Granted Patent B2

US 12,743,685 · App. 18/629,626 · Granted Sep 22, 2026

Inventors: Siva Charan Muraharirao (Bangalore, IN); Hiral Roshan Salvi (Bangalore, IN); Shubham Mangla (Yamunanagar, IN); Christopher J. Hendrick (Rogers, AR)

Assignee: WALMART APOLLO, LLC

G06Q20/20G07F17/329

Abstract

Claims (66)

1 . A system for reconciling lottery transactions comprising:

a plurality of individual point-of-sale (POS) systems at facilities, the POS systems for input of first lottery transaction data for lottery transactions occurring at lottery terminals at the facilities;

a database communicatively coupled to the plurality of individual POS systems, the database configured to receive, via an internal network, the first lottery transaction data of the individual POS systems, the first lottery transaction data being separated out, by a filter service, from other data of the individual POS systems using a transaction or product identifier;

a server at the internal network to receive second lottery transaction data from an external network, the external network having received the second lottery transaction data from the lottery terminals but not via the individual POS systems, the server to:

receive the second lottery transaction data in a third party format from the external network; and

transform, using a data ingestion service, the second lottery transaction data from the third party format to a timestamp indexed tabular format and store it in the database, the second lottery transaction data being transformed to a structured tabular data set to facilitate comparisons and matching;

a control circuit communicatively coupled to the database, the control circuit to:

extract first sales data from the first lottery transaction data, the extracted first sales data comprising a first set of sales amounts for the lottery transactions;

extract second sales data from the transformed second lottery transaction data, the extracted second sales data comprising a second set of sales amounts for the lottery transactions;

generate timestamp bounded first and second subsets of sales data to reduce matching comparisons, the first subset of sales data including a first subset of sales amounts and the second subset of sales data including a second subset of sales amounts;

conduct one-to-many or many-to-one matching by iteratively aggregating different combinations of sales amounts of one of the first subset of sales amounts and the second subsets of sales amounts and comparing the different combinations to individual sales amounts of the other of the first subset of sales amounts and the second subset of sales amounts; and

identify discrepancies between the first subset of sales amounts and the second subset of sales amounts remaining after conducting the one-to-many or many-to-one matching and generate an electronic variance report of the identified discrepancies.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the control circuit is to:

conduct one-to-one matching by comparing individual sales amounts of the first subset of sales amounts with individual sales amounts of the second subset of sales amounts.

3 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the control circuit is to:

conduct the one-to-many or many-to-one matching after determining that a discrepancy exists between the first subset of sales amounts and the second subset of sales amounts based on the one-to-one matching.

4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the step of conducting one-to-many or many-to-one matching comprises:

iteratively aggregating different combinations of sales amounts of the first subset of sales amounts; and

comparing the different combinations to individual sales amounts of the second subset of sales amounts.

5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the step of conducting one-to-many or many-to-one matching comprises:

iteratively aggregating different combinations of sales amounts of the second subset of sales amounts; and

comparing the different combinations to individual sales amounts of the first subset of sales amounts.

6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein:

the first lottery transaction data comprises a first timestamp for each lottery transaction corresponding to an individual sales amount in the first set of sales amounts;

the second lottery transaction data comprises a second timestamp for each lottery transaction corresponding to an individual sales amount in the second set of sales amounts; and

the control circuit is to conduct one-to-one matching by comparing individual sales amounts from the first subset of sales amounts with individual sales amounts from the second subset of sales amounts based on temporal proximity of the first and second timestamps.

7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein:

the first lottery transaction data comprises a first timestamp for each lottery transaction corresponding to an individual sales amount in the first set of sales amounts;

the second lottery transaction data comprises a second timestamp for each lottery transaction corresponding to an individual sales amount in the second set of sales amounts; and

the control circuit is to conduct one-to-many matching or many-to-one matching by aggregating combinations of individual sales amounts in one subset of sales amounts and comparing each combination to individual sales amounts from the other subset of sales amounts based on temporal proximity of the first and second timestamps.

8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the lottery terminals comprise vending machines or over-the-counter terminals where the lottery transactions are performed.

