SYSTEM FOR MONITORING AND PLAYING A PLURALITY OF LIVE CASINO TABLE GAMES

Abstract

A system for monitoring and playing a plurality of live casino table games, comprising: a plurality of dealer game tables; a plurality of electronic handheld devices remotely located from the game tables configured to display a video of at least one game taking place at the plurality of game tables; a gaming server; and a network operatively coupling the gaming server to the game tables and the electronic handheld devices; wherein each electronic handheld device includes a display part comprising: a player wagering display area having a touch screen input configured to display a plurality of touch screen results bars that allow a player to switch between the plurality of the game table's videos in response to touching the touch screen results bar to provide a selected touch screen results bar; a video display area configured to display a video of at least one game taking place at the plurality of game tables, wherein the video being displayed corresponds to the selected touch screen results bar.

Description

BACKGROUND

The present invention is generally directed to a betting terminal for playing a game such as a baccarat game. The invention betting terminal allows players to play different games without moving from one gaming table to another. Therefore, the invention helps to maximize the time spent by players on gaming tables while they are inside a casino and also maximize the utilization of casino floor space.

Gaming is a major form of modem entertainment. For example, baccarat is one of the more popular gambling games played in casinos or gaming establishments. As is well known, the game is played on an elongated table having a game board displayed along the upper surface of the table. The game board displays certain wagering areas, and the elongated table allows for the seating of multiple players or bettors (1-16) and the positioning of the multiple dealers (3) necessary for operating the casino game. Bettor locations are typically numbered on the table and each bettor location has an area designated for a wager on the bank hand and an area designated for a wager on the player hand. Baccarat uses a standard deck of 52 playing cards and is usually dealt from a shoe having multiple decks that have been shuffled together prior to the beginning of play: A feature of conventional live games is that the betting process is limited to a single game. The simplicity of the betting process has led to a corresponding simplicity in the relatively few types of games which may be placed during in a casino, for example, which may limit interest on the part of the player(s) and thus further limit the casino in terms of profit and payout. The embodiments described below address the above-described issues and needs.

SUMMARY

Provided is a betting terminal for playing a game. The betting terminal comprises a network of terminals linked to different game tables where each of the terminals comprises a mechanism to switch on a plurality of games. A player at one terminal can switch to different tables and place bets at different games at a time. The games can be games of the same kind or games of different kind.

In some embodiments, a betting terminal can serve as a platform for placing bets in games like baccarat, roulette, sicbo (“dice game”) as well as other common casino table games which are operated at tables linked to game and payout servers and betting terminals through an intranet. In some embodiments, the roulette and sicbo table games can be operated automatically or by human dealers, but the betting results shall be recorded automatically or manually and sent to game and payout servers electronically to allow automatic payout process.

The present invention also provides a software program or a set of software programs for carrying out any or all steps of the betting method described herein. The baccarat game can also be incorporated into an electronic device or an entertainment gaming machine. Representative electronic devices include, but are not limited to, laptop computers or desktop computers.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative scheme of the betting terminal described herein.

FIG. 2 shows an illustrative scheme of a betting system of the present invention.

FIG. 3 shows a general layout of a betting terminal for live jackpot baccarat game.

FIGS. 4A, 4B, 4C and 4D show the detailed layout of a betting terminal for a baccarat machine; FIGS. 4E, 4F, 4G and 4H show variants of the layout of the betting terminal shown in FIGS. 4A-4D.

FIGS. 5A, 5B, 5C, 5D and 5E show an embodiments of the overall design of the betting terminal.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Provided is a betting terminal for playing a game. The betting terminal comprises a network of terminals linked to different game tables where each of the terminals comprises a mechanism to switch on a plurality of games. A player at one terminal can switch to different tables and place bets at different games at a time. The games can be games of the same kind or games of different kind.

