CONSUMERS

Technical Field of the Present Invention

The present invention relates to a lottery promotion system. In particular, the present invention relates to a system for rewarding consumers with lottery tickets, comprising a credit/debit card, a single-use lottery card, a point-of- sale (POS) terminal and an automated teller machine (ATM).

Background of the Present Invention

Lottery games are used world-wide for raising revenue for state governments. In the past, state lotteries were very popular among people, with the number of participant increasing every year. However, in the recent years the number of participants has been stagnant. Different strategies have been proposed to encourage more people to participate in state lottery games. One such strategy is awarding lottery tickets to credit card users based on their card expenditures. Some examples of systems for awarding lottery tickets to credit/debit card users in the prior art are given below.

Patent document WO 01/43006 (Al) discloses a sales promotion method that promotes customer purchases and loyalty at various member merchants, in particular by providing customers with lottery and other types of awards. Said method comprises the steps of generating and storing random numbers at a sales promotion computer system, loading awards records on said promotion system consisting of sales criteria which define customer award entitlement, comparing customer transaction data received from a sales system, such as a point of sale (POS) system, with said award records at said promotion computer system to determine if the customer is entitled to an award, and if so, printing one or more numbers associated with each transaction on a document where the printed numbers constitute a lottery ticket in a lottery to be drawn on a periodic basis with prizes awarded to ticket holders. However, this method only allows the customer to enter a lottery organized by the member merchants. It would be advantageous if a similar system could be utilized so that the customer could enter national and/or international lottery games as well.

Patent document WO 2010/065003 (Al) discloses a volunteer system for global tax collection and prevention of informal economy. The aim of said system is to increase participation to state luck/lottery games and therefore increase tax revenue and also encourage consumers to get receipts, therefore minimizing informal economy. In said system, the user may choose to use chip points/bonuses granted by the bank from credit card expenditures to purchase lottery tickets. When the user uses their credit card for this purpose, a reference number is given to the user on the receipt. The user then sends the reference number provided on the receipt via SMS to finalize the purchase of the lottery ticket(s). The lottery ticket number combination assigned to the reference number by the bank is sent to the user via SMS. However, this system relies on SMS authentication and traffic which is cumbersome for both the user and the bank. It would be advantageous to have a system that can realize issuing of lottery tickets and transfer of winnings to the customer's bank account without relying on SMS or similar messaging services for authentication. Patent document US 2005/149393 (Al) discloses a system and method in which the reward of lottery tickets is tied to a credit and/or debit card awards or rewards program. The method comprises the steps of storing an amount of each of one or more purchases on the credit card by an authenticated lottery cardholder in a database, defining and storing a number representing a monetary amount for which the lottery cardholder can receive a lottery ticket in the data procession device, where the numbers can be printed online, calculating the quantity of the lottery tickets earned by the lottery cardholder in the data processing device based on their quantity of purchases and crediting the lottery cardholder with the lottery tickets. The cardholder may communicate with the card issuer online, via a toll-free phone line or via mail to purchase the lottery tickets.

Patent document US 2008/110979 (Al) discloses a method of purchasing goods and services, in particular lottery tickets, with the use of a bank credit, debit or ATM card. The method comprises tracking the purchases by the consumers and providing purchase information to a receiving body where said receiving body is authorized by said consumers to purchase lottery tickets. Alternatively, the consumer may purchase lottery tickets directly, whereby the receiving body can communicate with the lottery agency in providing the value of credits accumulated from expenditures.

However, these systems do not contain a single-use lottery card that can be given to the customer even upon a cash transaction whereby the user can purchase lottery tickets and transfer funds from lottery winnings to their bank account automatically from the ATM without need for any additional interface for authentication such as SMS that would be cumbersome for the customer and the bank. The present invention aims to improve on these shortcomings described in the prior art. The invention proposes an automated process by which the users need no additional time and effort to participate in lottery system, therefore automatically incorporated into national/international lotteries/fortune games with the points accumulated from expenditures. Use of any chip points/bonuses the bank is already granting to the user can therefore be made. The user can decide which game they want to participate & when. Tickets can be accumulated & used all at once to increase odds of winning. Numbers can be automatically assigned or can be picked.

Advantageously, no cumbersome verification process is needed and no SMS traffic is in question. The user can transfer funds from lottery winnings straight to their account via ATM.

POS machines can be used to determine how many lottery tickets are contained within, and print physical tickets if desired. The system as proposed according to the present invention is also devised under the recognition that the users do not have to use a credit/debit card but can instead use cash to be awarded lottery tickets.

The invention basically relies on a system comprising several components in the form of a credit/debit card, a single-use lottery card, a point-of-sale (POS) terminal and an automated teller machine (ATM).

The present invention provides a lottery promotion system as provided by the characterizing features defined in Claim 1.

