This invention relates to electronic bingo gaming systems. In particular, the invention is directed to apparatus and methods for using player inputs in the course of a bingo game to help determine a winning player in the bingo game and award that player an appropriate prize.
Electronic bingo gaming systems have been increasing in popularity as players have turned to a faster paced alternative than traditional bingo games. Electronic bingo gaming systems allow players at different gaming facilities, which may be spaced apart over a large geographic area, to participate in bingo games through electronic player stations that are maintained at the various gaming facilities. An electronic bingo gaming system generally includes a game processing device that compares a ball draw or other sequence of randomly generated numbers to a set of data representations of bingo cards for a given bingo game and identifies winning patterns that are achieved for the various card representations. The results identified by the bingo game processing device may then be communicated back to the various player stations to be displayed to the various players in the bingo game. This process of identifying winning patterns and returning results to the player stations may be performed very quickly with modern computing devices and network communications arrangements. The speed with which results may be returned to the players and other aspects of the systems also give electronic bingo gaming systems a great deal of flexibility in presenting the results to the players. It may be difficult, however, to provide the speed of play and the result presentation flexibility of electronic bingo gaming systems, while retaining the aspects of player interaction found in traditional bingo games.
The present invention includes apparatus and methods for ensuring a particular game play sequence in an electronic bingo gaming system. A method according to the invention includes splitting a ball draw for a bingo game into a first portion and a final portion to ensure that a first potential game ending winning player is not identified after considering only the first portion. A first portion of the ball draw is then presented to a first potential game ending winning player. The final portion of the ball draw is then presented to the first potential game ending winning player in the event that the first potential game ending winning player enters a daub input according to a daub input rule. A prize is then awarded to the first potential game ending winning player in the event that the first potential game ending winning player enters a prize claiming input according to a prize claiming input rule.
Another method within the scope of the present invention includes splitting a ball draw for a bingo game into a first portion and a final portion and identifying a series of one or more potential game ending winning players. This method further includes presenting the first portion of the ball draw, the final portion of the ball draw, and a prize to the first of the one or more potential game ending winning players to enter two or more separate player inputs according to player input rules of the bingo game.
An apparatus according to the present invention includes a number of player stations through which a respective player may participate in a bingo game. Each player station includes a display and one or more player input devices. The apparatus also includes a game server for splitting a ball draw for the bingo game into a first portion and a final portion. The game server also functions to identify a series of one or more potential game ending winning players and to direct a respective player station to present the first portion of the ball draw, the final portion of the ball draw, and a prize indicator. The respective player station comprises the player station for the first of the one or more potential game ending winning players to enter two or more player inputs according to input rules for the bingo game.
These and other advantages and features of the invention will be apparent from the following description of preferred embodiments, considered along with the accompanying drawings.
The present invention may be used for the sequence of play in many different types of bingo gaming systems. The following description of the present invention will be made in reference to a particular bingo gaming system disclosed fully in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0152499 A1 entitled “Method, System, and Program Product for Conducting Multiple Concurrent Bingo-Type Games,” the entire content of which is incorporated herein by this reference. However, it should be noted that the invention is not limited to any particular bingo gaming system. Rather, the invention may be used in connection with any bingo gaming system.
The invention includes an arrangement for grouping players and/or game play requests for the play of a single bingo game to facilitate rapid play. This grouping includes limiting the number of players and/or game play requests included in a bingo game to reduce the time required to play the game. System 100 reduces the time between a game play request at one of the EPSs 103 and the return of results to the respective EPS sufficiently to allow a great deal of flexibility in how results in the bingo game are displayed to the player. In particular, the bingo game results may be displayed in some manner unrelated to bingo. For example, the bingo game results may be mapped to a display traditionally associated with a reel-type game (slot machine), to a display relating to a card game, or to a display showing a race such as a horse or dog race, for example. Preferred techniques for mapping bingo game results to displays associated with games or contests unrelated to bingo are described in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2002/0132661 A1 entitled “Method, Apparatus, and Program Product for Presenting Results in a Bingo-Type Game.” The entire content of this prior application is incorporated herein by this reference.
System 100 rapidly groups players and/or game play requests and starts one game after another so that multiple games may be in play at any given time. The number of players or game play requests grouped for the play of bingo games according to the present invention may be limited to reduce the time required for grouping. For example, each bingo game offered through gaming system 100 shown in
Regardless of the rapid play facilitated by system 100 and regardless of the manner in which the bingo game results are displayed, the underlying game remains a standard bingo game played in the traditional sequence of play for bingo games. That is, each player obtains or is assigned a bingo card or bingo card representation, a random or pseudo random sequence of designations is generated, then all bingo cards in play in the game are daubed or checked for matches with the sequence of designations, and the first card in the game to match the sequence of designations to produce the game ending winning pattern wins the bingo game.
Additional prizes may be awarded for other patterns that may be produced in the course of the bingo game. The mapping of different prizes to various bingo patterns that may be produced in the course of a bingo game in system 100 may be accomplished as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,569,017 B2, entitled “Method for Assigning Prizes in Bingo-Type Games” or U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0048647 A1, entitled “Prize Assignment Method and Program Product for Bingo-Type Games.” The entire content of each of these documents is incorporated herein by this reference.
CGS 101 may comprise a computer system such as the basic system shown in
As used in this disclosure any sequence of designations that may be matched against bingo cards or card representations in the present gaming system will be referred to as a “ball draw” or simply a “draw” regardless of how the sequence is actually generated. Under this definition, it will be appreciated that a draw/ball draw may be produced by a random number generator, a pseudo random number generator, or any other suitable device or system, and not necessarily a physical ball draw device.