The betting terminal can be linked to different types of games. An illustrative general scheme of the betting terminal 100 is described in FIG. 1, which includes a switching mechanism 200 allowing a player to select a game to play. The switching mechanism 200 (not shown) can further include a game indicator 210 showing the type of game selected. The switching mechanism can be located in anywhere of the betting terminal. In some embodiments, the betting terminal is linked to a plurality of game tables. An illustrative general layout of a gaming system via a betting terminal of the present invention is provided by FIG. 2. In FIG. 2, a plurality of betting terminals (100) (three betting terminal are listed as examples) are linked via a network (220) to a plurality of game tables (300). The game tables can be conventional baccarat game tables, jackpot baccarat game tables as described in the U.S. application Ser. No. 11/042,732, filed on Jan. 24,2005, Ser. No. 11/198,218, filed on Aug. 5, 2005 and Ser. No. 11/312,150, filed on Dec. 19, 2005, and Macau Patent Application Nos. 1/150, filed on Feb. 4, 2005 and 1/265, filed on Jan. 24, 2006, the teachings of which are incorporated herein by reference. In some embodiments, the game tables can be any game tables played in a casino or internet.

In one embodiment, the betting terminal described herein is one for baccarat. For example, a baccarat gaming system that allows one to play a live baccarat jackpot as described in the U.S. application Ser. No. 11/042,732, filed on Jan. 24, 2005, Ser. No. 11/198,218, filed on Aug. 5, 2005 and Ser. No. 11/312,150, filed on Dec. 19, 2005, and Macau Patent Application Nos. 1/150, filed on Feb. 4, 2005 and 1/265, filed on Jan. 24, 2006, the teachings of which are incorporated herein by reference.

A general layout of a betting terminal for a live jackpot baccarat game is shown in FIG. 3, FIGS. 4A and 4B. FIG. 3 shows the overall layout of the betting terminal (301), which has two screens, the upper screen (400) and the lower screen (500), shown in detail in FIGS. 4A and 4B, and a switching mechanism 200, which is not shown. Referring to FIG. 4A, upper screen 400 includes an display part (410) for displaying the rolling amount of jackpot, the center part (420) for displaying a live video of the gambling table, and a messenger screen (430) for displaying messages or game cards. The center part of the upper screen has a left section designated as Player (440), which has a small screen (450), and right section 10 designated as Banker (460), which also has a small screen (470). The small screens 450 and 470 are for display of card values of the player hand and the bank hand respectively. The current limits available for betting on Player (player hand) and Banker (bank hand) in a live baccarat game are shown in small screens 480 and 490 below small screens 450 and 470, respectively. Referring to FIG. 4B, the lower screen 500 is an operating touch screen for betting, which includes bet-option buttons (510), bet-amount buttons (520), and credit window (530). The bet-option buttons 510 include the various betting selections described above, e.g., betting for player hand (511) win with a payoff rate of 1:1, for the bank hand (512) win with a payoff rate of 1:0.95, for tie (513) with a payoff rate of 20 1:8, for Player Pairs (514) with a payoff rate of 1:11, for banker pairs (515) with a payoff rate of 1:11,and for Jackpot bet (516), the rules of which are described above. Box 517 shows the pops up when bets are placed on a particular bet option. The number inside Box 517 corresponds to the amount placed on a particular bet option. The bet-amount buttons 520 as shown in the layout, 100,500, 1000,5000, 10000, provide the players the convenience of adding up betting amounts in a fast manner.

