The invention comprises an electronic lottery ticket adapted to receive a wireless signal from a broadcast terminal, said wireless signal containing information pertinent to a lottery draw, means to compare said information with ticket specific parameters and including indicator means to allow the results of said comparison to be signalled to the ticket owner.

In a preferred embodiment the wireless signal is an acoustic signal. This may be sent from a television which broadcasts a television program. A broadcast signal sent to the television would include acoustic data to be transmitted by sound by the television. Other terminals for transmission of the signal may be radio, Internet, point of sale, ATM, etc.

The indicator means may be visual and/or audible.

The signal may also be transmitted by means of visual or infra red light, or radio frequency (rf).

The ticket specific parameters are those selected by the owner of the lottery ticket, generally speaking the selected numbers. These are previously input to a ticket at the point of sale terminal or be input, irreversibly, by the purchaser.

Figure 1 illustrates an embodiment of the invention.

An acoustic signal 2 is sent from the television set 1 to an electronic lottery ticket 3, during transmission of a TV program (the television broadcast signal from the transmitter includes a modulated acoustic signal). This signal comprises data pertinent to a lottery draw and which is modulated by acoustical FSK. The electronic lottery ticket has microphone means to receive the acoustic signal and process the lottery data.

The lottery data is compared with lottery numbers which are specific to the electronic lottery ticket. These numbers are the numbers selected by the owner of the electronic ticket and are inputted in electronic format at the point of sale by a terminal. The electronic lottery ticket comprises additionally means to compare these pre-selected numbers with the lottery data transmitted by the acoustic signal. The ticket also includes a visual indicator means is activated showing a win.

It would be clear to a person skilled in the art, that there are a number of various embodiments and variations which would be included in the scope of the invention.

There are a number of possibilities of indicating the results of the comparison.

The indicator means may be audible, such as playing a tune, or visual such as an LED or LCD displaying the number of matching numbers etc.

The electronic lottery ticket has encoded thereon a particular selection of numbers. These are previously input onto the e-lottery ticket by suitable means usually at the point of sale. In the simplest form the numbers may be stored on a ROM chip. This may be done at the point of sale or the ticket may have means to irreversibly select numbers such that effectively the electronically stored numbers can be inputted manually by the buyer.

In the example the acoustic data containing information pertinent to the winning number is transmitted by a television broadcast. However any appropriate broadcast or suitable terminal may be used. The acoustic signal may, alternatively to a television signal, be a radio signal or any broadcast signal and the terminal which transmits the acoustic signal may be a television, radio, point-of-sale terminal, Internet terminal, mobile/land telephone ATM machine. Thus the acoustic signal may be sent via Internet wires or telephone wires or wirelessly in appropriate form e. g. modulated with the signal, and the corresponding terminal would convert this into as acoustic signal.

The acoustic signal may be encoded modulate before being sent by the terminal, by suitable means e. g. FSK, mpeg, spread spectrum, chirped signal, frequency hopping etc.

They may also be used in the acoustic signal itself for security purposes, the e-lottery ticket will also be supplied with an electronic PIN number.

The electronic lottery ticket may not need to be activated by an acoustic signal from the terminal. Other forms of wireless signals may also be used to activate/communicate with the electronic lottery ticket. The terminal may communicate by means of light (visual or infra red or rf) with the ticket and various forms of implementation would be clear to the skilled person. In a particularly referred embodiment of the invention where the terminal includes a CRT e. g. a television, the information is passed to the ticket by means of a 'flashed'screen.

Also modulating dipole or"blue tooth"technology may be utilised.