Patent Grant
8616983
This application claims priority to an Australian patent application filed on May 5, 2006, as serial number AU2006902359, entitled “A Gaming Machine, a Controller for a Gaming Machine, a Gaming System, and a Gaming Method,” which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.
The present invention relates generally to the field of gaming machines.
Many of today's gaming (slot) machines are fitted with ticket dispensing facilities. When a person using such a gaming machine wishes to cash-in game credits on a machine the person can press the “collect” button on the machine, which in turn causes the machine to issue the person with a ticket. The ticket has printed material (such as, for example, a bar code). Once a person has been issued with a ticket, they can present it to a cashier, who will in turn process the ticket and give the person the appropriate monies. The monies paid to the person are equivalent to the monetary value of the game credits accrued on the gaming machine when the collect button was pressed.
Unfortunately, many currently installed gaming machines are only capable of dispensing tickets. Consequently, a person wishing to change from one machine to another has to go through the aforementioned process of obtaining a ticket redeeming the ticket for money and then subsequently inserting that money into another machine to obtain game credits. The task of moving monies between gaming machines can be time consuming and annoying to persons that switch between different gaming on a relatively frequent basis.
Throughout this specification the following terms are to be interpreted as having the following meanings:
According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a controller for a gaming machine, the controller adapted to receive data from a bill acceptor that may represent bill data or ticket data, the controller arranged to process the data and to:
In an embodiment there is provided a controller further adapted to receive remainder data from the ticket processing mechanism and control a printer to print a ticket having a value specified by the remainder data.
According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided a gaming machine comprising:
In an embodiment there is provided a gaming machine further comprising a ticket printer, and wherein the controller is adapted to receive remainder data from the ticket processing mechanism and control the printer to print a ticket having a valued specified by the remainder data.
According to a third aspect of the present invention there is provided a gaming system comprising:
In an embodiment the ticket processing mechanism is configured to process the ticket data and determine whether the ticket data is valid ticket data.
In an embodiment there is provided a gaming system wherein the ticket processing mechanism is arranged to process valid ticket data to form credit data and output the credit data to the game controller.
In an embodiment the gaming system further comprises a ticket printer, and the controller is adapted to receive remainder data from the ticket processing mechanism and control the printer to print a ticket having a valued specified by the remainder data.
In an embodiment the ticket processing mechanism is arranged to process the valid ticket data based on a minimum denomination of the game controller to produce credit data and remainder data having a combined value corresponding to the value of the valid ticket data.
In an embodiment the ticket processing mechanism comprises a server for validating the ticket data and a client for processing the ticket data.
In a fourth aspect of the invention there is provided a method of processing data comprising:
In an embodiment the method comprises processing said ticket data to determine whether it is valid.
In an embodiment the method comprises processing valid ticket data to form credit data and outputting said credit data to the game controller.
In an embodiment the method comprises processing the valid ticket data to produce credit data and remainder data based on a minimum denomination of the game controller, the credit data and remainder data having the same combined value as the ticket data.
In an embodiment the method comprises printing a ticket having a value specified by said remainder data.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention there is provided a system for use with a gaming machine, the system comprising an electronic processing part that is arranged to perform the steps of:
Preferably, the electronic processing part is further arranged to cause the printer to print another ticket, that is associated with a first monetary value, that is less than a second monetary value associated with the ticket.
According to a sixth aspect of the present invention there is provided a method for use with a gaming machine, the method comprising the steps of:
Preferably, the method further comprises the step of issuing a printer with a print ticket message to cause the printer to print another ticket that is associated with a first monetary value that is less than a second monetary value associated with the ticket.
An advantage of embodiments of the invention is that they enable a gaming machine to process the ticket and apply the appropriate game credits even though the gaming controller is not able to process tickets. Thus, a person playing the gaming machine need not go through the time consuming and potentially annoying process of obtaining a ticket from the machine and then going to the cashier with the ticket to obtain their monies.
An advantage of those embodiments where a ticket is printed is that they facilitate the scenario where the gaming machine accepts, for example, $1.00 denominations only but a person inserts a ticket with the value of, for example, $1.67. Being able to print a ticket allows $1.00 to be credited on the gaming machine and print a ticket with a value of $.0.67. The $0.67 ticket could, for example, be inserted into a $0.01 machine or presented to the cashier to collect $0.67. Thus, by utilising embodiments of the invention vendors can retrofit gaming machines to support insertion of tickets at a fraction of the cost of replacing the gaming machine.
