Method of cashless gaming and player tracking
Methods of cashless gaming and player tracking use buttonless RFID technology at both gaming machines and gaming tables to transfer a predetermined denominated amount of credit from a remote network connected gaming account server to the gaming machine or table. Gaming machines have an Idle State, an anonymous credit state, and an identified credit state, each with specific methods for changing from one to another. Gaming tables have a keypad for the dealer, RFID readers at each seating position, and a transaction display visible to the dealer, the patrons, and an overhead security camera.
Latest Patents:
This application is a Continuation-In-Part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/214,923 filed Aug. 31,2005.
FIELD OF THE INVENTIONThis invention pertains to casino gaming, and in particular to methods of cashless gaming and player tracking designed to simplify and secure their operation while eliminating the supplies, maintenance, and repair costs associated with coin acceptors, bill acceptors, card readers, and ticket printers.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONCasinos and gaming equipment manufactures continually strive to improve the attraction of gaming to the patron while reducing the operating costs of the equipment. Operating costs include amortized installation costs, operating supplies, maintenance costs and repair costs.
On the operating cost side of the equation, one of the more significant categories is that of coins, tickets, bills, and their associated acceptors, hoppers, and printers. Each of these electromechanical devices occasionally requires attention to maintain it in proper working order. Coin acceptors and coin hoppers can become jammed with bent coins. Bill validators can become jammed with worn or dirty bills. Ticket printers can become jammed with paper debris. Optical sensors in each of them occasionally need cleaning. Coins must be provided to fill all of the hoppers and back room hopper fill inventory requirements. Personnel must empty drop vaults and perform hopper fills on call. Ticket printers must have their paper ticket stock replenished periodically. Although the material and labor costs for any one machine may seem insignificant, when a casino has many thousands of gaming machines, the aggregate cost becomes worthy of attention.
On the attraction side of the equation, in addition to the attractive design of a game itself, casinos have long employed loyalty club programs to reward their better customers with perks, such as free meals, free rooms, and free entertainment. Today, most casinos employ one of a number of available player tracking systems at gaming machines in order to both identify the patron and to record the amount, of the patron's gaming activity. The hardware and software that implements gaming loyalty club programs is commonly known as a player tracking system.
When player tracking systems first took root they used a plastic card the size of a credit card 10 with numerous punched holes 11, as shown in
Ease of registration for a loyalty program is an important part of attracting and maintaining customers. Patrons have come to the casino because they are interested in playing the games, as opposed to standing in a line to fill out paperwork for a casino loyalty program. A gaming machine adapted to provide a method of registering a patron to a loyalty program at the gaming machine wherein the patron or a casino service representative enters personal identification information for the account into a device on the gaming machine or on a hand-held wireless device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,896,618 granted May 24, 2005 to Benoy, et al.
Casinos and gaming equipment manufacturers have also worked to reduce the material and labor costs associated with the money involved in gaming machines. Initially slot machines were all coin operated. In order to reduce the labor cost of selling coins or tokens to patrons, bill validators were introduced on slot machines in the mid 1990s. However, with the subsequent growth in popularity-of the nickel video slot machines hopper fills became a problem. When a patron feeds a $20 bill into a machine and then later presses the cash-out button, the average patron will get a significant portion of that $20 bill in change. That typically results in dispensing nearly 400 nickels and as a consequence results in frequent hopper fills with heavy bags of coins, and furthermore results in frequent instances when a patron is forced to wait ten to fifteen minutes for the hopper refill in order to get fully paid when the slot machine runs out of coins during a cash-out procedure. The industry solution to this problem has been to pay patrons with a barcoded ticket 21 of
TITO was the first widely successful electronic funds transfer (EFT) technology for slot machines. Although it is a partial step toward cashless gaming, it really only goes as far as coinless gaming. TITO machines still rely on a bill validator for the patron to initially put gaming credits on a machine. Furthermore, the industry standard means of reading the barcoded tickets is through the bill validator. True cashless gaming requires elimination of coins, bills, and hopefully even tickets. Although elimination of coin handling for gaming machines with TITO has had an important cost reduction impact for casinos, it has also had an inadvertent negative side effect on beverage service availability around gaming machines. Patrons no longer have a ready cup full of coins from which to offer the beverage server a tip. So, the incidence of tipping at TITO gaming machines has declined significantly enough that servers prefer to avoid serving patrons at the machines in favor of serving patrons at the tables where plenty of gaming chips are at hand for tipping. Casinos have been looking for a way to remedy this service problem.