Objects of the Present Invention The primary object of the invention is to provide an automated process by which the users need no additional time and/or effort to claim and verify authentication of the awarded tickets to participate in lottery system.

Another object of the invention is to provide a lottery promotion system authentication procedure by which users are automatically incorporated into national/international lotteries/fortune games with the points accumulated from expenditures are transformed into authenticated tickets without involvement of a third party verification/authentication process such as in the case of SMS verification.

Further an object of the present invention is to allow use of any chip points/bonuses a banking establishment is granting to the user to claim lottery tickets in a self-authenticated procedure. Still further an object of the present invention is to allow the user to manage additional lottery procedures such as type and date of particular game to participate, number of tickets to be associated with a particular game and/or picking of desired ticket numbers in a self-managed and self-authenticated procedure.

Yet still further an object of the present invention is to allow the user to transfer funds from lottery winnings straight to their account via ATM. Yet still further an object of the present invention is to make use of POS machines to view possessed lottery tickets and print physical tickets if desired. Yet still further an object of the present invention is to provide a lottery ticket authentication system in which lottery ticket are awarded without using credit/debit card.

Brief Description of the Technical Drawings

Accompanying drawings are given solely for the purpose of exemplifying a lottery promotion system, whose advantages over prior art were outlined above and will be explained in brief hereinafter. The drawings are not meant to delimit the scope of protection as identified in the Claims, nor should they be referred to alone in an effort to interpret the scope identified in said Claims without recourse to the technical disclosure in the description of the present invention. The drawings are only exemplary in the sense that they do not necessarily reflect the actual dimensions and relative proportions of the respective components of the system.

Figure 1A demonstrates a front view of a credit/debit card having lottery function according to the present invention.

Figure IB demonstrates a rear view of a credit card having lottery promotion capacity according to the present invention. Figure 2A demonstrates a front view of a single-use lottery card according to the present invention. Figure 2B demonstrates different company codes for a single-use lottery card according to the present invention.

Figure 3 demonstrates a front view of an alternative embodiment of a single- use lottery card according to the present invention.

Figure 4 demonstrates a perspective view of another alternative embodiment of a single-use lottery card according to the present invention.

Detailed Description of the Present Invention

The following numerals are referred to in the detailed description of the present invention:

1 Credit card

2 Issuing bank logo

3 Card number

4 Expiration date

5 Card holder name

6 Banking chip

7 Promotion chip

8 Card security code

9 Magnetic stripe

10 Lottery card 11 Reference code

12 Authentication code

13 Company code

14 Additional code

15 Perforation

16 Single-use lottery card

In accordance with the present invention, a lottery card (10) can be a novel credit/debit card or lottery function can be added to existing debit/credit cards (1). Typically, a banking establishment may distribute/sell such lottery card to users/consumers applying to contracting banks having a lottery promotion agreement with member merchants.

In a nutshell, the system works such that banking establishments offer lottery cards to users in the form of credit/debit cards having additional features. Typically, these features are delineated by a contract or other information channels. The user can opt in or opt out of the service or change their preferences when they desire. At the member merchant end, in addition to existing promotions such as bonuses, chips and air miles, a lottery promotion can be defined between a banking establishment and a member merchant for transactions on POS (point-of-sale) and/or cash registers. In this manner, users can take part in the offered lottery promotion as desired.

Conventionally, users can determine their promotion preferences such as installment plans, bonuses, chips, air miles and/or lottery tickets directly at the branch or by call centers, mobile banking, online banking etc. with their bank. In this manner they can purchase lottery tickets based on their expenditures at member merchants.

For ensuring proper functioning of the system, the banking establishment needs to authenticate each user and any ticket awarded before validating any lottery tickets. Therefore, a user's name, surname, mobile number, card number, promotion preferences etc. are held in the bank's database. Each user transaction at a member merchant grants the user a certain number of lottery tickets. All winnings from lottery tickets are itemized in the user's card statements.

Winnings are concurrently sent to the user via SMS. According to the present invention, awarded lottery tickets based on points accumulated from expenditures such as bonuses, air miles etc. are authenticated in an automated self-managed procedure without involvement of third parties such as telecommunication service providers as will be delineated hereinafter.

According to the present invention, users are not informed of the awarded tickets or ticket numbers via SMS for authentication and/or verification purposes.

Referring now in detail to the drawings, in which like reference characters indicate like parts throughout the several views, Figures 1A and IB illustrate a credit card (1) having a lottery function. Credit card (1) may conventionally comprise an issuing bank logo (2), card number (3), expiration date (4), card holder name (5), banking chip (6), promotion chip (7), card security code (8) and magnetic stripe (9). Credit card (1) typically refers to a debit card or any other card as issued by a banking establishment. Credit card's (1) banking chip (6) conventionally contains information on the user's identity, bank accounts, the points accumulated from expenditures such as bonuses, air miles, lottery tickets etc. When the accumulated points are sufficient to purchase a lottery ticket; the date, the ticket number and the type of lottery/luck game are definable.