To illustrate, for a bet of 10,000 USD or HKD, the player can simply press the “1000” button ten times to reach the desired betting amount. Note, the bet-amount buttons 520 shown are illustrative and non-exclusive. Buttons designated for other amounts, e.g., “1”, “5”, “10”, “100”, “100,000”, “1,000,000” can be readily added to the screen. The credit window 530 shows the remaining balance of a player's credit. The player may insert bills or chips into or transfer money from a credit card account and/or a bank account to the machine to add up the credit amount from time to time. If the player desires to stop playing the baccarat game and to cash out, he may ask the operator to authorize a cash-out procedure, and then obtain the remaining balance. Still referring to FIG. 4B, the lower screen 500 further includes language selection button (540), which can switch the operation language of the baccarat game between, e.g., Chinese, English, Portuguese, Italian, French, Spanish, Russian, German, Arabic, Japanese, and Korean, etc, Rule selection button (550), which prompts the display of rules for live baccarat and Paradise Jackpot™, Cancel button (560), which allows the bettor to cancel all bets made before he presses the confirmation button on the top right hand corner of the lower screen. Operator button (570), which allows the bettor to call for assistance from the casino staff when there is machine failure or the bettor wishes to exit from the game, and Results Bars (580, 590) which display the results for previous games (e.g. live baccarat games). Once results of a game are confirmed, the losing bet shown in the bet option buttons (510) in the center of lower screen will disappear while the winning bet in the bet option buttons (510) in the lower screen will flash and a diagram will pop up with detailed breakdown of the payouts for each of the bet options won.

FIGS. 4C and 4D show two variants of the design of the betting terminal similar to the embodiment as described in FIGS. 4A-4B. Referring to FIG. 4C, upper screen 400 includes a display part (410) for displaying the baccarat game result and rolling amount of jackpot, a display part (420) for displaying a live video of the gambling table, and a messenger screen (430) for displaying game cards. The display 10 part 420 has a left section designated as Player (440), which has a small screen (450), and right section designated as Banker (460), which also has a small screen (470).

The small screens 450 and 470 are for display of card values of the player hand and the bank hand respectively. The current limits available for betting on Player (player hand) and Banker (bank hand) in a live baccarat game are shown in small screens 480 and 490 below small screens 450 and 470, respectively. Still referring to FIG. 4C, the display part 420 can display Player game cards 440A and Banker game cards 460A. The messenger screen 430 shows game cards directly from a shoe in a baccarat game (not shown), 440B and 440C for the Player, and 460B and 460C for the Banker. The game cards 440A and 440B correlate to each other can have the same or different appearance. Similarly, the game cards 460A and 460B correlate to each other can have the same or different appearance. Preferably, game cards 440A, 440B, 440C, 460A, 460B and 460C are shown directly from a shoe in a baccarat game (not shown).

Still referring to FIG. 4C, the display part 410 includes a screen (412) for showing jackpot amount, display 414 showing game number (e.g., game No. 52) and respective amounts available for betting on banker pairs, player pairs or tie, display 416 showing the frequency of bank hand win, player hand win and tie in past games, and display 418 showing the sequence of bank hand win, player hand and tie in past games.

Referring to FIG. 4D, the lower screen 500 is an operating touch screen for betting, which includes bet-option buttons (510), bet-amount buttons (520), and credit window (530). The bet-option buttons 510 include the various betting selections described above, e.g., betting for player hand (511) win with a payoff rate of 1:1, for the bank hand (512) win with a payoff rate of 1:0.95, for tie (513) with a payoff rate of 1:8, for Player Pairs (514) with a payoff rate of 1:11, for banker pairs (515) with a payoff rate of 1:11, and for Jackpot bet (516), the rules of which are described above. Box (511A) and Box (517) show the pops up when bets are placed on a particular bet option. The number inside Box 511A corresponds to the amount placed on a particular bet option on a player hand win. The number inside Box 517 corresponds to the amount placed on a particular bet option on banker hand win. Display screen (518) shows the total accepted amount of bets placed on all bet options. The bet-amount buttons 520 as shown in the layout, 50, 100, 500, 1000, provide the players the convenience of adding up betting amounts in a fast manner. Note, the bet-amount buttons 520 shown are illustrative and non-exclusive. Buttons designated for other amounts, e.g., “1”, “5”, “10”, “100”, “100,000”, “1,000,000” can be readily added to the screen. The credit window 530 shows the remaining balance of a player's credit. The player may insert bills or chips into or transfer money from a credit card account and/or a bank account to the machine to add up the credit amount from time to time. If the player desires to stop playing the baccarat game and to cash out, he may ask the operator to authorize a cash-out procedure, and then obtain the remaining balance. Still referring to FIG. 4D, the lower screen 500 further includes language selection button (540), which currently is in Chinese and can switch the operation language of the betting table between, e.g., Chinese, English, Portuguese, Italian, French, Spanish, Russian, German, Arabic, Japanese, and Korean, etc., Rule selection button (550), which prompts the display of rules for a selected game (e.g., a live baccarat and Paradise Jackpot™), Stand-by button 550A to lock the betting terminal if the better wishes to leave the terminal for a short period of time, Cancel button (560), which allows the bettor to cancel all bets made before he presses the confirmation button on the top right hand corner of the lower screen., Operator button (570), which allows the bettor to call for assistance from the casino staff when there is machine failure or the bettor wishes to exit from the game, and Results Bars (580, 590) which display the results for previous live baccarat games. Once results of a game are confirmed, the losing bet shown in the bet option buttons (510) in the center of lower screen will disappear while the winning bet in the bet option buttons (510) in the lower screen will flash and a diagram will pop up with detailed breakdown of the payouts for each of the bet options won.

