lottery brokerage server 130. Another advantage of this set up is that transaction instruction messages and lottery entry request messages can be sent to the payment processing gateway server 502 in one communication session, so only one communication is required to be set up. This in contrast to the system discussed by means of Figure 1 , where first a session with the banking server 160 is to be set up and closed after communication and a second session with the lottery brokerage server 130 is to be set up and closed after communication.

Furthermore, as already indicated, the mass memories of the various servers may store executable code for properly programming the microprocessors of those servers to execute several parts of the process as discussed with reference to Figure 4 and variations thereof. In other words, the invention and embodiments thereof may also be provided as a computer programme product. Alternatively, the various servers are provided as hardwired units, dedicatedly manufactured to each execute their part of the process as discussed with reference to Figure 4 and variations thereof.

Expressions such as "comprise", "include", "incorporate", "contain", "is" and "have" are to be construed in a non-exclusive manner when interpreting the description and its associated claims, namely construed to allow for other items or components which are not explicitly defined also to be present. Reference to the singular is also to be construed in be a reference to the plural and vice versa.

In the description above, it will be understood that when an element such as layer, region or substrate is referred to as being "on" or "onto" another element, the element is either directly on the other element, or intervening elements may also be present.

Furthermore, the invention may also be embodied with less components than provided in the embodiments described here, wherein one component carries out multiple functions. Just as well may the invention be embodied using more elements than depicted in the Figures, wherein functions carried out by one component in the embodiment provided are distributed over multiple components. . In particular, where only one server or one terminal is presented to perform a dedicated function, like the lottery brokerage server 130, multiple servers may be provided to perform the dedicated function, either in parallel or as a back up to one another or in any other way.

It is stipulated that the reference signs in the claims do not limit the scope of the claims, but are merely inserted to enhance the legibility of the claims.

In summary, the invention relates to a system for providing a lottery game, various components of such system and methods performed by those components and the system. It is advantageous to provide lottery entry through a terminal with which also other transactions are being paid. To match lottery entry requests from different types of payment terminals and multiple different lottery services located on different servers, a lottery brokerage server is provided.

This patent application claims priority of Dutch patent application NL 2004982, which is incorporated herein by referece.

Claims

Claims:

1. Terminal for instructing payment transactions comprising:

a) a visual communication unit

b) an input unit for receiving identification comprising account information of a customer and a confirmation of requesting entry of the customer to a lottery game

c) a remote communication unit; and

d) a processing unit for controlling operations of elements of the terminal;

wherein the processing unit is arranged to:

e) display a first transaction amount for goods or services to be purchased by the customer by means of the visual communication unit; f) propose entry in a lottery game to the customer by means of the visual communication unit;

g) upon receiving a confirmation of requesting entry of the user to a lottery game by means of the input unit, display a second transaction amount being the first amount plus an amount for entry in the lottery game; h) control the remote communication unit to

i) send out an instruction for executing payment of the second amount to a banking server;

ii) communicate the request of entry in a lottery game to a lottery server, the request comprising the account information; and

iii) receive lottery information sent by the lottery server in response to the request;

i) upon receiving the lottery information, display at least part of the lottery information to the customer by means of the visual communication unit.

2. Terminal according to claim 1 , wherein the visual communication unit comprises at least one of the following:

a) a printer; and

b) a display

3. Terminal according to claim 1 , wherein the processing unit is further arranged to include terminal identification code in the request of entry in a lottery game

4. Terminal according to claim 3, wherein the country of residence of the terminal can be identified by means of the terminal identification code.

5. Terminal according to claim 1 , wherein the processing unit is further arranged to extract from the lottery information at least one of the following data:

a) the customer has won a prize;

b) the customer has not won a prize;

c) a string of characters representing an entry to a draw.

6. Terminal according to claim 5, wherein the processing unit is further arranged to control the remote communication unit to send out an instruction to a further banking server for executing payment of a prize amount to an account identified by the account information of the customer.

7. Terminal according to claim 1 , wherein the processing unit is arranged to control the remote communication unit to communicate the request of entry in a lottery game to a lottery server via a lottery brokerage server.

