Apparatus for dispensing a lottery ticket

• Main Authors: Pierre Joseph Lavoie, Julia Elizabeth Cloutier, Timothy George Edginton, Peter Nguyen, Sindy Renee Catigay, Kristine Susan Wattis, Brett Charles Taylor, Michael John Brickwood, Nancy Bettcher
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 20.05.2020
• Subjects: AMUSEMENTS; BOOK COVERS; BOOKBINDING; CARD, BOARD, OR ROULETTE GAMES; CHECKING-DEVICES; COIN-FREED OR LIKE APPARATUS; COLOUR PRINTING; CONVEYING; DEVICES FOR USE THEREWITH AND NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDEDFOR; FARE-REGISTERING APPARATUS; FILES; FRANKING APPARATUS; GAMES; GAMES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL, e.g. SHEETS, WEBS,CABLES; HUMAN NECESSITIES; INDOOR GAMES USING SMALL MOVING PLAYING BODIES; LINING MACHINES; LOOSE LEAVES; MOVABLE-STRIP WRITING OR READING APPARATUS; PACKING; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHYSICS; PRINTED MATTER CHARACTERISED BY IDENTIFICATION OR SECURITYFEATURES; PRINTED MATTER OF SPECIAL FORMAT OR STYLE NOTOTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; PRINTING; PRINTING, DUPLICATING, MARKING, OR COPYING PROCESSES; SPECIAL PRINTED MATTER; SPORTS; STAMPS; STORING; TICKET-ISSUING APPARATUS; TRANSPORTING; TYPEWRITERS; VIDEO GAMES

A lottery ticket dispensing apparatus comprises: a transport mechanism to feed tickets along a dispensing path; a separator located along the dispensing path; at least one rotational feed roller contacting tickets upstream of the separator in the dispensing path to advance tickets towards the separator; at least one rotational discharge roller contacting tickets downstream of the separator in the dispensing path to discharge ticket from the separator; and an optical sensor 114, 116 to detect the location of a ticket as it moves along the dispensing path. The sensor may detect a leading edge of a conventional ticket. The sensor may comprise a light source and a light receiver which confirms the presence or absence of a ticket. The tickets 10 may be arranged to a strip 100, with a line of weakness 117 between adjacent tickets that can be broken by the separator. To allow a ticket having a translucent substrate to be dispensed from the apparatus, a patch or patches of an opaque or semi-opaque material 121, 122 is applied onto the ticket substrate at a location to cooperate with the sensor(s) 114, 116 while the apparatus is operating to enable correct detection of ticket location.