Patents by Inventor Thomas K. Oram

Thomas K. Oram has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20100151930
    Abstract: The present invention allows lotteries and players to engage in personalized, specialized, customized and/or localized jackpots separate from, or in addition to, standard gaming offerings. In one embodiment of the present invention, a gaming player identifier such as a lottery player card, for example, can be used to identify a player and associate a localized jackpot with the player's wager or gaming play. The jackpots can be funded in a variety of ways, including by taking a percentage of the player's wager for an ordinary lottery game, and attributing it to the localized jackpot. Localized jackpot wins can be instant wins payable immediately or delayed wins payable, for example, if the player were to win some other prize. The system of the present invention can generate random numbers used to determine whether a player will instantly win any jackpot for which he or she is eligible.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 11, 2009
    Publication date: June 17, 2010
    Inventor: Thomas K. Oram
  • Publication number: 20100153194
    Abstract: The present invention provides a system, method and device for issuing random benefits to users of transaction cards and other personally identifying transaction instruments. The present invention provides a network accessible by various input devices or terminals, wherein the devices can receive a personally identifying transaction instrument and determine a user account associated therewith. When the personally identifying transaction instrument is presented as part of a transaction, the system of the present invention determines whether the user is to receive a benefit. If so, the system of the present invention selects a benefit at random from a pool of benefits and presents it to the user.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 11, 2009
    Publication date: June 17, 2010
    Inventor: Thomas K. Oram
  • Publication number: 20100151929
    Abstract: The present invention facilitates new gaming opportunities by providing a personalized guaranteed value prize structure tied to a gaming player identifier. The identifier is associated with one or more virtual books of tickets, wherein the book(s) of tickets include a guaranteed prize structure that can provide a pre-determined value of winning prize tickets among all of the tickets therein. In one embodiment of the present invention, the prize structure implements a losing run limit such that no more than a pre-determined number of losing tickets in a row are experienced by the player. Once a virtual book of tickets is assigned, the player can reveal the results using various different terminals, including, for example, retailer terminals, home computers and mobile communications devices. The tickets and their values can be populated in each book in advance or dynamically as the user plays each ticket.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 4, 2009
    Publication date: June 17, 2010
    Inventors: Thomas K. Oram, Richard G. Finocchio
  • Publication number: 20100121896
    Abstract: Various aspects are directed to random, number generation. A request from a game terminal for a random number may be received. Whether a new seed is required may be determined, for example, based on the time or quantity of random numbers generated since the last re-seeding. Conditioned on determining that the new seed is required, a pseudo-random number generator may re-seeded, wherein the re-seeding comprises setting a current seed value equal to the new seed. The pseudo-random number generator may generate a random number based at least in part on the current seed value; and transmit information based on the random number to the game terminal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 12, 2008
    Publication date: May 13, 2010
    Applicant: GTECH CORPORATION
    Inventor: Thomas K. ORAM
  • Publication number: 20100093421
    Abstract: A transaction card facilitates typical consumer transactions as well as transactions related to lottery offerings and can incorporate a reader terminal to associate lottery tickets with the transaction instrument. New gaming opportunities tied to the instrument are also facilitated, including a personalized guaranteed prize structure, a personalized and/or localized jackpot and an opportunity for winning additional prizes when making purchases using the instrument. The system according to one embodiment of the present invention provides at least a lottery data processing system for communicating a first funding amount to be applied to a multi-purpose transaction card based on winnings from a lottery offering, and a reader terminal for reading at least a portion of the transaction card, reading indicia on one or more gaming tickets, and associating the one or more gaming tickets with the transaction card.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 13, 2009
    Publication date: April 15, 2010
    Applicant: GTECH Corporation
    Inventors: Timothy B. Nyman, Richard G. Finocchio, Richard S. Meehan, Thomas K. Oram
  • Publication number: 20100035679
    Abstract: Systems and methods for processing wagers using third-party content are disclosed. An example system may include a wager management engine configured to create an account for a third-party host of entertainment content, the account including third-party host-specified wager parameters associated with the hosted content. The example system may also include a wager services engine configured to establish a wagering game in conjunction with the hosted content, to receive win conditions for the wagering game from the host, and to determine winning wagers in the wagering game based on the win conditions. The example system may also include a recording engine configured to store records of wagering transactions for the wagering game.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 11, 2008
    Publication date: February 11, 2010
    Inventor: Thomas K. ORAM
  • Publication number: 20090117997
    Abstract: Credit vouchers from a wagering game machine can be authenticated. This may be accomplished by receiving credit information at a server, the credit information including information indicating a player's balance at the wagering game machine. A security key may be created for the credit voucher. A secured document token may be created by encrypting a document token including the credit information with the security key. This document token may sent to a server which supplies a credit response. A modified security key may be created by combining the credit response with the security key. The credit voucher may be provided, the credit vouchers including the credit information, the credit response and the modified security key.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 3, 2008
    Publication date: May 7, 2009
    Inventors: Thomas K. Oram, Chenghui Luo, Johan Berg
  • Publication number: 20080220856
    Abstract: A method and system for accepting individual or group candidate wager sets is provided. A plurality of selections for candidate wagers may be received and stored. A unique identifier may be associated with the plurality of selections and used to retrieve the selections when a wager is placed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 10, 2007
    Publication date: September 11, 2008
    Inventors: Peter Lynch, Thomas K. Oram
  • Publication number: 20080045287
    Abstract: A system and method for facilitating play of a game of chance by multiple players at multiple locations using a virtual card deck are provided. The system may include a plurality of terminals at the multiple locations, the terminals receiving wagers from the plurality of players, the plurality of terminals issuing tickets to the plurality of players. Each ticket may include a respective player hand chosen from the virtual card deck and an identification code uniquely identifying the ticket. The system may include a plurality of displays at the multiple locations, the displays displaying a shared community hand chosen from the virtual card deck. The system may include a server in communication with the plurality of terminals and the plurality of displays. The server may select a set of removed cards from the virtual card deck prior to issuing tickets for the game.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 10, 2006
    Publication date: February 21, 2008
    Inventors: Amir Amirsadri, Richard Finocchio, Thomas Napolitano, Thomas K. Oram, Brian J. Roberts
  • Publication number: 20030228910
    Abstract: A lottery management system provides the ability to integrate various lottery system types into a single lottery management solution so as to allow the customized deployment of various lottery system attributes. In one embodiment, lottery system attributes include game types, reporting functions, system administration, point-of-sale integration, device and network-specific interfaces and retail management. The present invention can include a lottery transaction server, a message exchange component, thin client components, thick client components and software development kits.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 10, 2003
    Publication date: December 11, 2003
    Inventors: Sridhar Jawaharlal, Thomas K. Oram, Miroslaw Kula, Timothy Mallin, Robert Rogers, Larry Roger Smith, Michael Silvia, Richard Koppel
  • Patent number: 6368219
    Abstract: A system and method for determining whether wager data for players' wagers placed on a drawing game have been altered after winning game elements are drawn includes a host computer and a verification device. The host computer stores the wager data and generates a first hash value for the wager data at a time prior to drawing the winning game elements. The host computer is capable of generating a second hash value for the wager data at a time subsequent to drawing the winning game elements for comparison to the first hash value. The verification device receives the first hash value for the wager data prior to drawing the winning game elements and receives the winning game elements.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 15, 1999
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2002
    Assignee: Gtech Rhode Island Corporation
    Inventors: Walter Szrek, Thomas K. Oram