Notwithstanding any other embodiments that may fall within the scope of the present invention, certain embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying figures, in which:
Referring to
The electronic gaming machine 102 comprises several components including: a gaming board 106; a backplane 108 (that is, a data bus); a bill acceptor 110; a thermal printer 112; a button panel 114; a video monitor 116; and an electronic controller 118. The gaming board 106 is electrically coupled to the backplane 108. The bill acceptor 110 and the thermal printer 112 are electrically coupled to the electronic controller. Thus, the gaming board 106 is in data communication with the bill acceptor 110 and the thermal printer 112 via the backplane 108 and controller 118. A thermal printer is preferred because tickets they print work well with bill acceptors. However, persons skilled in the art will appreciate that other types of printers may be used or indeed that a thermal printer may be provided in addition to an existing printer. The button panel 114 and the video monitor 116 are also coupled (electrically) to the backplane 108. The electronic controller 118 is electrically connected to the bill acceptor 110 and the thermal printer 112 via any appropriate links such as serial RS232 links 120 and 122. The electronic controller 118 is also electrically connected to the backplane 108 and further connected to the retrofit system 104 via a serial RS232 link 124. It is noted that the backplane 108 is electrically connected to the retrofit system 104 via an appropriate data communication link 126, for example one that supports the x-series protocol, which is a protocol used in New South Wales, Australia.
The gaming board 106 is essentially a computer motherboard and is installed with a memory device (such as an EPROM) that contains one or more game programmes such as Queen of the Nile from Aristocrat Technologies Australia Pty Ltd. Persons skilled in the art will readily appreciate that the gaming board 106 executes the one or more game programmes stored in the memory device and thus provides an electronic game controller. The button panel 114 and the video monitor 116 enable persons to interact with the games. More specifically, the button panel 114 allows persons to operate the games, while the video monitor presents the game to the persons.
As mentioned previously, the system 100 includes a retrofit system 104 in the form of a modified system 6000 product from Aristocrat Technologies Australia Pty Ltd. The retrofit system of the preferred embodiment provides a ticket processing mechanism that allows an inserted ticket to be processed in a manner such that this is not apparent to the gaming board 106. The retrofit system 104 essentially comprises a personal computer 128 and a database 130 that provides a head system 136, and an electronic control unit 132. Although shown as separate to the gaming machine in
The system 100 is distinguishable over similar existing systems in that it includes the controller 118 in the gaming machine 102, which is not present in existing gaming machines. Furthermore, the control unit 132 of the retrofit system 104 provides additional functionality not provided in similar existing retrofit systems. With regard to the controller 118, which is in the form of a microprocessor (or microcontroller) based electronic board, it is arranged to monitor data messages generated by the bill acceptor 110. In particular, when a person inserts a bill (such as $5.00 or $10.00 note) or a ticket into the bill acceptor 110 the bill acceptor 110 will generate data that is received by the controller 118 via the data link 120. As shown in
If on processing the data generated by the bill acceptor 110 the processor 119a of controller 118 determines that a bill has been inserted into the bill acceptor 110, processor 119a of the controller 118 places a bill insertion message onto the backplane 108. That is, the controller outputs (or issues) a bill insertion message including the bill data to the gaming board via the backplane. On detecting the presence of the bill insertion message, the gaming board 106 will give the player the amount of game credits equivalent to the bill inserted into the bill acceptor 110. On the other hand if on processing the data from the bill acceptor 110 the processor 119a of controller 118 determines that a ticket has been inserted into the bill acceptor 110, the controller 118 will issue the control unit 132 with a ticket insertion message 124a via the link 124. That is, the controller outputs (or issues) a ticket insertion message including the ticket data to the control unit 132 of the ticket processing mechanism.
