M-Lottery LCO presentation

1. M-Lottery LCO presentation • A simple interface for cell phone users to conveniently purchase lottery tickets through the phone • Over 50% of Americans participate in lotteries – a huge market exists • Meant for individuals, to be used in a personal capacity (“for fun”) • Typical scenario is someone purchasing tickets while stuck in traffic on the way home from work • System is limited to purchasing lottery tickets only Operational scope

2. System requirements • QuickPick – have the server choose numbers automatically • Choose numbers – choose the numbers yourself • View tickets – show prior ticket status • Setup – to change password, set billing • Redeem – when a ticket wins, this option tells the user how to redeem • A servlet will need to handle incoming requests with a database and interface to a lottery (likely through proxy purchasers) • Unique identifier assigned when midlet is installed, and password chosen

3. System and Architecture • Midlet with a series of menus is straightforward • Servlet has a simple text database to store ticket information as well as userids and passwords, expandable to a “real” database later • Interface between servlet and midlet is through standard HTTP methods; midlet has an associated “action” for each menu type as well as a start action when it first starts up • Server has a rigidly defined response template for each command • Difficulty occurs in passing information to the real lottery system – most feasible way to do this would likely be proxy purchasers (humans)

4. Lifecycle plan • Every lottery ticket purchaser and cell phone user is a potential customer • We target the lazy ones – also called the “efficient” ones • Ease of use and guarantee of legitimacy are keys to making it work • Support will need to be provided by the developers, the cell phone provider, the lottery system, and lawmakers in allowing such a product for it to maintain a place in the market. • All this should be possible assuming this product is legal.

5. Feasibility Rationale • System would work, assuming the users can be convinced it is a better alternative to convenience stores, which it is, due to convenience – advertisements or promotions could hammer this home • In this class, some parts of this project would need to be simulated – no one would want to buy actual tickets, or enter real credit card information, for instance • This simulation aspect may not agree with the philosophy of the course • If it does agree, we recommend the project be continued