HK1056064A - Telephone line use enablement of lottery participation - Google Patents

Description

Lottery participation using telephone lines

Technical Field

The present invention relates generally to telecommunications, and more particularly to the use of telephone lines or connections, such as by wire or wireless.

Background

For business reasons, there is a need to maintain or increase telephone communications, for example, over telephone company lines or line segments. This need becomes more stringent in view of the intrusion of communications, for example, via internet users.

Disclosure of Invention

It is a primary object of the present invention to provide a business method and system that meets the above-mentioned needs. Basically, the method of the invention is for increasing or maintaining the use of a telephone company line, for example by telephone, the method comprising the steps of:

a) a raffle fund (lottery fund), and a telephone number of an associated raffle fund,

b) providing a protocol by which a telephone user qualifies to win a fund in said raffle fund if the following conditions are met:

i) the subscriber calling said using the telephone company's line or line section, or connection

The telephone number of the associated fund is,

ii) providing the user's identifier and associating it with the telephone company or said raffle base

Gold communication, and

c) at least one such communicated user identifier is selected from a set of such communicated identifiers that identifies winners of some or all of the funds in the pool or fund.

Another object is to provide a system for debiting a user's account with the telephone company, or the selected company's account, in accordance with a selected amount to fund a raffle fund. Furthermore, the use of telephone company lines or line segments makes such calls likely to require payment to the telephone company.

Further objects include monitoring incoming calls to the fund telephone number to determine whether they are incoming through the telephone company's line or line segment, or connection, to determine if they qualify as winning.

It is a further object to provide for the use of the caller's pin number as an identifier that identifies a user as a potential winner of the fund in the storage pool.

An additional objective is to operate the system or method nationwide or in the state of lottery legitimacy.

Disclosure of Invention

These and other objects and advantages of the present invention, as well as the details of an illustrated embodiment, will be better understood from the following description and drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a preferred system and protocol method, and possibly additional diagrams;

fig. 2 shows a modification of fig. 1.

Detailed Description

In fig. 1, a telephone company 10, or related company 11, has established a raffle-type fund or pool 12 from which, or on behalf of which, winners are provided payment or other financial-related benefit. The one or more winners may be selected by any one of a number of criteria or methods, such as by randomly selecting an identifier associated with the winner. One such identifier is a personal identification number of the user communicating with the fund or pool of storage or with any other organization that manages the lottery.

From a call station or stations 30, lottery participants call and connect to a call station 12 via a telephone line (or lines), or line segment (or segments), or connection (or connections), indicated at 13aFund or deposit of the representationThe phone number or location of the pool, or a related number or location. Line section 13 may be a long haul line. The telephone number is typically known or may be made known so that the participant can make such a call at 13. Provide or possibly provide and to 12aTo only pass or receive calls incoming from the telephone line or connection 13, and it is an object of the present invention to enhance the use of that line or connection. Calls from another telephone company's line 50 are blocked at 51.

A winner telephone line user selection is made or selected as indicated at 16; and a subsequent or related payout is made to the winner or winners as indicated at 17. The payment may come from a fund or pool of funds 12 or from an associated fund as shown at 18.

Furthermore, the use of the telephone company's line or line segment generally requires payment to the company or related company 11, as is known and commonly provided, for example by a monthly payment account of the user with the telephone company, or by a credit card or pay telephone. The user participant's extensive use of the telephone company line is expected due to the potential bulk payment to the winner, as demonstrated by the experience of the state or national lottery. Thereby, the purpose of increasing or monitoring the usage of the telephone company's line is or will be met. A plurality of such raffles may be conducted simultaneously, or sequentially.

Fig. 2 diagrammatically shows a credit card user calling a lottery using a credit card and paying for the call. The call is completed when an acceptable credit card 20 is used, as shown by switch 21 closing line 13. Completion of the call causes liability of the credit card holder account 23 at 22. A special "lottery-specific" credit card may be issued by the telephone company. Moreover, funds for the storage pool may be provided, for example, by user participants, such as through credit card payments, or other methods. The account 23 at 24 is checked for arrears for the pool fund by the user 30. The raffle may also be accessed by credit card using the common methods disclosed in U.S. patent 5812765, the text of which is incorporated herein by reference, such as by credit card via telephone line 13.

A lottery call kiosk (kiosk) and associated circuitry or calling techniques may be provided as in U.S. patent 5812765. The kiosk and associated circuitry may be represented by the numeral 30'. The circuit may employ a lottery access line, a circuit and a method similar to that of accessing the internet. The numeral 30' may also represent a hand-held wireless telephone or other mobile station that communicates with the lottery via a telephone company line segment.