Attempts have been made to link together the player tracking account with a debit account to achieve cashless gaming. A cashless gaming system wherein a patron provides money and an ID card to a clerk and wherein the ID number and the amount of money are stored in the memory of the validation terminal is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,265,874 granted Nov. 30, 1993 to Dickinson. The patron subsequently uses the ID card for operating one of a number of game terminals which reads and validates the patron's ID card and then downloads the cash amount from the validation terminal. Upon actuation of the cash-out button the remaining amount is uploaded back to the validation terminal where it may subsequently be likewise downloaded to another game terminal. Slot machine manufacturer IGT markets a system with these features under the trademark Coinless Transit. It utilizes a player tracking card as the ID card and describes the system as a “virtual coin cup” due to the fact that the entire amount is transferred from machine to machine through the “validation terminal” account.
A version of slot machine manufacturer IGT's Coinless Transit system uses a Smart Card 27 of
A patron identification card having UV fluorescent qualities and an RFID transceiver that is linked to a patron's account on a host computer is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,641,035 granted Nov. 4, 2003 to Predescu, et al. The Predescu et al. patent discloses, but does not claim, that at each game play the amount won is credited and the amount lost is debited to the patron's account, thus allowing patrons to enjoy games without using cash or tokens. Similarly disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,280,328 granted Aug. 28, 2001 to Holch is an account based gaming system wherein the actual funds remain located in an account on a remote network connected server, a network connected gaming machine is enabled to play if the patron's account balance is sufficient for the desired wager, and game result information is transmitted back to the account server where the account balance is credited or debited accordingly. Neither of these disclosures suggests any means or method for limiting display or access of the patron's account balance at the gaming machine other than always working with the full account balance.
To address the problem of limiting the amount the access to funds associated with a patrons credit card or banking debit card account, a gaming machine which allows electronic funds transfer to a gaming machine requests playing credit in according to a limited preset amount not controlled by the patron is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,902,983 granted May 11, 1999 to Crevelt, et al., and in U.S. Pat. No. 6,347,738 granted Feb. 19, 2002 also to Crevelt, et al.
A coin shaped token for use in a cashless transaction having a memory, a display, a keypad and an RF input/output interface embedded within the token body to communicate with an electronic gaming device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,629,591 granted Oct. 7, 2003 to Griswold, et al. Monetary value and transaction history is stored in the memory. The keypad and display provide a means for the patron to navigate a menu of choices regarding actions and amounts. A very similar device and system called Easy Money, manufactured by Ardent Gaming and used in Isle of Capri casinos, has an electronics funds carrier 23 of
In addition to the methods of transferring credit for cashless gaming systems previously described, still other ways of determining how much credit or value is to be transferred have been used in other markets. A fueling system capable of conducting a wireless transaction to effect payment based on a patron's use of an RFID transponder to link to one of the patron's credit card accounts is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,073,840 granted Jun. 13, 2000 to Marion. The amount of the payment is defined by the amount of fuel pumped by the patron. The nature of the transaction allows the amount to be unknown and unlimited until the fuelling is complete largely because it is a credit account and because the risk is inherently limited by the limited size of a vehicle fuel tank.