FIGS. 4F and 4H are alternative designs of the upper screen 400 as shown in FIG. 4A, which has a similar layout as the one shown in FIG. 4A except that the top left corner of the upper screen displays the words “Paradise Jackpot™” and the bottom rim has a blank bar and numbers 1 through 20 for showing the result of past games on top of the bar. FIGS. 4E and 4G are alternative designs of the lower screen of 500 as shown in FIG. 4B, which as a similar layout as the one shown in FIG. 4B except that the top rim of the lower screen 500 bears letters indicating the left side as the Player side and the right side and the Banker side, a screen at the far up-left corner indicating the maximum bet on the player hand accepted by the dealing table in a game, and a screen at the far up-right corner indicating the maximum bet on the banker hand accepted by the dealing table in a game.

FIG. 5A shows an embodiment of the top layout betting terminal of the present invention. The top layout includes information Lamp 610, which can be color-changeable LED and flashes when a player wins a betting option, an upper screen 620, bottom screen 630, a ticket printer slot 640, a bill slot 650, table 660 for holding beverage drinks or ashtray, and speaker 670. In some embodiments, the ticket printer can print out ticket with bar code. In some embodiments, a player can also insert ticket with bar code to increase the credit amount that a play may have in a betting game. FIGS. 5B and 5D show two side views of the betting terminal, showing a cable path. FIG. 5C shows a front view of the betting terminal, showing the top layout described in FIG. 5A and speaker 670. FIG. 5E shows a back view of the betting terminal of this embodiment, showing Lamp 610, lock mechanism 690 and fan 692. In an embodiment, three betting terminals can be clustered in a unit. In some embodiments, the betting system can automatically generate commonly accepted format of past results of played games on the screen to provide references for players.

The betting terminal described above can be embodied in any form. In some embodiments, the betting terminal can be a device. In some embodiments, the betting terminal can be a virtual terminal. One of ordinary skill in the art can readily construct the betting terminal described herein.

The betting terminal described above can be used in any gaming system. In some embodiments, a betting terminal can serve as a platform for placing bets in games like baccarat, roulette, sicbo (“dice game”) as well as other common casino table games which are operated at tables linked to game and payout servers and betting terminals through an intranet. In some embodiments, the roulette and sicbo table games can be operated automatically or by human dealers, but the betting results shall be sent to game and payout servers electronically to allow automatic payout process.

In some embodiments, the gaming system can further include a device on each dealing table to record the betting results automatically or manually and send the results to server for computation of payouts. In some embodiments, such a device can be, for examples, electronic scanning or reading devices known in the art, card dealing shoe with scanning device to read the cards, electronic detecting device to identify ball location on a roulette and image recognition device for reading results of a dice game.

