Lottery tickets, systems, and methods

1. A lottery system comprising:

a) a lottery contestant generating a digital image utilizing a camera, a cellular phone with a built-in camera, a scanner, or a kiosk and electronically submitting said digital image to a lottery provider for lottery participation utilizing an MMS message or an internet connection, said digital image being stored on lottery servers, and said digital image comprising at least one still image selected from a personal photograph, a family photograph, and a pet photograph; said lottery contestant also submitting payment to said lottery provider for lottery participation utilizing mobile billing, a merchant account, a debit or credit card account, or an account deduction from a pre-paid account;

b) electronically encrypting said digital image and contestant information, utilizing software provided on said lottery contestant's computer or mobile device or upon receipt of said digital image by a server of said lottery provider, to form an information capsule comprising an lottery ticket;

c) generating a random entry number utilizing a random number generator, said random entry number being derived from digital image information obtained from said digital image, and affiliating said random entry number with said lottery ticket;

d) repeating steps a), b), and c) such that a plurality of lottery tickets are formed and a plurality of random entry numbers are generated and affiliated with said plurality of lottery tickets;

e) randomly selecting a random winner number in a winner selection phase and matching said random winner number with one of said plurality of random entry numbers to thereby determine a winning ticket of said lottery; and

f) decrypting said information capsule comprising said winning lottery ticket and obtaining information about the lottery contestant which submitted said winning ticket from said decrypted information capsule.

2. The lottery system according to claim 1 further including the step of:

integrating said lottery into one of the group consisting of: a television show, web broadcast, website, mobile device broadcast, or software generated graphical user interface.

3. The lottery system according to claim 2 further including the steps of:

prior to the step of randomly selecting a random winner number in said winner selection phase and matching said random winner number to determine a winning ticket, selecting a subset number of said plurality of lottery tickets which is less than the total number of said plurality of lottery tickets and designating said subset number of selected lottery tickets as winners of an intermediate stage of said lottery.

4. The lottery system according to claim 3 further including the steps of:

at said intermediate stage, displaying said digital images of intermediate stage winners on said television show, web broadcast, website, mobile device broadcast, or software generated graphical user interface; and

when a final, single winning ticket is selected, displaying said digital image submitted by the winning contestant on said television show, web broadcast, website, mobile device broadcast, or software generated graphical user interface.

5. The lottery system according to claim 4 further including a moderation step in which moderators review digital images submitted for processing as lottery tickets and approve or disapprove images for broadcast or publication.

6. The lottery system according to claim 5 wherein during said moderation step, if a said digital image is disapproved, an alternate image is substituted for the disapproved image and is assigned to the lottery ticket associated with said disapproved image and said alternate image is utilized for broadcast or publication.

7. The lottery system according to claim 4 further including the step of logging each said random entry number, affiliated with each said lottery ticket which form said plurality of lottery tickets, for use in performing the intermediate stage winner selection or winner selection steps.

8. The lottery system according to claim 7 wherein said intermediate stage winner selection or winner selection steps are performed utilizing a random number generator to randomly generate numbers which are matched to said plurality of random entry numbers generated in association with said plurality of lottery tickets to thereby select intermediate stage winners and/or a final lottery winner.

9. The lottery system according to claim 1 further including the steps of:

prior to the step of randomly selecting a random winner number in said winner selection phase and matching said random winner number to determine a winning ticket, selecting a subset number of said plurality of lottery tickets which is less than the total number of said plurality of lottery tickets and designating said subset number of selected lottery tickets as winners of an intermediate stage of said lottery.

10. A lottery system according to claim 1 , further wherein:

lottery participation is solicited by a lottery provider via invitations communicated via web broadcast, television announcement, SMS message, MMS message, or electronic mail; and

wherein because lottery entry is accomplished electronically by submitting said digital image via said MMS message or said internet connection, new lotteries can be initiated and completed in compressed time periods.