Despite the considerable effort that has been applied heretofore towards both player tracking systems and cashless gaming systems, many important aspects of such systems stand in further need of improvement, particularly when they are combined as a single system. While the prior art already has examples of the combination, the problems that remain in the current systems include: a) magnetic strip card systems suffer from the simplicity of making copies, reader heads the get dirty and fail, and the requirement to leave the card in the reader during game play results in many cards being erroneously abandoned when the patron leaves a gaming machine; b) RF tokens or keyfob devices with buttons and LCD displays are comparatively fragile and expensive, all value stored on them is lost if they are lost or broken, and they do not provide a reasonably economical path for the complete elimination of physical monetary media in gaming machines; c) the electrical contacts of Smart Card readers are at least as susceptible to reliability problems as are magnetic strip card reader heads, and the laminated chip embedded in the card is susceptible to damage through bending which can lead to loss of all value stored thereon; and d) ticket-in-ticket-out systems are really only capable of a single use for transfer of monetary value from one machine to another, and they still use a physical media prone to paper jams and do require regular refilling of blank ticket stock. Furthermore, because card systems have not taken the next evolutionary steps in design a) they either make the erroneous assumption that the patron wants access to the full balance of the account at the gaming machine or they require the patron to press buttons and navigate menu screens to select the amount to access, or b) they have not developed the requisite security measures to inherently identify and protect a patron's monetary value currently held by a gaming machine from the surreptitious actions of a second patron.
As can readily be appreciated, there remains a need for further improvement in methods of cashless gaming and player tracking designed to simplify and secure their operation while eliminating the supplies, maintenance, and repair costs associated with coin acceptors, bill acceptors, card readers, and ticket printers.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONIn a first embodiment of the present invention a method of cashless gaming includes providing a patron with an ID carrier having an ID code that uniquely identifies the patron's gaming account, predetermining a denomination amount for association with the ID code, reading the ID code at a gaming machine or gaming table, verifying that a gaming account associated with the ID code may be charged the predetermined denomination amount, providing the patron with the predetermined denomination amount of credit for gaming, and charging the predetermined denomination amount to the gaming account.
In a second embodiment of the present invention a method of cashless gaming includes providing a patron with an ID carrier having an ID code that uniquely identifies the patron's gaming account on a remote network connected gaming account server. The gaming account includes both credit balance and player tracking information. Reading the ID code at a gaming machine or table automatically links play activity to the player tracking database and provides for electronic funds transfer.
In a third embodiment of the present invention for cashless gaming, a table game has a keypad for the dealer, an ID carrier reader at each seating position, and a transaction display visible to the dealer, the patron, and to an overhead security camera. When the patron presents his ID carrier to the ID carrier reader at his seat, the transaction display indicates the seating position and a multiple of a predetermined denomination of credit that the patron requests in playing chips from the dealer. The chips are counted and delivered to the patron and a keypad acknowledgement completes the transaction.
In a fourth embodiment of the present invention for cashless gaming, a gaming machine has an Idle State, an Anonymous Credit State, and an Identified Credit State in order to properly treat the difference between anonymous currency and identified gaming accounts. Sets of methodical steps provide definition for transition from one state to another in response to currency validation, cash-out requests, reading of a first ID code, reading of a second ID code, and various account credit balance conditions in order to protect the patron while providing simplicity in system use.
In a fifth embodiment of the present invention cashless gaming methods are shown for creating an instant anonymous account and funding the account from a gaming machine. An ID carrier is dispensed and an account is instantly created when an anonymous currency using patron cashes out from a gaming machine. Patrons new to casino property can use an ID carrier from another property to instantly create a gaming account at a machine without the need for any additional overt registration steps.
In a sixth embodiment of the present invention cashless gaming methods are shown for providing a beverage server with a gratuity at a cashless gaming machine by providing the server with a tip ID carrier that can be read at the gaming machine associated with the gaming account of a patron, and wherein the gratuity amount is authorized by the patron by a subsequent re-reading of the patron's ID carrier.
The foregoing and many other additional method details described herein finally provide for an integrated electronics funds transfer system and player tracking system, preferably utilizing the non-contact secure technology of RFID, which removes unnecessary costs from the patron's ID carrier without compromising security or simplicity in use.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Within the context of the invention description that follows, the term gaming machine refers to slot machines and their derivatives, including the mechanical reel types, video reel types, video poker, video black jack, and various adventure games for gambling whether or not they actually still have a traditional coin slot. The term gaming table refers to craps tables, roulette tables, and card tables for black jack, baccarat, Pai Gow, Let It Ride, and others. An ID carrier includes any machine readable card, keyfob, button, or other device which holds an ID code that can uniquely identify a patron, and more specifically a patron's gaming account. RFID transponders are also commonly known as RFID tags. The term cash-out button refers to a physical button, a virtual button on a touch-screen display, or other means by which the patron may otherwise invoke a cash-out request. Although the preferred embodiment of the invention includes a bill validator, it is representative of any type of currency, including the private currency of sponsored tokens and coupons.
