Systems and Methods for Lottery-Style Games

A system for lottery-style games, the system comprising:

• a processor;
• at least one storage device coupled to the processor;
• a user interface coupled to the processor via one or more communication networks;
• wherein the processor is adapted to communicate with the at least one storage device and the user interface to execute instructions to perform the following tasks:
• establishing a map-based game that is scheduled to have a number of lottery drawings associated with a gameboard comprising a map of a geographical area, the map being divided into a plurality of units wherein each unit represents a geographic location in the mapped geographical area, and the gameboard being stored as digital data at least part of which are capable of visual display via a graphical interface;
• providing at least a portion of the gameboard for display to a player via a personal computing device, thereby accepting enrollment of a plurality of players in the map-based game;
• receiving from each player a selection of at least one geographic location of interest corresponding to at least one unit on the map and a commitment to participate in at least one of the lottery drawings by contributing things of value on behalf of the selected at least one unit;
• and
• for each lottery drawing, making a substantially random selection from some or all of the units on the gameboard to select at least one first unit to win a first prize.