Abstract: An embedded additional user interface is equipped with a touch screen and audio device to operate as a user interface (UI) terminal to provide a gaming machine with the capability of executing applications from one or more web servers, and local applications executing in the gaming machine, simultaneously. The UI comprises a touch controlled web-browser rendering information from the local gaming machine, and interconnected web servers, providing the user with game data, local player session data, and back-end casino management data in a single interface.

Abstract: A local game-area network includes a plurality of gaming devices and local game-area servers. Each local game-area server is associated with a corresponding gaming device. Each local game-area server in the local game-area network is operatively associated with every other local game-area server in the local game-area network. Additionally, one of the local game-area servers is a host local game-area server while the remaining gaming devices and associated local game-area servers are clients. Furthermore, the host status of the host local game-area server moves dynamically to an available local game-area server in the local game-area network in response to the host local game-area server becoming non-operational.