Within the casino gaming industry, customer loyalty programs are commonly used in an attempt to attract and hold a casino property's best customers. At the root of the customer loyalty programs used within the casino gaming industry are the automated player tracking systems used in the gaming machines, and the manual player tracking systems used at the gaming tables. The magnetic strip card readers used at the gaming machines to read player tracking cards are not very physically practical at a gaming table, and at a gaming table there is not the same kind of connection with metered wagering for the automated tracking of play activity as has long been available in the gaming machines.
The preferred embodiment for an ID carrier is an RFID transponder. RFID transponders, such as the cylindrical keyfob 30 of
In addition to the aforementioned security value of RFID, other relatively important qualities of the technology include its low cost, its physical reliability, and the fact that the account value is not directly stored on it. When considering the economics of a system involving very large numbers of ID carriers, much effort should be applied to eliminating cost from the ID carrier, even at the expense of moving it into the ID carrier reader. Certainly this means eliminating buttons, batteries, and displays from the ID carrier, as are evident in the electronic funds carrier 23 of
As previously noted, use of an RFID tag for player tracking is not a new concept and is easily understood in operation. However, many logistical questions arise when attempting to use an RFID tag for electronics funds transfer. In the previously mentioned application for using an RFID tag to pay at the pump, there is no need to for the patron to enter an amount to charge to the account as it is precisely defined by the amount of gasoline pumped. Also as previously mentioned, slot machine manufacturer IGT markets a system under the trademark Coinless Transit that utilizes a player tracking card as an ID card to electronically transfer game credits from one gaming machine to the next. The system is described as a virtual coin cup because the entire amount is transferred from machine to machine. While this is another easy answer to the question of how much to transfer when the ID code is read from the ID carrier, it is not very practical if one wants to place a few days worth of gaming funds into a gaming account. Not many people really want to empty their complete stash into each machine or as the buy-in at a gaming table.
The answer to what to transfer from a gaming account to a gaming machine or a gaming table without the need to read menus and push buttons is found by realizing that people of different economic means are quite satisfied to classify themselves, for example, as a $5, $25 or $100 buy-in category of patron. Thus when a patron registers with the casino for an ID carrier, they can select their buy-in category and receive an ID carrier denominated as $5, $25 or $100. The denomination value could be stored as additional information along with the ID code on the ID carrier, or it could be stored in the gaming account on a remote network gaming account server. Such an ID carrier may take the form of an RFID keyfob 40 of
One of the ways in which a patron can acquire an ID carrier 40 is during registration as a hotel guest at a hotel-casino. During the registration process, the patron selects a denomination amount for an ID carrier. The clerk provides an ID carrier of that denomination, reads the ID code from it, and opens a gaming account for the patron associated with the ID code. The gaming account is a database that may include a) patron identification information, such as a name, driver's license, phone number, etc., b) credit balance information, c) credit transfer records, and d) gaming activity records for the loyalty program player tracking system. The patron can then elect to deposit funds for gaming into the account.
The denomination amount associated with the ID carrier can be stored in the gaming account database, or can be written into an additional user data area of the RFID transponder memory when it is factory configured for the application. In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the denomination information is stored on the RFID transponder along with information to identify the casino property and information that identifies it as a patron transponder versus one of a service employee that may use the same ID carrier reader to access the gaming machine for diagnostics, maintenance or repair. Since the ID carriers reasonably should have printed graphics indicating the denomination amount and the casino property, it makes reasonable sense to factory configure the respective ID carriers to hold the same information internally.
