Around the world slot machine game

Abstract

A slot machine stores a multiplicity of signal representations of images having either a destination motif or a travel motif and one image associated with a cash payout. When an outcome of play of the machine is an image that is identical at each of a group of viewing locations of a screen of the machine and the image has either the destination or the travel motif, a player wins a trip in accordance with the motif.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0001] 1. Field of Invention

[0002] This invention is in the general field of casino gaming and, more particularly, in the field of slot machine gaming.

[0003] 2. Description of the Prior Art

[0004] A large portion of a casino's revenue is derived from slot machine play. A fruit machine, one of the best known and most frequently encountered types of slot machine, is comprised of a plurality of similar reels, side by side, that are independently rotatable about a single horizontal axis.

[0005] Each of the reels carries a plurality of different images on its rim. A typical image is of a bunch of cherries. Because the reels are side by side, the images appear to be along horizontal lines. Usually, the machine provides a limited view of the rims whereby one or more lines are viewable. What is referred to as a single line machine, for example, provides a view of a single line of images. When the single line machine has five reels, the view is of five images on the single line (one image per reel) and the single line machine is referred to as a single line, five reel machine.

[0006] Play is initiated by the player inserting a coin into the machine and depressing a lever. After play is initiated, the reels rotate for a few seconds. When the reels stop rotating, a random selection of the images appear on the viewable lines. When every image on one of the viewable lines is of the bunch of cherries, for example, the player wins. The winning player is rewarded by a cash prize that is either paid by an employee of the casino or dispensed by the machine.

[0007] In a modem fruit machine, the reels with the images have been replaced by signal representations of the images and the lever is often replaced by a pushbutton. However, lines and reels are still used to describe a view of images provided by the modern machine. Additionally, the cash prize or a credit equivalent has remained in place as the reward for the winning player. Heretofore, other rewards which the player may find more attractive than cash have not been offered.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0008] According to the present invention, a slot machine stores an image that has either a destination motif or a travel motif. Play of the machine by a player causes a random selection of the images to appear on a viewing area of the machine. When the random selection results in a multiple appearance of the stored image at known locations of the viewing area, the player wins a trip in accordance with the motif of the image.

[0009] Other objects, features and advantages of the invention should be apparent from the following description of embodiments thereof as illustrated in the accompanying drawing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

[0010] FIG. 1 is a plan view of images provided by a one line, five reel machine in accordance with a first embodiment of the present invention;

[0011] FIG. 2 is a plan view of images provided by a one line, five reel machine and hold buttons in accordance with a second embodiment of the present invention;

[0012] FIG. 3 is a plan view of images provided by a three line, three reel machine in accordance with a third embodiment of the invention; and

[0013] FIG. 4 is a plan view of a viewing area of a three line, five reel machine.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

[0014] In all embodiments of the invention disclosed herein, a slot machine stores a multiplicity of signal representations of images having either a destination motif or a travel motif and one image associated with a cash payout.

[0015] As shown in FIG. 1, in a first embodiment of the invention, a one line, five reel machine has a screen 10 with viewing locations 11-15. Exemplary of an outcome of play, a Spain image 21, a Russia image 22, a Japan image 23, an around the world image 24 and a cash image 25 appear at the locations 11-15, respectively.

[0016] The image 21, 22, 23 are caricatures of a bull fighter having a head in the shape of a map of Spain, a man with a head in the shape of a map of Russia and a man with a head in the shape of a map of Japan, respectively. The image 24 is a showing of the earth with a band around its equator. Accordingly, the images 21-23 have a destination motif and the image 24 has a travel motif. The image 25 is a showing of a bag overflowing with money.

[0017] In this embodiment, an outcome of play is identical images at the locations 11-15 for a player to win. When the outcome of play is the image 21 at all of the locations 11-15, the player wins a trip to Spain in accordance with the destination motif of the image 21. In a corresponding manner, the player wins a trip to Russia, a trip to Japan and a trip around the world in accordance with motif's of the images 22-24, respectively. When the outcome of play is the image 25 at all of the locations 11-15, the player wins a predetermined amount of cash. In an alternative embodiment, the player wins a reduced amount of cash when the outcome of play is the image 25 at less than all of the locations 11-15.

[0018] As shown in FIG. 2, in a second embodiment of the invention, a one line, five reel machine has a screen 10, similar to that described in connection with the first embodiment. Additionally, hold buttons 31-35 are adjacent to the viewing locations 11-15, respectively. As explained hereinafter, in this embodiment, the player is permitted to initiate two successive plays. A cumulative result of the two plays is used to determine whether the player wins.

[0019] The outcome of a first play is randomly selected images at the locations 11-15. Exemplary of the outcome of the first play, the image 24 appears at the locations 11, 13, 14 and an Australia image 42 and a France image 45 appear at the locations 12, 15, respectively. The Australia image 42 is a perspective view of a slab with lettering of the word, AUSTRALIA, thereon. The France image 45 is a view of a lettering of the words, VIVE LA FRANCE!, where an exclamation mark is a caricature of a person. Accordingly, the images 42, 45 have a destination motif.

[0020] In this embodiment, the player initiates a second play where images remain unchanged at selected ones of the locations 11-15 and randomly change at all other viewing locations. For the player to win, the outcome of the second play is identical images at the locations 11-15. Since the image 24 appears at the locations 11, 13, 14, the player may desire to have the second play change only images at the locations 12, 15. If the outcome of the second play is a random selection of images with the image 24 appearing at the locations 12, 15, the image 24 appears at all of the locations 11-15 whereby the player wins the trip around the world in accordance with the motif of the image 24.

