TELEPHONE SYSTEM FOR REMOTELY PURCHASING TICKETS AND ORDERING PRODUCTS

摘要

A telephone system having at least one remotely located telephone terminal (30) for purchasing and printing lottery tickets as well as tickets to sporting events, airline flights, and concerts, and for buying products from a store and printing receipts therefor and printing coupons. The telephone system includes a central computer linked by telephone lines to the remotely located telephone terminals. The central computer (10) and each remotely located telephone terminal (30) can be located any place where telephone service is available; however, the remotely located telephone terminals are preferably placed in the homes or offices of subscribers to the telephone system. Each telephone terminal comprises a telephone with a TOUCH-TONE keypad (32), a data modem (34), a printer for printing ticket indicia (36), and a display (38). The display and printer are connected and responsive to the data modem. The central computer (10) comprises an interface device (40), an answering machine (50), a tone sensor (60), a main processor (70), and an instruction announcer (80). The interface device is connected to the telephone lines and is capable of establishing a communications link with the data modem of each telephone terminal. Preferably, the central computer (10) further includes a device for communicating with a financial institution (115), a ticket distributer (135), a lottery ticket distributer (185), a store (195), and optical scanners (170). In addition, the central computer preferably includes a bar-code generating device which causes a bar-code to be printed on each ticket for verification purposes, and optical scanners (170) for reading the bar-code at a location where the tickets are tendered.