An RFID transceiver 50 suitable for use as an ID carrier reader for RFID keyfob 40 of
A gaming machine 70 illustrated in
The foregoing conventional description of credit transfer from a gaming account to a gaming machine 70 causes a debit in the amount of the transferred credit value to the gaming account and a corresponding credit to the displayed credit balance 75 on the gaming machine 70 such that the transferred funds literally are present in the gaming machine. However, to accommodate the regulations of some jurisdictions, an alternative embodiment of this transaction causes the actual funds to technically remain located in the patron's gaming account, and the credit balance display 75 to only indicate what portion of the gaming account balance has been authorized for game play on the gaming machine 70. For example, if the patron's gaming account balance is $800 and the patron reads his $25 denominated ID carrier 40 twice in succession upon arrival at an idle gaming machine 70, the credit balance display 75 will indicate $50 has been authorized for game play on the machine even though all of the funds remain located in the gaming account. If the patron then wagers and looses $5 during play of a game on the gaming machine 70, the credit balance display will indicate $45 of remaining authorization for game play and a $5 debit message will be transmitted back to the remote network connected gaming account server where the credit balance of the patron's gaming account will be reduced to $795. To the patron the operational difference is transparent. For the purposes of clarity and brevity in the following descriptions, this transparent difference will be referenced to simply as an amount authorized for game play or transferred from the gaming account to the gaming machine resulting in a credit authorization/balance on the gaming machine 70.
When the patron first uses his ID carrier 40 at the gaming machine 70 and a denominated amount is authorized for game play or is transferred from his gaming account to the gaming machine 70, the credit authorization/balance on the gaming machine 70 additionally becomes linked to the gaming account, and thus also linked to the patron. The purpose of maintaining a link between the future remaining credit authorization/balance on the gaming machine and the gaming account is so that the continued presence of the ID carrier within reading range of the ID carrier reader is not required, thus allowing the patron to keep the ID carrier secured in a pocket or a purse. While the credit authorization/balance on the gaming machine 70 is linked to the patron's gaming account, the illuminated face color of the ID carrier reader 50 changes to white to indicate the linked state so that the patron knows that game play activity will be attributed to the patron and logged to the player tracking portion of his gaming account. If the patron decides to leave the gaming machine 70 while a credit authorization/balance remains, the patron presses the cash-out button 76. Since any remaining credit balance is linked with the patron's gaming account, the remaining credit balance is simply transferred back to the patron's gaming account. The ID carrier 50 momentarily changes the color of its illuminated sensing face to green to indicate acceptance of the cash-out transaction, and then returns its color to blue to indicate an Idle State concurrent with the credit balance display 75 indicating a zero balance. The link is terminated when the remaining credit authorization/balance is cashed-out or reduced to zero through exhaustive game play.
Certain precautions are required to protect the patron's credit balance, but these precautions should not have any adverse side effects on the operation of the casino or the play of other patrons. For example, while a first patron is playing a gaming machine 70 that has its credit balance linked to the first patron's gaming account it is possible that a second patron could place his ID carrier 40 in proximity to the ID carrier reader 50. The system must not simply just transfer additional credit value from the second patron's gaming account to add to the credit balance on the gaming machine 70 and then change the linkage to the second patron's account. This would constitute hijacking of the credit balance of the first patron by the second patron, and could happen when the first patron was distracted from the gaming machine by the perpetrator's accomplice. There are two parts to the solution of this problem. The first part of the solution is to reject the second patron's attempted transaction when the read ID code is different from the ID code of the current gaming account linkage. A rejection of an ID carrier 40 (and ID code) is indicated by momentarily changing the color of the sensing face of ID carrier reader to red. However, this part of the solution by itself creates a secondary problem. If the first patron decides to abandon a machine having a trivial remaining balance linked to his gaming account, that machine would then reject the ID carrier 40 of other patrons who may later desire to use the gaming machine, thus effectively disabling the gaming machine from use. In the second part of the solution, upon reading the ID carrier 40 of a second patron, a test is made to determine if there has been recent game play activity. If, for example, there has been no game play activity for at least five minutes, then the remaining credit balance on the gaming machine 70 is first returned to the gaming account of the first patron, and then the denominated amount associated with the ID code and gaming account of the second patron is transferred to the gaming machine 70 and displayed in credit balance display 75. In both parts of the solution the first patron's money is protected, and an appropriate decision is made relative to which patron should have control of the gaming machine.
