Abstract: A touch screen having a high or fine resolution at relatively low cost is provided. In one embodiment, electrodes are placed directly on the surface of a CRT screen without the need for an electrode positioned on the rear surface. The touch screen may include a conductive coating and a protective coating which are preferably provided in a single vacuum chamber step. A high gain system including a high-frequency sampling bandpass filter provide discrimination of the desired signal over noise. A screen calibration technique is used to achieve linearization in order to convert the electric signals obtained from the screen into data indicative of the position of a touch on the screen.

Abstract: A system to generate large (e.g. $1 million) jackpots for live card games such as blackjack is disclosed. Multiple live card tables are placed in one or more gaming establishments. A coin acceptor is assigned to each player position on the tables and includes a sensor for determining the presence of a coin to generate a signal indicating that a jackpot side bet has been placed and to correspondingly increase the available jackpot that is being accumulated from the side bets on all tables. The coin acceptors are mounted directly to the playing tables. The acceptors have a low profile above the table top and include sloping surfaces to facilitate the insertion and withdrawal of coins from them. Each coin acceptor communicates with a central computer or processor.

Abstract: A slot machine is disclosed having three coaxially mounted reels and a mechanism for simultaneously spinning the three reels when a starting handle is pulled, and stopping them at three new stopping positions in response to control signals from a microprocessors. Each reel has a sprocket with 32 stopping positions and a coding ring with a plurality of slots arranged on a circumferential path about the reel's axis, forming a single track of digital information which may be read by a single optic sensor as the reel rotates. The track has 32 equally spaced fields of optical information corresponding to the 32 stopping positions of the reels. Each field has one slot, the slot width alternating between wide and narrow arcuate sizes about the coding ring, with one sequence of three narrow slots marking a home position for its respective reel.

Abstract: A slot machine having three reels and a mechanism for spinning and stopping them after a starting handle is pulled, in response to control signals from a microprocessor. Each reel has a slotted coding ring forming a single track of digital information which may be read by a single optic sensor as the reel rotates. The track has 32 fields of optical information corresponding to the 32 indicia on its reel. Each field has one slot, the slot width alternating between wide and narrow sides about the track, with one sequence of three narrow slots marking a home position. A position counter counts the number of fields that pass each reel's sensor after the home position. Each time a new field is detected, the reel's direction, speed, acceleration and deceleration are checked, and an error signal is issued if the reel is not spinning properly. When the starting handle is pulled, three random numbers are generated.