System and method for allowing a consumer to play a plurality of virtual instant tickets that are loaded into a microprocessor and that is physically provided to the consumer

A distributed gaming system that allows a plurality of consumers to play a set of virtual instant tickets, each virtual instant ticket having a predetermined winning or losing outcome, a value for any winning outcome, and also having a predefined cost for ticket play, the distributed gaming system comprising:

• (a) a plurality of microprocessors that are located with the plurality of consumers prior to ticket play, each of the microprocessors including a memory, each of the microprocessors being configured to:
• (i) load a plurality of virtual instant tickets from the set of virtual instant tickets to the memory by loading information for each virtual instant ticket including:
• (A) a validation number of the virtual instant ticket, wherein the validation number is obtained from a preexisting validation file, and
• (B) the winning or losing outcome of the virtual instant ticket and the value of any winning outcome,
• wherein the plurality of virtual instant tickets are loaded to the memory of the microprocessor prior to any purchasing by one of the plurality of consumers of ticket play for any of the plurality of virtual instant tickets,
• (ii) unlock a portion of the plurality of virtual instant tickets, thereby allowing the consumer to play the unlocked portion of the plurality of virtual instant tickets, the unlocking occurring as a result of purchasing a predefined monetary amount of ticket play that corresponds to the cost for ticket play for that portion of the plurality of virtual instant tickets, the portion being less than all of the virtual instant tickets that were previously loaded to the memory of the microprocessor,
• wherein a remaining portion of the plurality of virtual instant tickets that were previously loaded to the memory of the microprocessor remain available to be played at a later point in time upon making a subsequent purchase to play an additional portion of the plurality of virtual instant tickets, and
• (iii) unlock the additional portion of the plurality of virtual instant tickets in the remaining portion as a result of a subsequent purchase of a predefined monetary amount of ticket play that allows the consumer to play the additional portion of the plurality of virtual instant tickets in the remaining portion;
• and
• (b) a plurality of computing devices, each computing device being in communication with a respective microprocessor, each computing device being operated by one of the consumers, each computing device being configured to:
• (i) play one or more of the virtual instant tickets that are in the memory of the respective microprocessor via interaction of the respective microprocessor and the computing device, and
• (ii) display the winning or losing outcome on a display of the computing device;
• and wherein the respective microprocessor is further configured to:
• (iii) update the memory of the respective microprocessor to indicate the one or more virtual instant tickets that were played,
• wherein the one or more played virtual instant tickets remain in the memory of the microprocessor after being played, and
• wherein each of the microprocessors are further configured to:
• (iv) redeem the value of any winning virtual instant tickets by communicating the validation number for the winning virtual instant ticket from the memory of the microprocessor to an instant ticket validation and redemption system that has knowledge of the validation number for each virtual instant ticket for performing validation,
• wherein the validation number is a static number, and
• wherein each of the respective microprocessors operate independently from each other, and each of the respective microprocessors is loaded with a different plurality of virtual instant tickets from the set of virtual instant tickets.