The die cutting layout shown in
Upon the automatic opening of an account associated with a dispensed ID carrier 40 card assembly 80, a base denomination for use of the ID carrier 40 must be predetermined. A first method of denomination predetermination is to select and write this information into a programmable memory location within the RFID transponder chip 34 of
Use of the ID carrier at a gaming table 90 (
When a patron arrives at gaming table 90 and wishes to buy-in, the patron places his ID carrier 40 in proximity to the ID carrier reader 50. The ID code is read, the gaming account credit balance and the predetermined denomination are checked against the minimum wager requirements to authorize a transaction. If the requirements are met, the sensing face of the ID carrier reader 50 will momentarily change color to green to indicate acceptance and the preset denominated amount will appear on transaction display 100 along with the seat number of the patron making the transaction. Each time the patron repeats bringing his ID carrier 40 in proximity to the ID carrier reader 50 the amount shown on the transaction display 100 will increment by the preset denomination amount. When the patron has completed incrementing his buy-in amount, the dealer counts out the requisite number of table chips 94 in full view of the patron and the overhead security camera. When the counted table chips are ready for delivery to the patron, the dealer hits a confirmation key on dealer keypad 97. If the requested transaction is over the approval limit of the dealer, then a pit supervisor must first approve the transaction by reading his ID carrier at ID carrier reader 98. The need for approval is indicated by the sensing face of the ID carrier reader 98 near the dealer flashing white until the ID carrier of an authorized pit supervisor is read. When authorized, the transaction is completed by charging the patron's gaming account with the amount, momentarily indicating the confirmation on transaction display 100, and then returning the display function to its normal passive message functions.
When a patron at a gaming table desires to cash-out, he returns his table chips 94 to the dealer who counts them out for everyone, including the overhead security camera, to see. The dealer then enters the amount and the seating position number using the dealer keypad 97. The information is shown on the transaction display 100 for everyone, including the overhead security camera, to see. If the requested transaction is over the approval limit of the dealer, then a pit supervisor must first approve the transaction by reading his ID carrier at ID carrier reader 98. The need for approval is indicated by the sensing face of the ID carrier reader 98 near the dealer flashing white until the ID carrier of an authorized pit supervisor is read. When authorized, the sensing face of the ID carrier reader 50 at the seating position of the patron starts flashing white to indicate that his pending transaction needs to be confirmed by reading of the ID code from his ID carrier 40. When the ID code is read, the amount shown in the transaction display 100 (
Transaction information is always displayed on both the vertical facing display portion 101 and the forward facing display portion 102 of the transaction display 100 for the dealer, patron and overhead security camera to see. The forward facing display portion 102 (
The block diagram of
The block diagram of
The flow chart of
The flow chart of
At step 156 of the flow chart of
The flow chart of
While in the Identified Credit state of
Additionally, in the Identified Credit State of
The flow chart of
If an ID code is read in step 204 or 208 and the cash-out button is not pressed within a short period of time, such as two seconds, the ID code is rejected, the color of the ID carrier reader 50 is momentarily changed to a red color to indicate rejection in step 209, and then returned to the blue color. The gaming machine 70 remains in the Anonymous Credit State. If the cash-out button is pushed and an ID code is simultaneously read within that short period of time, the credit balance on the gaming machine is transferred to the gaming account associated with the ID code in step 215 and the ID carrier reader color is momentarily changed to green to indicate acceptance and then to blue. The gaming machine then is set to the Idle State. If a gaming account did not previously exist for this ID code, an anonymous gaming account is first created in step 213.
