Realtime Gaming licensees face patent claims

Memories of the trials and tribulations of the Bodog group at the hands of First Technology LLC patent attorneys surfaced this week with reports that a number of RealTime Gaming-powered online casino companies have been threatened with legal action for patent infringements by a little known company called Lottotron.
According to a report on the online gambling information portal 911, the company has approached over a dozen operators with its claim to possess patents for:
“A wagering system for accepting wagers over communications systems comprising (a) automatic call director means for receiving incoming messages from subscribers who with to wager on the system, b) message means connected thereto for receiving the incoming messages routed from the ACD, and for playing a series of recorded audio messages requesting subscriber wager information to be input via telecommunications means, and (c) host processor means having storage means and being connected to the wagering VRU for receiving the subscriber wager information, storing it in a master subscriber wager file in the storage means, and assigning an associated ticket number to the wager.”
Lottotron Inc. is a mysterious company about which little is known. Its domain is registered to Lottotron Inc at an address in Hackensack, New Jersey and there appear to be connections to an ISP company titled OpCenter, also in New Jersey.
911 reports that one major licensee of RTG has already stumped up over $100 000 as a result of the threats, although this has still to be confirmed.
Most of the operators approached so far are on the RTG software and based in Curacao or Costa Rica.

Related and similar