In some embodiments, the gaming system is a baccarat gaming system. The gaming system can include a dealing table comprising a touch screen. The dealing table allows a dealer to perform a dealing process. The touch screen can prompt the dealer of the dealing process. In some embodiments, the touch screen can provide dealing instructions. The games that can be played via the betting terminal described herein in game tables or terminals located within a single gaming establishment or throughout multiple gaming establishments. The game tables or terminals can be linked together by wire or wireless linking or connecting mechanisms. In some embodiments such linking mechanisms can be electric and/or optical cable. In some embodiments, the linking mechanism can be internet or intranet.

In some embodiments, the present invention also provides a software program or a set of software programs for carrying out any or all steps of the betting method described herein. The baccarat game can also be incorporated into an electronic device or an entertainment gaming machine. Representative electronic devices include, but are not limited to, laptop computers or desktop computers. In some embodiments, such electronic devices can be a cell phone, a blackberry device or a hand held device such as hand held personal computer (PC) or personal data assistants (PDAs). The betting table and system described above can be readily constructed by an artisan of ordinary skill.

A casino system for playing a live casino table game, comprising: a plurality of game tables, each game table allowing a dealer dealing cards according to conventional gaming rules; a plurality of electronic handheld devices remotely located from the game tables, each electronic handheld device is configured to display a video of at least one game taking place at the plurality of game tables; a gaming server; and a network operatively coupling the gaming server to the game tables and the electronic handheld devices; wherein each electronic handheld device includes a display part comprising: a video display area, the video display area configured to display a video of at least one game taking place at the plurality of game tables; and a player wagering display area having a touch screen input configured to display a plurality of touch screen results bars, each said touch screen results bar displaying the results for at least two previously played games at the plurality of game tables, and allow a player at each one of the electronic handheld devices to switch between the plurality of the game table's videos in response to touching said touch screen results bar. In this way, a player can be sitting across the casino and monitoring the live table games. The table games can be any type of table games. Still further, the player can select which table they want to see the video of according to the results bar (e.g. 580, 590). For example, there may be a top results bar 580 that shows the past results of the last thirty to eighty games (this is by way of example only and not to be taken in a limiting sense). The top results bar 580 shows the past results for the table which corresponds to the video being shown on the electronic handheld device. There may be a larger number of past results (i.e. a larger results bar 590) for the table which corresponds to the video currently being shown on the electronic handheld device. The results bars below (590) may be abbreviated results bars which show, for example the last twenty games played at that table. In the example shown in FIG. 4D there are three other games results bars (590). The smaller results bars 590 each correspond to tables for which the video is not currently being shown on the electronic handheld device. The player may touch anyone of the results bars (e.g. the three results bars 580 shown in FIG. 4D) to select the video that corresponds to that table. Upon touching a results bar it becomes a selected results bar and the remaining touch screen results bars become unselected touch screen results bars. When the player selects that results bar (by touching it) it may become the larger results bar (590) showing a greater number of results and the video shows the table selected. If the player has selected a different results bar than the one currently selected (and for which the video is currently being shown) that selected results bar and the corresponding table becomes the video being displayed and the table which was being displayed drops down to the smaller results bars for which video is not currently being displayed and is not currently selected.

According to one embodiment, the live casino table game being played is a baccarat game. Each of the electronic handheld devices may be further configured to provide a screen showing game number (see, for example FIG. 4C, display 416 showing game number) and respective amounts bet on the banker pair, the player pair or the tie, the results bar showing a frequency of bank hand wins, player hand wins and ties in past games, and a sequence of the bank hand wins, the player hand wins and the ties in past games.

There may be any number of results bars shown, each of which correspond to a single gaming table. In this way, a player may be sitting at a slot machine (by way of example) and monitoring multiple table games without getting up from their seat. They may wait until the game shows historical data that they like (on the results bar) to decide to get up and play at the table. This increases revenue to the gaming establishment as players can be gambling and monitoring the tables. Also, certain players who may be intimidated can watch the table play and learn the process. This can add to the excitement of the player, as they can monitor multiple tables and easily switch between tables. Finally, it gives the player a feeling of an advantage being easily able to compare the multiple tables and select the table they feel has the greatest chances of delivering a win.