In a preferred embodiment according to the present invention, a credit card (1) having two chips is proposed. The existing banking chip (6) contains information on the user's bank account and is used for performing banking transactions. In addition to the advantage that a two-chip credit card (1) can be used at an electronic banking outlet/point independent of its insertion direction, i.e. insertable into an ATM (automated teller machine) in both directions, the additional chip, which is a promotion chip (7), only contains specific information on dates, ticket numbers, lottery/luck game preferences, winnings etc. As will be delineated below, ATMs having a dedicated promotion module/interface will communicate with the promotion chip (7) to perform a number of technical functions. Thanks to the present invention, the operational functions performed by components used in case of conventional credit card (1) payment are equally performable in case the user prefers to pay in cash. In that case, users can also transfer their winnings directly to their bank account in the form of lottery ticket entitlement(s) accrued from purchases together with all relevant information.

Any load dates, ticket numbers and lottery/luck games can be copied onto promotion chip (7) of the user's credit card (1) at a POS terminal after cash transaction. Therefore, either using cash or credit card (1), the present invention allows direct transfer of relevant information associated with lottery ticket entitlement(s) to the credit card (1) promotion chip (7). Therefore, as an alternative to the case where credit cards (1) are used, i.e. in cash transactions, a single-use lottery card (16) as seen in Fig. 2 is given to the user, in which card, amount of points accumulated/purchased lottery tickets is pre-coded or preloaded and can be readily transferrable to the credit card (1) at the POS device. The single-use lottery card (16) can be used at the ATM or specific lottery card readers (LCR) to access information about how many lottery tickets the user is entitled to. The user can use ATM/LCR to pick lottery games, randomly generate or pick lottery ticket numbers, enter multiple lottery games or enter their purchased tickets collectively into one game in order to increase the odds of winning.

Therefore, awarded lottery ticket entitlement(s) can be loaded to credit cards (1) at the POS machine using single-use lottery cards (16) and credit cards (1). Alternatively, the user can transfer any lottery ticket entitlement to his/her credit card (1) using automated teller machines.

Conventionally, after a transaction by cash or credit card (1), the lottery ticket information (date, ticket number and type of lottery/luck game) is sent to the user's cell phone via SMS. It is required that the information be matched to the identity of the user by and stored in the bank's database. According to the present invention, on the other hand, involvement of an additional authentication & identity verification procedure is not necessary as the system allows self-authentication without involving a third party, simply using an electronic banking outlet such as POS or ATM. More particularly, this approach eliminates necessity for generating a single- use authentication code on the part of the banking establishment, as well as eliminates needs for sending the single-use authentication code to the user via a confirmation SMS, collecting and processing confirmed data sent back by the user and cancelling the time-stamped single-use authentication code. Therefore, the present invention provides a substantially facilitated authentication system and method requiring no additional authentication infrastructure or third party resources/processes on the part of the banking establishment.

Figures 2A illustrates a lottery card (10). Lottery card (10) comprises reference code (11), authentication code (12) and company code (13). Said three codes (11, 12 and 13) can be read by a scanner contained in an ATM or LCR; thereby the lottery information is matched to the identity of the user by and stored in the bank's database without need for SMS authentication. The single-use lottery card (16) may have an additional code (14) for increased security (Figure 3). The invention therefore by-passes the authentication procedure when a lottery card (10) is used, information contained in such a card being readily transferable to the credit card (1) of the user at an electronic banking outlet/point, eliminates need for making use of an additional authentication/verification process.

As an alternative, a member merchant not having a POS device may also participate in a promotion where above a certain transaction value, a single- use lottery card (16) containing one or more or fractional (half, quarter etc.) lottery ticket entitlements is awarded to a customer paying with cash. In this case too, there is no need for SMS authentication and the user will only need to transfer winnings directly to their bank account using an ATM or LCR instead of using the POS machine. Though they look the same to the naked eye, each single-use lottery card (16) contains a unique single-use reference code (11) that can be read by an optical reader or a QR reader or any other suitable code reader at the ATM or LCR to authenticate the awarded lottery ticket(s). Single-use lottery cards (16) can be in the form of individual cards as in Figures 2A and 3, or can be in the form of a strip containing perforations (15) between single-use lottery cards (16), whereby each single-use lottery card (16) can be torn off to be given to the user upon cash purchase (Figure 4). As single-use lottery cards (16) contain reference code (11), authentication code (12) and company code (13), authenticity of the lottery cards (10) is verified by the banking establishment only when the user transfers winnings to their bank account using POS, ATM or LCR, i.e. when the awarded tickets are copied onto promotion chip (7) of the user's credit card (1) at an electronic banking outlet/point.

