Logistics Methods for Processing Lottery and Contest Tickets with Generic Hardware

A method for portable lottery ticket sales and redemptions, the method comprising acts of:

• providing a portable, mobile merchant with a local processor having a memory, and with a local printer connected either physically or via wireless network to said local processor;
• configuring the local processor in wireless communication with a network;
• assigning a bank identification number (BIN) to lottery tickets sold or redeemed by the merchant that is unique in the merchant's existing credit or debit card processing interchange, the unique lottery BIN associated with a lottery data blob also provided on the lottery ticket;
• entering the unique lottery BIN and lottery data blob into the merchant's existing credit or debit card activation barcode protocol to initiate transfer of lottery data from the lottery ticket to a lottery central site via the interchange;
• at a processor within the interchange, recognizing the unique lottery BIN as a flag to initiate special routing to and further processing of the lottery data blob at the lottery central site;
• and
• processing the lottery data blob at the lottery central site outside of the interchange's debit or credit card data transfer and processing procedures.