A method of playing a lottery game comprising inserting a currency bill or bank note bearing an alphanumeric code, such as a serial number, and denomination into a machine. The machine reads the alphanumeric code and denomination of the currency bill or bank note and stores the information as a set of numbers. The machine then prints a receipt bearing the alphanumeric code and denomination of the currency bill or bank note inserted into the machine and the day of drawing in the lottery game. The set of numbers is then transferred from the machine to a central or main computer's memory. The computer then randomly selects a set of numbers from the transferred set of numbers. The set of numbers chosen is the winning set of lottery numbers. In a preferred embodiment of the method, the central computer stores the number of times the currency bill or bank note has been inserted into any machine, along with the alphanumeric code and denomination of the currency bill or bank note, as a set of numbers. In the most preferred embodiment of the method, the central computer stores the number of times the currency bill or bank note has been inserted into any machine, along with the alphanumeric code and denomination of the currency bill or bank note, as a set of numbers and letters.

A point of sale system involving a series of check stands with POS cash registers and bar code scanners includes a lottery ticket issuing and redemption system. A number pick stand in the store, apart from the checkout stands, enables the customer to choose numbers. Pick slips can be generated by the customer at this stand, and bear a bar coded transaction number which can be communicated to a lottery device at each check stand. The pick slip is readable at the check stand bar code reader along with a series of store-inventory items. The customer is automatically charged for the lottery ticket, and the ticket is printed at the check stand. At the time the ticket is issued, the lottery transaction is recorded via modem to the central lottery computer of the state or other controlling agency. In another embodiment the number pick stand may encode the actual picked numbers on the pick slip, in an extended field bar code. The system of the invention enables lottery ticket transactions to be smoothly and efficiently handled at each check stand of a supermarket without in substantially the same manner grocery items are handled and without burdensome and expensive duplication of lottery equipment.

The present invention relates to a two overlapping layer element for cash bill and prize game applications, comprising: a first paper module, specifically designed for a cash bill use; a second paper module specifically designed for a prize game use; and coupling means for coupling the top side edge of the second module to the bottom side edge of the first module overlapped thereon. The second module is provided with a top surface which comprises a plurality of portions of the winning or not-winning type, which portions can be seen only upon removing the first module.

A method of preventing videotape piracy by including on authorized copies of a videotape a designator of authenticity and a code which serves as a lottery number.

A lottery ticket validation system reduces or eliminates spying on the status of tickets. The system uses a compression and encryption process to store its data compactly. The system is not a flag system. No particular bit in the memory corresponds to any given ticket. Thus, spying on a ticket's status by accessing the data base is extremely difficult. The amount of memory allocated to the system is altered dynamically during the lifetime of a game depending on how many tickets have been validated. In this way, memory requirements are kept-low.