8. Lottery brokerage server comprising:

a) a communication unit;

b) a storage unit; and

c) a processing unit for controlling elements of the lottery brokerage server;

wherein the communication unit is arranged to communicate with a customer terminal for receiving customer lottery entry requests comprising account information of a customer and with a lottery server for sending server lottery entry requests, wherein the storage unit has validation data stored on it and wherein the processing unit is arranged to:

d) extract identification data and account information of the customer from a customer lottery entry request received from the customer terminal;

e) if the identification data corresponds to at least part of the validation data, control the communication unit to send a server lottery entry request to the lottery server, the server lottery entry request corresponding to the customer lottery entry request; f) in response to receiving server lottery information sent by the lottery server in response to receiving the server lottery entry request, sending customer lottery information to the customer terminal, the customer lottery information corresponding to the server lottery information; and g) if the server lottery information indicates that the lottery entry request resulted in winning a prize, instruct, via the communication server, a banking server to pay a prize amount to an account of the customer identified by the account information.

9. Lottery brokerage server according to claim 8, wherein:

a) the processing unit is further arranged to extract geographical data from the customer lottery entry request;

b) the storage unit has a lookup table stored in it

and wherein the processing unit is arranged to:

c) identify a country of origin of a first lottery entry request received from the customer terminal from the extracted geographical data; d) look up in the lookup table a lottery server that operable for the country of origin; and

e) control the communication unit to send a server lottery entry request to the lottery server looked up previously, the server lottery entry request corresponding to the customer lottery entry request.

10. Lottery brokerage server according to claim 8, wherein:

a) the processing unit is further arranged to extract lottery game information from the customer lottery entry request;

b) identify a lottery server related to the lottery game information; and;

c) control the communication unit to send the server lottery entry request to the lottery server identified.

1 1 . System for providing a lottery game, comprising:

a) the terminal according to claim 1 ;

b) the lottery brokerage server according to claim 8; and c) a lottery server operatively to the lottery brokerage server;

wherein the terminal is arranged to communicate with the lottery server via the lottery brokerage server.

12. System according to claim 1 1 , further comprising a transaction routing server comprising

a) a communication unit; and

b) a processing unit

wherein the communication unit is arranged to receive a communication from the terminal; and the processing unit is arranged to:

c) determine whether the communication from the terminal is a lottery instruction or a banking transaction instruction;

d) upon determining that the communication is a lottery instruction, instruct the communication unit to route the communication to the lottery brokerage server; and

e) upon determining that the communication is a banking transaction instruction, instruct the communication unit to route the communication to a banking server.

13. Method of operating a terminal for instructing payment transactions comprising:

a) display a first transaction amount for goods or services taken by a customer by means of a visual communication unit;

b) propose entry in a lottery game to the customer by means of the visual communication unit;

c) upon receiving a confirmation of requesting entry of the user to a lottery game from the customer, display a second transaction amount being the first amount plus an amount for entry in the lottery game;

d) send out an instruction for executing payment of the second amount to a banking server;

e) communicate the request of entry in a lottery game to a lottery server;

f) receive lottery information sent by the lottery server in response to the request; and

g) upon receiving the lottery information, display at least part of the lottery information to the customer by means of the visual communication unit.

Method of operating a lottery brokerage server comprising a) extracting identification data from a customer lottery entry request received from the customer terminal;

b) if the identification data corresponds to at least part of the validation data, controlling the communication unit to send a server lottery entry request to the lottery server, the server lottery entry request corresponding to the customer lottery entry request;

c) in response to receiving server lottery information sent by the lottery server in response to receiving the server lottery entry request, sending customer lottery information to the customer terminal, the customer lottery information corresponding to the server lottery information.

15. Method of operating a lottery brokerage server according to claim 14, comprising:

a) extracting geographical data from the customer lottery entry request;

b) identifying a country of origin of a first lottery entry request received from the customer terminal from the extracted geographical data c) looking up in a lookup file a lottery server that operable for the country of origin; and

d) sending a server lottery entry request to the lottery server looked up previously, the server lottery entry request corresponding to the customer lottery entry request.