Each LAS 102 included in system 100 as shown in
It will be appreciated that the particular configuration of devices shown in
Details regarding the particular functions performed by CGS 101, LASs 102, and EPSs 103 according to one preferred system in which the present invention may be employed are described in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0152499 A1, which has previously been incorporated by reference. These details regarding the particular functions of CGS 101, LASs 102, and EPSs 103 will not be repeated here so as not to obscure the present invention in unnecessary detail. For purposes of the present invention and disclosure, it should be noted that one or more components of the system is responsible for grouping game play requests from a number of players and conducting a bingo game between the group of players. Other components of the system allow players to enter game play requests and take other actions as described below and view the results of the game play requests.
In the following description of
Bingo games in the preferred system 100 are each played with predefined electronic bingo card representations (“card representations”) each representing a number of bingo designations such as Arabic numerals randomly arranged in a desired manner, commonly in a grid. The bingo designations in the card representations are selected from a pool of available designations. In the play of a bingo game according to the invention the individual card representations in a game are matched by designations in a ball draw in order to identify a game ending winning player and the bingo game results for other players. The game ending winning player owns or is associated with a respective card representation that matches the ball draw in a predefined game ending winning pattern. The results identified for other players may be associated with some prize or may be a losing result not associated with any prize.
Once a group is defined for a bingo game, the component, or components, serving as the game server obtains a ball draw and compares the ball draw to the card representations in the defined group in order to split the ball draw into a first portion and a final portion. This initial comparison step is shown that process block 402. The split is preferably made at about one-half of the designations required for the first player in the group to achieve the game ending winning pattern, that is, for the card representation entered by the player to achieve the game ending winning pattern. As indicated at process block 403, the game server also identifies the first game ending winner and communicates the first portion of the draw to all EPSs 103 for the group that was collected for the game. The respective EPSs 103 also display the first portion of the draw. It will be appreciated that although the step of identifying the first potential game ending winner and communicating the first portion of the ball draw to the EPSs 103 is shown in a single process block, these processes may be separated within the scope of the present invention.
The first potential game ending winner, that is, the player owning the card representation that has first achieved the game ending winning pattern, must at this point make a player input at their respective EPS 103. As shown at process block 404, the potential game ending winner receives a daub prompt to make a daub input at their EPS 103, preferably by pressing a “DAUB” button or touch screen icon. If the player makes the daub input, the process branches from decision block 405 and the system sends the final portion of the ball draw to the potential game ending winner's EPS 103 and the EPS displays the final portion of the ball draw as indicated at process block 406. The potential game ending winner then receives a prize claiming prompt to make another input at the EPS 103 to claim the game ending win as indicated at process block 407. The required input may be actuating a “CLAIM” button, touch screen icon, or some other player control. If the player takes the required prize claiming input, the process branches from decision block 408 and the potential game ending winner is awarded the prize associated with the game ending winning pattern as indicated at block 409.
If the potential game ending winner fails to make the daubing input as indicated by the negative result at decision block 405 or fails to make the required prize claiming input as indicated by the negative result at decision block 408, the player is said to have “slept the bingo” and the process proceeds to identify a next potential game ending winner as indicated at process block 410. At this point the process loops back to process block 404 and the next potential game ending winner is given the opportunity to make the required player inputs, that is the daub input and the prize claiming input. It should be noted that in the event the current potential game ending winner given the opportunity to daub and claim the game ending win is the final potential game ending winner for the particular group, the process branches from decision block 411 and the player is given an unlimited amount of time to make the required daub and prize claiming inputs as indicated at process block 412. The final potential game ending winner for a particular group may be defined as the first potential game ending winner or any subsequent potential game ending winner.
It will be appreciated that there are numerous variations in the sequence of play as described in
It will be noted that the preferred daub and claiming inputs at each EPS 103 affects the display at the respective EPS in preferred forms of the invention. Once the daub input is made, any designations matched on the player's respective card are highlighted. The player is required to make the prize claiming input to complete game play, highlight any winning bingo patterns, and receive any prizes won in the bingo game. Any winning bingo patterns are highlighted with red circles around the winning numbers. In a preferred form of the invention, each EPS 103 displays a representation of the player's card in play for the particular game. The respective EPS display also shows a game number or identifier associated with the particular game, and the designations included in the ball draw.
In preferred forms of the invention, although the game ending winning result or prize must be awarded for any game, other winning results are awarded only if they are attained within the first pre-specified number of designations in the ball draw, for example 30 designations. In a preferred form of the invention, when the player takes the initial action to make the game play request for their respective bingo card representation, the card is displayed at the EPS 103 with gray designations on a black background. When the designations on the card representation form a winning pattern in the course of the game, the designations change from gray on black to white numbers within a red circle. Designations released within the first set number of designations in the draw (30 for example) that do not form any winning pattern are displayed as black numbers within gray circles. Numbers that are revealed after the first set number of designations from the draw (for example 30) are displayed as white numbers on a black background.
The above described preferred embodiments are intended to illustrate the principles of the invention, but not to limit the scope of the invention. Various other embodiments and modifications to these preferred embodiments may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the present invention. For example, although a particular hardware arrangement is shown for purposes of describing the invention, it will be appreciated that numerous hardware arrangements are possible for implementing the present invention. Also, although the operational software-controlled process steps are described as occurring at certain processing elements in the system, the processing steps may be distributed in any suitable fashion over various data processing elements.
The Applicants claim the benefit, under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e), of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/517,707, filed Nov. 6, 2003 and entitled “Game Play Sequence For Bingo Gaming Systems.” The entire content of this provisional application is incorporated herein by this reference.
Number | Date | Country | |
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60517707 | Nov 2003 | US |