9 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the lottery transactions comprise at least one of sales of lottery game tickets and redemption of winning lottery game tickets.

10 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the third party format comprises a text file format.

11 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the control circuit is to:

generate in the report of the identified discrepancies, for each first lottery transaction in the report, a transaction order identification, a game name, an amount, a transaction time, a store register identification, and a store associate identification.

12 . A method for reconciling lottery transactions comprising:

by a plurality of individual point-of-sale (POS) systems at facilities, receiving input of first lottery transaction data for lottery transactions occurring at lottery terminals at the facilities;

by a database communicatively coupled to the plurality of individual POS systems, receiving, via an internal network, the first lottery transaction data of the individual POS systems;

by a filter service, separating out the first lottery transaction data from other data of the individual POS systems using a transaction or product identifier;

by a server at the internal network, receiving second lottery transaction data from an external network, the external network having received the second lottery transaction data from the lottery terminals but not via the individual POS systems;

by the server at the internal network, receiving the second lottery transaction data in a third party format from the external network and transforming, using a data ingestion service, the second lottery transaction data from the third party format to a timestamp indexed tabular format and storing it in the database, the second lottery transaction data being transformed to a structured tabular data set to facilitate comparisons and matching;

by a control circuit communicatively coupled to the database:

extracting first sales data from the first lottery transaction data, the extracted first sales data comprising a first set of sales amounts for the lottery transactions;

extracting second sales data from the transformed second lottery transaction data, the extracted second sales data comprising a second set of sales amounts for the lottery transactions;

generating timestamp bounded first and second subsets of sales data to reduce matching comparisons, the first subset of sales data including a first subset of sales amounts and the second subset of sales data including a second subset of sales amounts;

conducting one-to-many or many-to-one matching by iteratively aggregating different combinations of sales amounts of one of the first subset of sales amounts and the second subsets of sales amounts and comparing the different combinations to individual sales amounts of the other of the first subset of sales amounts and the second subset of sales amounts; and

identifying discrepancies between the first subset of sales amounts and the second subset of sales amounts remaining after conducting the one-to-many or many-to-one matching and generating an electronic variance report of the identified discrepancies.

13 . The method of claim 12 , further comprising, by the control circuit:

conducting one-to-one matching by comparing individual sales amounts of the first subset of sales amounts with individual sales amounts of the second subset of sales amounts.

14 . The method of claim 13 , further comprising, by the control circuit:

conducting the one-to-many or many-to-one matching after determining that a discrepancy exists between the first subset of sales amounts and the second subset of sales amounts based on the one-to-one matching.

15 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the step of conducting one-to-many or many-to-one matching comprises:

iteratively aggregating different combinations of sales amounts of the first subset of sales amounts; and

comparing the different combinations to individual sales amounts of the second subset of sales amounts.

16 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the step of conducting one-to-many or many-to-one matching comprises:

iteratively aggregating different combinations of sales amounts of the second subset of sales amounts; and

comparing the different combinations to individual sales amounts of the first subset of sales amounts.

17 . The method of claim 12 , further comprising:

receiving a first timestamp for each lottery transaction corresponding to an individual sales amount in the first set of sales amounts;

receiving a second timestamp for each lottery transaction corresponding to an individual sales amount in the second set of sales amounts; and

by the control circuit, conducting one-to-one matching by comparing individual sales amounts from the first subset of sales amounts with individual sales amounts from the second subset of sales amounts based on temporal proximity of the first and second timestamps.

18 . The method of claim 12 , further comprising:

receiving a first timestamp for each lottery transaction corresponding to an individual sales amount in the first set of sales amounts;

receiving a second timestamp for each lottery transaction corresponding to an individual sales amount in the second set of sales amounts; and

by the control circuit, conducting one-to-many matching or many-to-one matching by aggregating combinations of individual sales amounts in one subset of sales amounts and comparing each combination to individual sales amounts from the other subset of sales amounts based on temporal proximity of the first and second timestamps.

19 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the lottery terminals comprise vending machines or over-the-counter terminals where the lottery transactions are performed.

Assignments (3)

Continuity (2)

References Cited (41)