JPS5842509B2 - Voting ticket refund device - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] The present invention relates to a payout device for voting tickets such as horse racing tickets.

In gambling for horse races, bicycle races, boat races, etc., fans buy betting tickets, car tickets, dansin tickets, etc. (these are called voting tickets), watch the races, and receive dividends depending on the race results.

Conventionally, dividends are paid to voters by handing winning tickets to a refund processor at a refund office and receiving cash after the dividend is calculated by comparing the winning ticket by the refund processor with a ledger. It will be held in

Alternatively, recently, voting tickets made of magnetic sheets are also being handled.In this case, the voting ticket is inserted into a payout machine, and the voting information is read by a magnetic head inside the machine to confirm that it is a winning ticket and calculate the dividend. Determined and calculated by the host device,
The result is displayed on the display section and the cash payment operation is performed.

However, the former method requires a large amount of manual work by the refund processor, and has the disadvantage that it is easy to make operational errors.

In the latter case, the work of the refund processor is significantly reduced, but it is inevitable that magnetic sheets must be used as voting tickets (this has the drawbacks of high running costs and vulnerability to forgery and alteration). .

Therefore, the present applicant has proposed a voting ticket refund device that uses inexpensive plain paper as the voting ticket and incorporates a so-called optical character reading device that optically detects characters printed on the plain paper.

This device is highly promising due to its low running costs, but because it optically detects the printed characters on the voting ticket, it is necessary to strictly monitor the reading accuracy of the reading section.

In particular, voting tickets are susceptible to dirt due to their nature, and must be maintained and managed strictly in order to prevent problems with voting ticket purchasers due to misreading by the reader.

The present invention has been made in view of the above background, and an object of the present invention is to realize a voting ticket refund device that can check at any time whether or not the character reading section is functioning normally with a simple configuration. .

The object of the present invention is to provide a voting ticket reader that optically detects at least the printed characters of an inserted voting ticket, and to print refund information including a refund amount out of the read information sent from the voting ticket reader. In a voting ticket refunding device equipped with a journal printing section, all of the printed characters on the voting ticket detected by the voting ticket reader O trowel during test maintenance work are transferred to the journal printing section in accordance with the voting ticket printing format. (Thus, this can be achieved.)

The present invention will be explained below using the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of a voting ticket refund device according to the present invention.

Figure (here, 1 is the voting ticket to be processed, 3 is the operation console, 4
is a refund control device, 5 is a voting ticket reading section, 6 is a discarded ticket processing section,
7 is a ticket picker, 8 is a display section, 9 is a recognition control section, 10 is a character recognition section, 11 is a read data storage section, 12 is an interface circuit, 13 is a main control section, 14 is a journal printing section, 15 is an interface section , 16 is a maintenance panel, 1
7 is a refund data storage section.

First, the operation of normal refund operations will be explained.

A voting ticket reader 5 reads voting information printed on the surface of a voting ticket 1 inserted through the illustrated insertion slot.

The voting ticket reading unit 5 is composed of, for example, a light source for emitting light onto the voting ticket surface, an image sensor that detects reflected light reflected from the voting ticket surface, and an optical system thereof.

The voting ticket that has passed through the reading section 5 is transferred to a discarded ticket processing section 6, where it is processed by punching a small hole in the voting ticket to prevent duplicate refunds of the voting ticket.

The voting tickets that have passed through the discarded ticket processing section 6 are sequentially accumulated in the ticket stacker 7.

In addition, the voting information read by the voting ticket reader 5 is sent to the recognition control unit 9 of the refund control device 4, and after the printed characters are recognized by the character recognition unit 10, the recognition result is read and stored in the data storage unit. 11 and stored.

Furthermore, the voting information in the read data storage section 11 is sent to the interface section 15 via the recognition control section 9, interface circuit 12, and main control section 13, and sent to the host CPU side, and is temporarily stored in the refund data storage section 17. be done.

