| CPC G07C 15/005 (2013.01) [G07B 3/02 (2013.01); G07B 5/02 (2013.01); G07B 5/08 (2013.01)] | 20 Claims |

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1. A lottery ticket vending machine comprising:
a housing;
a ticket drawer column in the housing, the ticket drawer column comprising a plurality of ticket drawers, each of the ticket drawers configured to hold a strip of lottery tickets;
a ticket burster in the housing, the ticket burster defining a ticket inlet and a ticket outlet, the ticket burster movable to a plurality of different ticket receipt positions, each different ticket receipt position associated with and in alignment with a different one of the ticket drawers;
a ticket edge sensor supported by the ticket burster and movable with the ticket burster, the ticket edge sensor configured to obtain ticket edge image data for a lottery ticket that moves from one of the ticket drawers into the ticket burster, and configured to transmit the ticket edge image data; and
a controller configured to receive the ticket edge image data from the ticket edge sensor, determine if any part of an edge of the lottery ticket has a deformity, and cause a corrective action to be taken to address the deformity responsive to determining that the edge of the lottery ticket has the deformity.
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