The flow chart of
The flow chart of
The flow chart of
One other important kind of gaming transaction is the payment of tips or gratuities to beverage servers from a patron's gaming money or gaming credit. As previously noted, the advent of TITO for coinless gaming has had an adverse effect on the beverage service level around gaming machines because those patrons now rarely have any coins at hand for tipping the server. Thus the beverage servers have developed a natural bias against spending time servicing the gaming machine areas and a correspondingly opposite bias in favor of spending time servicing the gaming tables where table chips are readily at hand for the patron to use for tipping. However, a denominated tip ID carrier 302 (
A beverage serving tray 301 of
An alternative embodiment to the foregoing utilizes the reading of a non-denominated tip ID carrier (not shown) to cause the display of menu 304 (
It is to be understood that the above described embodiments of the invention are illustrative only, and many variations and modifications will become apparent to one skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
Claims
1. A method of conducting a cashless gaming transaction comprising the steps of
- providing a patron with a gaming account and an ID carrier having an ID code that uniquely identifies the patron's gaming account,
- storing a predetermined denomination amount for association with the ID code prior to conducting a cashless gaming transaction,
- providing a gaming machine with an ID carrier reader,
- reading the ID code from an ID carrier,
- transmitting the ID code to a remote network connected gaming account server and verifying that the gaming account balance associated with the ID code has at least the predetermined denomination amount,
- providing the patron access to the predetermined denomination amount of credit for gaming, and
- displaying the predetermined denomination amount to the patron on the gaming machine as credit authorized for game play.
2. The method of conducting a cashless gaming transaction according to claim 1 including the step of storing in and reading back from the ID carrier the predetermined denomination amount associated with the ID code.
3. The method of conducting a cashless gaming transaction according to claim 1 including the step of storing in and reading back from the gaming account the predetermined denomination amount associated with the ID code.
4. The method of conducting a cashless gaming transaction according to claim 1 including the step of reading the ID carrier with a non-contact reader having neither buttons nor display for patron interface during the cashless gaming transaction.
5. The method of conducting a cashless gaming transaction according to claim 1 including the steps of
- debiting or crediting both the displayed credit authorized for game play and the patron's gaming account balance according to the results of a played game and the wagered amount, and,
- inhibiting game play when the displayed credit authorized for game play is less than one of the selected wager amount and the minimum wager amount regardless of the balance in the patron's gaming account.
6. A method of conducting a cashless gaming transaction comprising the steps of
- providing a patron with a gaming account and an ID carrier having, an ID code that uniquely identifies the patron's gaming account,
- storing a predetermined denomination amount for association with the ID code prior to conducting a cashless gaming transaction,
- providing a gaming machine with an ID carrier reader,
- reading the ID code from an ID carrier,
- transmitting the ID code to a remote network connected gaming account server and verifying that the gaming account balance associated with the ID code has at least the predetermined denomination amount,
- providing the patron access to the predetermined denomination amount of credit for gaming,
- displaying the predetermined denomination amount to the patron on the gaming machine, and
- maintaining a link between the gaming machine and the gaming account without the continued presence of the ID carrier within reading range of the ID carrier reader until the displayed credit available for game play is at least one of reset to zero by the patron and played down to zero.
7. The method of conducting a cashless gaming transaction according to claim 6 including the steps of
- awarding player tracking points during play of the gaming machine while a link remains between the gaming machine and the gaming account, and
- transmitting awarded player tracking points from the gaming machine to the remote network connected gaming account server for accumulation and storage in the gaming account.
8. The method of conducting a cashless gaming transaction according to claim 7 including the step of changing an illuminated portion of the ID carrier reader from a first color to a second color to indicate that an exclusive link is established.
9. A method of creating and using a cashless gaming account comprising the steps of
- providing a first gaming machine with a currency validator,
- validating a patron's currency to provide a credit balance on the first gaming machine,
- generating a cash-out request on the first gaming machine,
- reading a predetermined ID code from an ID carrier and dispensing the ID carrier to the patron from the first gaming machine,
- transmitting the predetermined ID code to a remote network connected gaming account server,
- automatically creating an anonymous gaming account on the gaming account server associated with the predetermined ID code,
- transferring the remaining credit balance from the first gaming machine to the anonymous gaming account,
- providing each of a plurality of other gaming machines with an ID carrier reader,
- reading the predetermined ID code from the patron's ID carrier at a second gaming machine,
- enabling game play on the second gaming machine upon verification of sufficient credit balance in the anonymous gaming account,
- reading the predetermined ID code from the patron's ID carrier at a third gaming machine, and
- enabling game play on the third gaming machine upon verification of sufficient credit balance in the anonymous gaming account.
10. The method of creating a cashless gaming account according to claim 9 including the step of automatically associating a predetermined denomination amount with the ID code upon creation of the anonymous gaming account wherein the predetermined denomination amount is displayed to the patron upon reading the ID code from the patron's ID carrier on any of the plurality of other gaming machines so long as the anonymous gaming account credit balance is at least one of greater than and equal to the predetermined denomination amount.
