High volume electronic lottery ticket distribution system

1. A method including:

(a) storing a number of game record groups at a game server adapted to communicate with a number of gaming sites, each game record group including a number of game records for a lottery game and each game record in a respective game record group including result indicating data which indicates a result associated with the respective game record;

(b) communicating two or more of the game record groups to a site controller located at a gaming site and storing the two or more game record groups at the site controller;

(c) in response to a game availability request associated with a respective game, selecting a respective game record group at the site controller, communicating the selected game record group from the site controller to a player station services controller located at the gaming site, and storing that respective game record group at the player station services controller, wherein the player station services controller is separate from a player station located at the gaming site; and

(d) communicating the result indicating data from a respective game record stored at the player station services controller to the player station in response to a game play request from the player station, the respective game record comprising one of a number of different game records included in the selected game record group stored at the player station services controller, and wherein the game play request is a separate communication from the game availability request.

2. The method of claim 1 further including compressing the data making up the selected game record group and wherein the selected game record group is stored at the player station services controller in a compressed format, and further including decompressing the respective game record in response to the game play request from the player station.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein storing the two or more game record groups at the site controller includes storing a respective backup game record group for each of a number of additional player station services controllers located at the common gaming site, each respective backup game record group and the selected game record group being selected from a common lottery game set.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein storing the two or more game record groups at the site controller includes storing enough game record groups so that one or more respective game record groups are available for the player station services controller and each of a number of additional player station services controllers.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein communicating the result indicating data from the respective game record stored at the player station services controller to the player station includes communicating a result index representing a game result.

6. The method of claim 1 further including identifying the respective game record stored at the player station services controller as having a used status, the identification of the respective game record as having the used status being performed in connection with communicating the result indicating data from the respective game record to the player station.

7. The method of claim 1 further including detecting a release condition for the selected game record group at the player station services controller when the selected game record group includes unused game records, and communicating the selected game record group from the player station services controller to the site controller in response to detecting the release condition.

8. The method of claim 7 further including communicating the selected game record group to the game server.

9. An apparatus including:

(a) a site controller co-located at a first gaming site together with a number of player stations, the site controller being adapted to receive a first game record group from a game server, and the site controller including site controller data storage for storing the first game record group, wherein the first game record group includes a number of game records for a lottery game and each game record includes result indicating data which indicates a result associated with the respective game record; and

(b) a player station services controller associated with the first gaming site and being located separately from each of the player stations at the first gaming site, the player station services controller being adapted to receive the first game record group from the site controller responsive to a game availability request, and including player station services data storage for storing the first game record group, the player station services controller also being adapted to communicate the result indicating data for a respective one of the game records in the first game record group to a player station at the gaming site in response to a game play request from the player station, the game play request being separate from the game availability request.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the game server is adapted to communicate with one or more additional gaming sites and includes central data storage for storing a number of game record groups in addition to the first game record group, each game record group including a number of game records for the lottery game and each game record including result indicating data which indicates a result associated with the respective game record.

11. The apparatus of claim 9 further including two or more additional player station services controllers associated with the first gaming site.

12. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the first game record group is a game record set representing all of the game records defined for the lottery game.

13. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the first game record group is a game record subset made up of game records selected from a game record set which represents all of the game records defined for the lottery game.

14. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the player station services data storage is random access memory.

15. A program product stored on one or more computer readable devices, the program product including:

(a) game server program code being executable to store a number of game record groups at a central storage device and to communicate a first game record group to a site controller upon request, the first game record group being included in the number of game record groups, each game record group including a number of game records for a lottery game and each game record in a respective game record group including result indicating data which indicates a result associated with the respective game record;

(b) site controller program code being executable to receive the first game record group communicated under control of the game server program code, to store the first game record group at data storage associated with the site controller, and to communicate the first game record group to a player station services controller responsive to a game availability request, wherein the site controller and the player station services controller are located at a common gaming site; and

(c) player station services program code being executable to receive the first game record group communicated under control of the site controller program code and to store the first game record group at data storage associated with the player station services controller, the player station services program code also being executable to communicate the result indicating data for a respective game record in the first game record group to a player station in response to a game play request from the player station, wherein the game play request is a separate communication from the game availability request and wherein the player station is separate from the player station services controller.

16. The program product of claim 15 wherein the site controller program code includes instructions executable to compress the first game record group before communicating the first game record group to the player station services controller, and wherein the player station services program code further includes instructions executable to decompress a game record from the first game record group before communicating the result indicating data from the player station services controller to the player station.

17. The program product of claim 15 wherein the site controller program code includes instructions executable to store a respective backup game record group at the site controller for each of a number of additional player station services controllers located at the common gaming site, each respective backup game record group and the first game record group being selected from a common lottery game set.

18. The program product of claim 15 wherein the site controller program code is executable to store a second game record group at the data storage associated with the site controller.

19. The program product of claim 15 wherein the result indicating data communicated from the player station services controller is a result index representing a result associated with the respective game record.

20. The program product of claim 15 wherein the player station services program code further includes instructions executable to indicate that the respective game record has been used once it is associated with the game play request.

21. The program product of claim 20 wherein the player station services program code further includes instructions executable to detect a release condition for the first game record group stored at the player station services data storage when the first game record group includes unused game records, and to communicate the first game record group from the player station services controller to the site controller in response to detecting the release condition.

22. A method including:

(a) storing a number of game record groups at a first storage device located at a gaming site, each game record group including a number of game records for a lottery game and each game record in a respective game record group including result indicating data which indicates a result associated with the respective game record;

(b) in response to a game availability request associated with a respective game available at the gaming site, selecting a respective game record group at the first storage device, communicating the selected game record group from the first storage device to a second storage device located at the gaming site, and storing that respective game record group at the second storage device, the second storage device being high-speed memory; and

(c) communicating result indicating data from a respective game record stored at the second storage device to a player station in response to a game play request from the player station, the player station being located at the gaming site separately from the second storage device, and the game play request being separate from the game availability request.

23. The method of claim 22 further including compressing the respective game record group for storage at the second storage device and decompressing the respective game record from a compressed format prior to communicating the result indicating data for the respective game record to the player station.

24. The method of claim 22 wherein the game availability request is generated in response to meeting a predefined condition with a game record group that was previously stored at the second storage device.

25. The method of claim 22 wherein the game availability request is generated in response to a log-on action at a respective player station at the gaming site.