Such as the numeral 30aRepresented, for example, by a public access terminal of the telephone booth type at 13bShown therein at 30cAn internet-access telephone line 13 connected or connectable to the line 13, for example, the public access terminal may comprise one or more of the following components:

a) an access station 30', and

b) a computer device at the access station including a user keyboard and data display device,

c) a user credit card reader at the access station, and said computer device including circuit means operatively connected to the reader to be responsive to a reading of the user credit card data, so as to enable a user at the access station to access the internet via said computer device,

d) the access station is a public access station having an associated kiosk containing said computer device and credit card reader,

e) the circuit arrangement provides a device responsive to a credit card reading for determining whether the card identifies a customer user of a current account, thereby to determine whether the card identifies a customer user of a current account

i) If the card does identify a customer user of a current account, the user is instructed via the display device to enter his password via the keypad to be able to subsequently perform the user requested operations relating to the use of the internet,

ii) if the card does not identify the customer user of the current account, the display device indicates to the user that a new account is to be established by keyboard confirmation, and new account information is entered via the keyboard for storage in the server device, and the user is then able to complete the user requested operation via the keyboard, and contact the Internet,

f) a device containing software that responds to a credit card read comprises the following components:

i) a first device of a website accessed by a user,

ii) a second device responsive to the output of the first device for reading the magnetic stripe on the customer's credit card,

iii) a third device responsive to the output of the second device for determining whether the customer is a current customer,

iv) a fourth device responsive to the output of the third device being confirmed as the current customer for entering the customer password,

v) a fifth device responsive to the output of the fourth device for verifying the password,

vi) a sixth device responsive to the output of the fifth device for requesting user configuration from the server,

vii) a seventh device responsive to the output of the sixth device for performing a user-requested operation,

viii) an eighth device responsive to the output of the seventh device for determining whether the operation is table-fillable (billable),

ix) and a device responsive to the output of the eighth device for completing the spreadsheet.

The present invention also contemplates a system for increasing or maintaining the use of a telephone company line, the system comprising:

a) a raffle fund, and an associated raffle fund telephone number,

b) means for providing a protocol by which a telephone user qualifies to win a fund in said raffle fund, wherein the following are provided:

i) a telephone company line or line section, or connection, for calling said associated fund telephone number,

ii) means for communicating the user identifier with the telephone company or with the raffle fund via said line or line segment,

c) means for selecting at least one user identifier from a set of such communicated identifiers, the identifier identifying a winner of the fund in the raffle fund.

Claims (17)

1. A method for increasing or maintaining use of a telephone company line, comprising the steps of:

a) establishing a fund, and an associated fund telephone number,

b) providing a protocol by which a telephone user qualifies to win a fund in said fund, wherein the steps of:

i) the subscriber calling said association using a line or line section, or connection, of the telephone company

The number of the fund telephone number of the user,

ii) the user identifier is provided and communicated with the telephone company or fund,

c) selecting at least one user identifier from a set of such communicated identifiers, which approves the user's access to the fund,

d) monitoring incoming calls to said associated telephone number to determine whether they have come in from a line or line segment or connection of said telephone company,

e) effectively blocking access to the fund for incoming calls on a line or line segment or connection other than said telephone company, thereby excluding access to the fund for said calls on said other line.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifier is a personal identification number of the user.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the user makes the call using a credit card.

4. A method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the account of the telephone company or a related company is debited to the account of the user by a selected amount to provide funds for the pool.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said account is a credit card account.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said blocking blocks all of said other lines.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the call is placed using a telephone company's line or line segment for which a fee is to be paid to the telephone company.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said line or line segment is a telephone circuit long distance line or line segment.

9. The method of claim 1 including providing a kiosk, or kiosks, or stations from which said calls are made.

10. The method of claim 1 including providing a portable telephone handset to make said call or calls over a telephone company line or lines.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the telephone line or line segment is connected by providing an internet connection.

12. A method as claimed in claim 1, comprising providing a mobile station from which calls can be made to said telephone line or line segment.

13. The method of claim 12, including providing a device at the mobile station responsive to the reading of the credit card to determine whether the card identifies a customer user of a current account.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein said mobile station is a cellular telephone.

15. A method as claimed in claim 12, comprising providing a wireless connection between said mobile station and said telephone line or line segment.

16. A system for increasing or maintaining use of a telephone company line, comprising:

a) a fund, and an associated fund telephone number,

b) means for providing a protocol by which a telephone user qualifies to win a fund in said fund, wherein the following is provided:

i) for making a connection to a telephone company of said associated fund telephone number

Or a section of a line, or a connection,

ii) for associating the user identifier with the telephone company or with the line section by means of said line or line section

A means for the fund to communicate with,

c) means for selecting at least one user identifier from a set of such communicated identifiers, which grants the user access to the fund,

d) a monitor for screening or monitoring incoming calls to the storage pool telephone numbers to determine if they have come in from the telephone company's line or line segment or connection,

e) means for effectively blocking access to funds using incoming calls from lines or line segments other than said telephone company or connections, thereby excluding access to funds by said calls on said other lines.

17. The system of claim 16, including a station from which said call can be made, including one of:

i) a telephone booth is arranged at the front of the main body,

ii) a mobile station, and (ii) a mobile station,

iii) a portable telephone.