11. The method of creating a cashless gaming account according to claim 10 wherein the predetermined denomination is an integer number of one of dollars and euros and wherein the integer is one of one, five, ten, twenty, twenty five, fifty, one hundred and five hundred.
12. The method of creating a cashless gaming account according to claim 11 wherein the predetermined denomination is an integer multiple, greater than zero, of the base wagering denomination of the gaming machine dispensing the ID carrier.
13. A cashless gaming system comprising
- means for reading an ID code from a patron's ID carrier at one of a gaming machine and a gaming table,
- means for associating the ID code with a predetermined denomination amount,
- means for associating the ID code with a gaming account located on a remote network connected account server,
- means for displaying the predetermined denomination amount to the patron at one of the gaming machine and gaming table following a first reading of the ID code when the gaming account balance is at least as large as the predetermined denomination amount, and
- means for adding the predetermined denomination amount to a prior amount shown by the display means following a subsequent reading of the ID code.
14. The cashless gaming system according to claim 13 further including means to track game play associated with the displayed amount and award points to a player tracking account associated with the ID code.
15. A cashless gaming system for table games comprising
- means for reading a first ID code from a patron's ID carrier at each seating position of a gaming table,
- means for associating the first ID code with a predetermined denomination amount,
- means for associating the first ID code with a gaming account located on a remote network connected account server,
- means for reading a second ID code from a supervisor's ID carrier at the gaming table to provide transaction authorization, and
- means for visually indicating on the reading means for the supervisor's ID carrier that authorization is required to complete a patron's buy-in or cash-out transaction when it exceeds a predetermined threshold.
16. A cashless gaming system comprising
- means for reading an ID code from a patron's ID carrier at one of a gaming machine and a gaming table,
- means for associating the patron's ID code with a gaming account located on a remote network connected account server,
- means for reading an ID code from a beverage server's ID carrier at the same one of a gaming machine and a gaming table,
- means for associating the beverage server's ID code with a gratuity account located on a remote network connected account server,
- means for associating the beverage server's ID code with a gratuity amount,
- means for approving a pending gratuity transaction by at least reading the ID code from patron's same ID carrier,
- means for debiting one of the patron's gaming account and the patron's gaming machine credit balance with the gratuity amount, and
- means for crediting the gratuity account with the gratuity amount.
17. The cashless gaming system according to claim 16 further including
- means for associating the beverage server's ID code with a predetermined denomination amount, and
- means for incrementing the gratuity amount by the predetermined denomination amount when the beverage server's ID code is read.
18. The cashless gaming system according to claim 16 further including means for displaying to the patron a selection of gratuity amounts in response to reading the beverage server's ID code.
19. A method of conducting a cashless gaming transaction comprising the steps of
- reading an ID code from a patron's ID carrier at one of a gaming machine and a gaming table,
- associating the patron's ID code with a gaming account located on a remote network connected account server,
- reading an ID code from a beverage server's ID carrier at the same one of a gaming machine and a gaming table,
- associating the beverage server's ID code with a gratuity account located on a remote network connected account server,
- associating the beverage server's ID code with a gratuity amount,
- approving a pending gratuity transaction by at least reading the ID code from patron's same ID carrier,
- debiting one of the patron's gaming account and the patron's gaming machine credit balance with the gratuity amount, and
- crediting the gratuity account with the gratuity amount.
20. The method of conducting a cashless gaming transaction according to claim 19 including the steps of
- associating the beverage server's ID code with a predetermined denomination amount, and
- incrementing the gratuity amount by the predetermined denomination amount when the beverage server's ID code is read.
21. The method of conducting a cashless gaming transaction according to claim 19 including the step of displaying to the patron a selection of gratuity amounts in response to reading the beverage server's ID code.
Type: Application
Filed: Apr 14, 2006
Publication Date: Mar 15, 2007
Applicant:
Inventors: Scott Juds (Seattle, WA), James Halsey (El Dorado, AR)
Application Number: 11/404,016
International Classification: A63F 9/24 (20060101);