Pari-mutuel off-track betting system

Claim 1

An automated off-track betting system for use with a central computer comprising: A. a plurality of ticket issue machines at off-track locations, each machine adapted to permit selection and entry of input data comprising a proposed bet transaction and provide parallel output signals corresponding to the input data each machine further adapted to provide a transaction sense signal upon entry of a complete bet transaction and to respond to appropriate acknowledge signals for issuing tickets; B. means for digitally encoding the output signals from the ticket issued machines; C. first gating means for sequentially gating the output signals from said ticket issue machines in groups corresponding to bet transactions at the ticket issue machines including means for sequentially scanning the outputs from said ticket issue machines, means for sensing the presence of a transaction sense signal at each machine, means for halting said scanning means at a ticket issue machine upon sensing the presence of a transaction sense signal indicating entry of a complete bet transaction, means for passing the output signals corresponding to the bet transaction through the gating means for processing, and means for restarting said scanning means through the sequential scanning of the outputs of the ticket issue machines comprising: 1. a ring counter comprising a plurality of flip-flop stages in number corresponding to the number of ticket issue machines; 2. clock means for generating clock pulses for stepping said ring counter; 3. a plurality of ''''and'''' gates in number equal to the number of ticket issue machines, each ''''and'''' gate having a first input from the output of a different one of the stages of the ring counter and a second input coupled with the transaction sense signal from a different one of said ticket issue machines whereby an enable signal appears at the output of one of said ''''and'''' gates upon the coincidence of a ring counter output signal and a transaction sense signal at the input of said ''''and'''' gate for gating the output signals corresponding to a completed bet transaction at the corresponding ticket issue machine; 4. and means for gating the clock pulses to halt the ring counter whenever an output appears at one of the plurality of ''''and'''' gates whereby the sequential scanning of the outputs of the ticket issue machines is halted until completion of processing of the bet transaction at the corresponding ticket issue machine; D. means for multiplexing said gated output signals from the ticket issue machines to provide a serial signal for transmission to the central computer; E. means for transmitting said serial signal; F. multiplex decoder means at the central computer location for decoding said transmitted serially multiplexed signal into a plurality of parallel output signals; G. second gating means for sequentially gating said parallel output signals in groups corresponding to the off-track ticket issue machines for input to the central computer for processing and acknowledgment; H. means for generating an acknowledge signal at the central computer; I. means for transmitting the acknowledge signal to the offtrack location at which the bet transaction originated; J. means for receiving an acknowledge signal at the off-track location transmitted from the central computer and for gating said signal to provide a ticket issue signal to the corresponding ticket issue machine from which the bet transaction originated; K. and means for locking the transaction sense signal from a particular ticket issue machine until the bet transaction data has been processed and acknowledged by the central computer and a ticket has been issued by the machine and means for terminating the transaction sense signal from a particular ticket issue machine upon issuance of the ticket whereby the first gating means is restarted to continue sequential scanning of the outputs of the ticket issue machines.