Telecommunications access to lottery systems

A method of operating a lottery comprising the steps of:

• responsive to reception of a lottery access number from a purchaser's customer telecommunications station, establishing a connection from a switching system for accessing a lottery entry data base to said customer station;
• receiving lottery entry data from said customer station in said switching system over said connection for storage in said lottery entry data base;
• receiving data in said switching system for identifying a purchaser of a lottery entry for storage in said lottery entry data base;
• querying said lottery data base to identify if a requested lottery entry number already exists in said lottery data base;
• responsive to said querying, notifying a customer of the presence of any lottery entries duplicating said requested lottery entry number;
• and
• transmitting said lottery entry data and said data identifying a purchaser to a centralized lottery data base for searching said centralized lottery data base to identify a purchaser of a winning lottery entry in response to receipt of identified lottery winner numbers established in a periodic lottery drawing.

A method of operating a lottery comprising the steps of:

• responsive to reception of a lottery access number from a purchaser's customer telecommunications station, establishing a connection from said customer station to a switching system for accessing a lottery entry data base;
• signaling data identifying said customer station to said switching system for storage in said data base wherein said data identifying said customer station comprises a customer station number;
• transmitting oral prompting commands from said switching system to said customer station for prompting a purchaser at said customer station to signal a personal identification code and lottery entry data;
• responsive to said prompting commands, signaling a personal identification code from said customer station;
• checking said personal identification code against data stored in said data base;
• blocking entry into said data base of lottery entry data representing a lottery entry for a purchaser at said customer station if said check of said personal identification number fails;
• further responsive to said prompting commands, signaling lottery entry data from said customer station to said switching system for storage in said data base if said check of said personalidentification number succeeds;
• billing a customer identified by said data identifying said customer station and said personal identification code for a lottery entry comprising said lottery entry data;
• responsive to receipt of identified lottery winner numbers established in a periodic lottery drawing, searching a centralized lottery data base to identify a purchaser of a winning lottery entry;
• repetitively accepting lottery entry records comprising customer station identification numbers;
• and
• sorting said lottery records by customer station identification numbers, said numbers sorted by telephone number office codes and numbering plan area codes of said numbers, for generating reports identifying how many lottery entries were purchased by each of a plurality of blocks of customer station numbers.

A method of operating a lottery comprising the steps of:

• responsive to reception of a lottery access number from a purchaser's customer telecommunications station, establishing a connection from said customer station to a switching system for accessing a lottery entry data base;
• signaling data identifying said customer station to said switching system for storage in said data base;
• transmitting oral prompting commands from said switching system to said customer station for prompting a purchaser at said customer station to signal a personal identification code and lottery entry data;
• responsive to said prompting commands, signaling a personal identification code from said customer station;
• checking said personal identification code against data stored in said data base;
• blocking entry into said data base of lottery entry data representing a lottery entry for a purchaser at said customer station if said check of said personal identification number fails;
• further responsive to said prompting commands, signaling lottery entry data from said customer station to said switching system for storage in said data base if said check of said personal identification number succeeds;
• billing a customer identified by said data identifying said customer station and said personal identification code for a lottery entry comprising said lottery entry data;
• querying a lottery data base to identify if a requested lottery entry number already exists in said lottery data base;
• responsive to said querying, notifying a customer of presence of any lottery entries duplicating said requested lottery entry number;
• and
• responsive to receipt of identified lottery winner numbers established in a periodic lottery drawing, searching a centralized lottery data base to identify a purchaser of a winning lottery entry.

A switching system, comprising:

• means for processing input signals from customer telecommunications stations to identify lottery entry numbers;
• means for processing identification signals from other switching systems, to identify customer stations transmitting said input signals;
• data base means for storing said lottery entry numbers and said customer station identifications;
• means responsive to receipt of said input signals for transmitting said lottery entry numbers to a centralized lottery data base for subsequent comparison against identified lottery winner numbers;
• means for transmitting to said centralized lottery data base a message comprising lottery entry numbers from one of said customer stations and data indicating a request for information indicating a presence in said centralized data base of other lottery entries comprising said lottery entry numbers from said one of said customer stations;
• and
• means responsive to a message received from said centralized lottery data base for transmitting a message to said one of said customer stations indicating the presence of other lottery entries comprising said lottery entry numbers from said one of said customer stations.