On receiving the ticket insertion message the control unit 132 communicates with the personal computer 128 which acts as a server (just as the control unit 132 acts as a client) (via link 134) to seek confirmation that the ticket inserted into the bill acceptor 110 is valid. In this regard, the ticket has a barcode printed thereon and the information encoded in the barcode is contained in the ticket insertion message. The information related to the barcode that is in the ticket insertion message is provided to the personal computer 128 by a ticket insertion message processor 133a of the control unit 132 so that the ticket can be verified when the personal computer 128 is ‘asked’ 134a by the control unit 132 to verify the ticket, it checks the database 130 for the existence of a record that corresponds to the information in the ticket insertion message. The ticket insertion message processor also stores the ticket insertion message in memory 133b. The memory may be persistent so that in the event of a power failure it is possible to determine the state immediately before power loss occurred and take the necessary actions to cleanup or complete the transaction.
Subsequent to checking the database 130 the personal computer 128 will inform the control unit 132, by way of sending an electronic message, of the existence of a corresponding record. If the electronic message 134b received from the personal computer 128 indicates that no corresponding record exists, an invalid ticket handler 133c of the control unit 132 will assume that the ticket is invalid and instruct (by sending an electronic message 124b via link 124) the controller 118 accordingly, the control unit will also clear the message from memory 133b. An invalid ticket handler 119b of the controller 118 will in turn instruct the bill acceptor 110 to reject the ticket. On the other hand, if the personal computer 128 determines that a corresponding record exists in the database 130 it will advise the control unit 132 accordingly (by sending an electronic message 134c via link 134), which in effect is an indication that the ticket is valid and which also contains the value of the ticket. In response, a credit processor places a game credit message 126a containing credit data onto the backplane 108 via link 126 that defines the correct amount of credit. On detecting the game credit message, the gaming board 106 will provide the appropriate number of game credits in the same way as if a bill had been inserted into the bill acceptor 110.
In addition to placing the game credit message onto the backplane 108, the credit processor 133d of control unit 132 may issue a print ticket message 124c containing remainder data to the controller 118 via the link 124. The remainder data specifies the difference in value between the credit data and the original ticket data. On receiving the print ticket message 124c, the controller 118 will instruct the printer 112 to print a ticket sending the print ticket message on to the printer 112 via the link 122. If the credit processor control unit 132 issues the print ticket message 124c, it will also inform the personal computer 128 that the message 124c has been issued. The personal computer 128 will inturn make a record of the ticket in the database 130 so that if that particular ticket is inserted into the bill acceptor 110 at a later date (or any other ticket reading device, such as one that might be used by a cashier) the ticket can be verified as previously described.
The advantage of allowing the control unit 132 to be able to effect the printing of a ticket is that, for example, if the ticket has a value of $1.67 and the gaming machine only accepts $1.00 denominations, the game credit message issued by the control unit can be for the value of $1.00, while the remaining $0.67 can be issued on a ticket. The $0.67 ticket could subsequently be inserted into a $0.01 gaming machine to obtain 67 game credits or redeemed for money at a cashier. Accordingly, the credit processor 133d is configured to split the value of the ticket based on the minimum acceptable denomination of gaming machine 102.
A person skilled in the art will appreciate from the above description that the gaming board 106 which provides an electronic gaming controller for control of a play of games will not be aware of the existence of the electronic controller 118.
A person skilled in the art will also appreciate that while the functions 119a, 119b, 119c performed by the electronic controller 118 and the functions performed by the control unity 132, 133a, 133c, 133d are shown as separate functional components, these may in fact be separate sub-routines of program code executed by the controller 118 and the control unit 132. Further persons skilled in the art will appreciate that the functions of the electronic controller 118 and the electronic control unit 132 could be merged into a single device.
The main aforementioned steps performed by the controller 118 and the control unit 132 are illustrated in the flow chart 200 in
While the present invention has been described with reference to the aforementioned embodiment, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that alterations, changes and improvements may be made and equivalents may be substituted for the elements thereof and steps thereof without departing from the scope of the present invention. In addition, many modifications may be made to adapt to a particular situation or material to the teachings of the present invention without departing from the central scope thereof. Such alterations, changes, modifications and improvements, though not expressly described above, are nevertheless intended and implied to be within the scope and spirit of the invention. Therefore, it is intended that the invention not be limited to the particular embodiments disclosed as the embodiment for carrying out this invention, but that the invention will include all embodiments falling within the scope of the independent claims.
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