Lottery ticket checker

[jedihep]

I'm new to the Droid, but here's an app I'd like to see someone make that isn't in the marketplace. It seems that the Droid and some of the other smart phones are well capable of it and only need the app written that will make it possible. I'd like to see someone write an app that would let you use the barcode/dotmatrix capabilities of these phones to scan your powerball and daily number tickets to check them for any winners that you may have missed. It just seems to me that if you can check them that way at the local store and the information is readily available online, so why wait in line at the store to check your tickets, check them at your leisure in the comfort of your home with your smart phone! Let me know what you think. I know very little of programing but the hardware is there. It just seems that it just needs someone to be interested enough to write the app to preform this task. If someone is capable of this or if I my thought process on this app idea is faulty please let me know.

[STIDRIVER]

Interesting idea........

[navdoc1110]

I would buy this as well

[luckylotto]

realy its good idea...........

[NoKz]

I'd buy it

[baniels]

I've been toying with that idea since before I got the Droid. The barcodes themselves don't contain the numbers picked - just the ID of the purchased ticket.

[Steve H]

I'd buy it if we had a lotto in Utah.................

[Topsy]

Ya the ticket barcode just is a reference id to the lottery database with all the info about where it was purchased and what numbers were selected. Only the lottery themselves would be able to produce such an app with access to the database.

Most you'd get 3rd party is an app that shows the current winning numbers, which you can easily just bookmark their website for anyhow.

[williestylez]

Apparently these guys are working on it:

Lotto Winning Numbers iPhone Android App

They are planning Android and iPhone apps!

[pudah]

It seems to me that the only hang up would be tapping in to the system that the stores use to scan the tickets and check to see if they are a winner or not. That and the number of lotteries out there (inc. scratch offs) would be daunting and complicated. Perhaps each state could have an app for it's lottery. Once they become keen to this idea I suspect they'd allow the app to use that database.

Until then you could probably make an app that would take a picture of a ticket (already knowing the format for that specific lottery, and the layout of the ticket) and recognize the numbers on it, converting to a digital copy of the numbers and then checking against online listings for major lotteries. Not as fast, and more complicated than using the bar code, but it could be a good intermediary app.