[0021] The player causes the image at the locations 11, 13, 14 to remain unchanged by the second play by depressing the hold buttons 31, 33, 34. When, for example, the outcome of the first play is identical images appearing at the locations 12, 15, the player could cause them to remain unchanged by depressing the hold buttons 32, 35 prior to the second play.

[0022] It should be understood that when the outcome of the second play is the image 42 at all of the locations 11-15, the player wins a trip to Australia. In a corresponding manner, when the outcome of the second play is the image 45 at all of the locations 11-15, the player wins a trip to France.

[0023] As shown in FIG. 3, in a third embodiment of the invention, a three line, three reel machine has a screen 50 with viewing locations 51-59. Exemplary of an outcome of play, a cruise ship image 61, a sailboat image 62 and a train image 63 appear at the locations 51, 52, 53, respectively; an airplane image 64, the image 63, and a Grecian image 66 appear at the locations 54, 55, 56, respectively; the image 63, a Lincoln Memorial image 68 and a Hollywood image 69 appear at the locations 57, 58, 59, respectively. The images 61-64 have a travel motif and the images 66, 68, 69 have a destination motif.

[0024] The player wins when the outcome of play is at least one of eight winning arrangements of three identical images. Of the eight winning arrangements, three utilize rows of the viewing locations, three utilize columns of the viewing locations and two utilize diagonals of the viewing locations.

[0025] The rows are the locations 51, 52, 53, the locations 54, 55, 56 and the locations 57, 58, 59. The columns are the locations 51, 54, 57, the locations 52, 55, 58 and the locations 53, 56, 59. The diagonals are the locations 51, 55, 59 and the locations 53, 55, 57. Thus, for example, since the image 63 is at the locations 53, 55, 57, the image 63 is in a winning arrangement.

[0026] When the outcome of play is the image 61, 62, 63 or 64 in one of the winning arrangements, the player wins a trip on a cruise ship, a sailboat trip, a train trip or an airplane trip, respectively. When the outcome of play is the image 66, 68 or 69 in one of the winning arrangements, the player wins a trip to Greece, a trip to Washington, D.C. or a trip to Los Angeles, respectively. When the outcome of play is the image 64 at any location but not in one of the winning arrangements, the player wins a credit of airline miles.

[0027] As shown in FIG. 4, a screen 70 is a viewing surface that is included in a slot machine used to either play what is called a five line game or play what is called a nine line game. The screen 70 has viewing locations 71-85.

[0028] In the five line game, the player wins when the outcome of play is at least one of five winning arrangements of five identical images. Three of the winning arrangements for the five line game utilize rows of viewing locations. The rows are the locations 71-75, the locations 76-80 and the locations 81-85. The other two of the winning arrangements for the five line game utilize a combination of locations 71, 77, 83, 79, 75 and a combination of the locations 81, 77, 73, 79, 85.

[0029] Similar to the first, second and third embodiments, identical images of all winning arrangements have either the travel motif or the cash motif. What the player wins is in accordance with the motif. Although the five line game is well known to those skilled in the art, heretofore there has been no suggestion of an outcome of play of the five line game resulting in the player winning a trip.

[0030] In the nine line game, the player wins when an outcome of play is at least one of nine winning arrangements of five identical images. The nine winning arrangements utilize the three rows of locations and the two combination of locations of the five line game. The other four of the winning arrangements for the nine line game utilize a combination of locations 71, 72, 78, 84, 85, a combination of locations 76, 82, 78, 84, 80, a combination of locations 76, 72, 78, 74, 80 and a combination of the locations 81, 82, 78, 74, 75. Similar to all of the games described heretofore, what the player wins is either a trip or cash in accordance with the motif of the identical images of the winning arrangement. Heretofore, there has been no suggestion of an outcome of play of the nine line game resulting in the player winning a trip.

[0031] While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to embodiments thereof, it should be understood by those skilled in the art that changes in form and detail may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Claims

1. In the method of determining what a player wins based upon a result of play of a slot machine, comprising the steps of:

storing a plurality of images in said machine where one of said images has a destination motif;

providing a display of a random selection of said images on a viewing surface of the machine as an outcome play of the machine;

determining whether said outcome of play is an appearance of said destination motif image at a group of specified locations on said viewing surface, said player winning a trip in accordance with said destination motif when said destination motif image appears at said group of specified locations.

2. In the method of claim 1, additionally comprising the steps of:

storing an image of cash;

determining whether said outcome of play is an appearance of said cash image, said player winning a predetermined amount of cash when said cash image appears at said group of specified locations.

3. In the method of claim 2 wherein said player wins a reduced amount of cash when said outcome of play is an appearance of said cash image at other than said group of specified locations.

4. In the method of claim 3, comprising the additional steps of:

storing an image in said machine that has a travel motif;

determining whether said outcome of play is an appearance of said travel motif image, said player winning a trip in accordance with said travel motif when said travel motif image appears at said group of specified locations.

5. In the method of claim 4 wherein the machine is a one line, five reel type and said group of specified locations are all viewing locations on said viewing surface.

6. In the method of claim 5 wherein the player is permitted to make two successive plays and a cumulative result of the two plays is used to determine whether said player wins.

7. In the method of claim 3 wherein said machine is a three line, three reel type and said group of specified locations is one of eight groups that include three rows of viewing locations, three columns of viewing locations and two diagonals of viewing locations.

8. In the method of claim 3 wherein said machine is for playing a five line game.

9. In the method of claim 3 wherein said machine is for playing a nine line game.