The host CPU determines whether the sent voting information is a voting ticket worthy of a payout, that is, a winning ticket, and calculates the payout amount based on the bet amount, race type, and payout rate. , and sends the calculation result back to the refund control device 4.

The refund control device 4 receives this and displays a predetermined display on the display section 8 on the operation console 3 via the main control section 13, and also sends it to the refund data storage section 17 for storage.

The voting information stored in the refund data storage section 1T is again combined and edited into a predetermined format, and sent to the journal printing section 14 at a predetermined timing under the control of the main control section 13 to store the refund data. The information in section 17, ie, the race number, event code, serial number, and refund amount, are printed.

The paper printed by the journal printing unit 14 is kept as a copy of the refund operation and is used to check whether or not the refund operation is being performed properly.

The above is a series of operations for refunding one voting ticket.

In addition to the above-mentioned various functions, the present invention further provides a voting ticket reading section 5.
It has an added function that allows you to reliably check the reading results with only a small amount of hardware addition.

That is, in the present invention, in order to check that the voting ticket reading section 5 is operating normally, during test maintenance work, the mode is switched to the reading section check mode, and all the reading results of the reading section 5 are sent to the journal printing section 1jH. It is possible to output using a trowel.

Switching to the reading section check mode is performed by a mode changeover switch installed on the maintenance panel 16 of the refund control device 4.

In the reading section check mode, the character information corresponding to all the printed characters of one voting ticket is recognized and controlled from the reading data storage section 11 that stores the voting information read by the reading section 5 and the recognized information. part 9, interface circuit 12,
It is printed out to the journal printing section 14 via the main control section 13.

Therefore, the test maintenance person checks the print output printed by the journal printing unit 14 to check the output of the optical character reading unit 5.
You can easily identify that it is working properly.

Figure 2a shows the full-sized voting ticket 1 to be handled and the same figure.
c shows an example of the recognition result printed out by the journal printing unit 14.

As can be seen from figure a, the voting ticket 1 includes a fixed part consisting of the year, table of contents, table of contents, venue name, and machine number, as well as the race name,
Voting information consisting of a variable part consisting of a secret code, set number, number of tickets, voting amount, event code, serial number, etc. is printed in advance, and the reading unit 5 optically reads the voting information in the variable part 2 shown by the dashed line in the figure. be read.

The read data storage section 11 stores all of the voting information, and therefore, the journal printing section 14 prints characters as shown in the figure c.

Figure 5 shows an example of the print output of the journal printing unit 14 when the reading unit 5 is functioning normally, and Figure C shows an example of the print output when the reading unit 5 is not functioning normally.

As shown in C in the same figure, in the present invention, in order to further facilitate the function check of the reading unit 5, in addition to printing the number e of unrecognized characters at the right end of each line, a character a is missing, b is not recognized, and C similar. A symbol indicating a character that does not need to be read or a character that does not require reading is printed on each character position.

These symbols a to e are discriminated by the character recognition unit 10,
It is also stored in the read data storage section 11.

In this way, by using the existing journal printing section 14 to output the reading results from the reading section 5 in the same printing format as the voting ticket 1, test and maintenance workers can directly compare the two and perform the functions of the reading section. can be checked.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a payout device according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a voting ticket used in the present invention and an example of printed output. In the figure, 1 is a voting ticket, 3 is an operation console, 4 is a payout control device, 5 is a voting ticket reader, 9 is a recognition control unit, 10 is a character recognition unit, 11 is a read data storage unit, and 14 is a journal printing unit , 16 is a maintenance panel.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 Equipped with at least a voting ticket reader that optically detects printed characters on the inserted voting ticket, and a journal printing unit that prints refund information including the refund amount among the read information sent from the voting ticket reader. In the voting ticket refund device made of During maintenance work (this is a voting ticket refunding device characterized in that all printed characters on the voting ticket detected by the voting ticket reading section are printed using the journal printing section 2 according to the voting ticket printing format). .