As an optional embodiment, the lottery ticket reference code (11) on the lottery card (10) can also be printed onto the payment receipt after cash transactions, whereby the code can be later scanned and activated by LCR and the tickets can be loaded into credit card (1) of the user and the relevant information can be sent to the user's cell phone via SMS. In this manner, customers can be encouraged to take receipts of their purchases. This latter approach also serves to the same purpose of accelerating authentication process similar to the case where single-use lottery cards (16) are scanned at an electronic banking outlet/point.

If desired, lottery tickets contained within the promotion chip (7) or lottery card (10) can be printed by POS devices or ATMs in order to obtain a physical ticket. On the other hand, for POS printing when cash payment is made, the user will need to use his/her credit card (1) to be accessed by the POS terminal before validation of any ticket claim. In the case of ATM printing, no need arises for submission of the credit card (1) as the user is usually already identified by any banking card and any entitled lottery tickets are already associated with the predetermined credit card (1).

Bank statements may contain information about the purchases made with the card, any outstanding fees, and the total amount owed. Card statements for credit cards (1) with two chips having a lottery function also include information about the lottery tickets purchased from points as accumulated from expenditures where applicable, ticket numbers, and the amounts of winnings from the lottery tickets if there are any. With this system, it can be possible for the user to pay off a portion or all of their credit card debt with their winnings and even have funds left over, i.e. a positive credit card balance.

In an aspect of the present invention, a lottery promotion user authentication system is proposed, comprising a single-use lottery card (16) containing code-based information as to at least one lottery ticket awarded based on any lottery ticket entitlement accrued from purchase transactions.

In a further aspect of the present invention, said single-use lottery card (16) contains at least one code-based authentication field in the manner that information contained on the single-use lottery card (16) is transferable to a memory medium of a credit card (1) at an electronic banking point in the form of a point-of-sale terminal or automated teller machine, subject to retrieval of said code-based information by said point-of-sale terminal or automated teller machine.

In a further aspect of the present invention, said authentication field of said single-use lottery card (16) comprises a two-dimensional code having geometric patterns including rectangles, dots, hexagons or any combination thereof.

In a further aspect of the present invention, said single-use lottery card (16) information as to at least one lottery ticket is transferrable to a credit card (1) at a point-of-sale terminal.

In a further aspect of the present invention, said single-use lottery card (16) information as to at least one lottery ticket is transferrable to a credit card (1) at an automated teller machine.

In a further aspect of the present invention, said information as to at least one lottery ticket comprises at least one set of load date, ticket number and lottery game designation information. In a further aspect of the present invention, said credit card (1) comprises a memory medium associated with a promotion chip (7) that is separate from a banking chip (6) thereof. In a further aspect of the present invention, said promotion chip (7) comprises information as to at least a user name, surname, mobile number, card number, load date, ticket number and lottery game designation information.

In a further aspect of the present invention, said automated teller machine is provided with a code-based information reading module so as to retrieve information from said single-use lottery card (16). In a further aspect of the present invention, said two-dimensional code is a barcode or QR code.

In a further aspect of the present invention, lottery tickets contained within the promotion chip (7) or single-use lottery card (16) are printable by a point- of sale terminal or automated teller machine in order to obtain a physical ticket.

In a further aspect of the present invention, said authentication field of said single-use lottery card (16) is a reference code (11) field, an authentication code (12) field or a combination thereof.

In a further aspect of the present invention, said reference code (11) is printable onto a transaction receipt, wherein the reference code (11) is scannable by an electronic banking point in the manner that any awarded lottery ticket is loaded into a credit card (1).

In a further aspect of the present invention, said single-use lottery cards (16) are arranged in the form of individual cards or in the form of strips containing perforations (15) between single-use lottery cards (16) such that each single- use lottery card (16) can be torn off to be given to the user upon purchase.

In a further aspect of the present invention, said single-use lottery card (16) has a singular reference code (11) that is cancelled in a time-stamped manner by a point-of-sale terminal or automated teller machine at the time of transfer of information as to at least one lottery ticket contained on said single-use lottery card (16) to a credit card (1). In a further aspect of the present invention, when said promotion chip (7) of said credit card (1) is accessible by a point-of-sale terminal during a credit card (1) payment, any new lottery ticket entitlements are automatically recorded on said promotion chip (7) by said point-of-sale terminal. In a further aspect of the present invention, a lottery promotion user authentication method is proposed, comprising the steps of: (a) defining at least one single-use lottery card (16) containing code-based information as to at least one lottery ticket awarded based on any lottery ticket entitlement accrued from purchase transactions, (b) verifying authenticity of said at least one lottery ticket by retrieving said code-based information by electronic banking point in the form of a point-of-sale terminal or automated teller machine and (c) transferring information contained on the single-use lottery card (16) in relation to at least one lottery ticket a credit card (1).