While particular embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that changes and modifications can be made without departing from this invention in its broader aspects. Therefore, the appended claims are to encompass within their scope all such changes and modifications as fall within the true spirit and scope of this invention.

Claims

1. A gaming terminal comprising: a display device;a processor; anda memory device which stores a plurality of instructions, which when executed by the processor, cause the processor to: cause the display device to display: a first game taking place at a first game table located remote from the gaming terminal, andsimultaneously with the display of the first game, a player wagering area including a first results bar which displays historical data associated with at least two previously played games that occurred at a second game table located remoted from the gaming terminal, andseparate from any placement of a bet on the first game taking place at the first game table and responsive to receipt of a selection of the displayed first results bar, cause the display device to switch to displaying a second game taking place at the second game table.

2. The gaming terminal of claim 1, wherein at least one of the display of the first game taking place at the first game table comprises a display of a video of the first game taking place at the first game table and the display of the second game taking place at the second game table comprises a display of a video of the second game taking place at the second game table.

3. The gaming terminal of claim 1, wherein the displayed player wagering area further comprises a bet button, wherein a bet is placed on the first game taking place at the first game table responsive to a selection of the bet button.

4. The gaming terminal of claim 1, wherein the displayed player wagering area further comprises a second results bar which displays historical data associated with at least two previously played games that occurred at a third game table located remoted from the gaming terminal.

5. The gaming terminal of claim 4, wherein the displayed player wagering area further comprises a third results bar which displays historical data associated with at least two previously played games that occurred at the first game table.

6. The gaming terminal of claim 5, wherein the third results bar displays historical data associated with a greater quantity of previously played games that occurred at the first game table than a quantity of previously played games that occurred at the second game table and a quantity of previously played games that occurred at the third game table.

7. The gaming terminal of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first game and the second game is selected from the group consisting of: a baccarat game, a dice game, a roulette game, and a table game associated with game cards.

8. The gaming terminal of claim 1, further comprising a housing, and an acceptor supported by the housing, wherein when executed by the processor, the plurality of instructions cause the processor to: responsive to a physical item being received via the acceptor, establish a credit balance based, at least in part, on a monetary value associated with the received physical item, and responsive to a cashout input being received, cause an initiation of any payout associated with the credit balance.

9. A gaming terminal comprising: a display device;a processor; anda memory device which stores a plurality of instructions, which when executed by the processor, cause the processor to: cause the display device to display: a first game taking place at a first game table located remote from the gaming terminal, andsimultaneously with the display of the first game, a player wagering area including: a first results bar which displays historical data associated with a first quantity of at least two previously played games that occurred at the first game table,a second results bar which displays historical data associated with a second quantity of at least two previously played games that occurred at a second game table located remoted from the gaming terminal,separate from any placement of any bet and responsive to receipt of a selection of the displayed first results bar: modify the first quantity of previously played games that occurred at the first game table, andcause the display device to display the modified first quantity of previously played games that occurred at the first game table, andseparate from any placement of any bet and responsive to receipt of a selection of the displayed second results bar, cause the display device to switch to displaying a second game taking place at the second game table.

10. The gaming terminal of claim 9, wherein at least one of the display of the first game taking place at the first game table comprises a display of a video of the first game taking place at the first game table and the display of the second game taking place at the second game table comprises a display of a video of the second game taking place at the second game table.

11. The gaming terminal of claim 9, wherein the displayed player wagering area further comprises a third results bar which displays historical data associated with a third quantity of at least two previously played games that occurred at a third game table located remoted from the gaming terminal.

12. The gaming terminal of claim 9, wherein at least one of the first game and the second game is selected from the group consisting of: a baccarat game, a dice game, a roulette game, and a table game associated with game cards.

13. A gaming system server comprising: a processor; anda memory device which stores a plurality of instructions, which when executed by the processor, cause the processor to: communicate data to a gaming terminal which results in a display device of the gaming terminal displaying: a first game taking place at a first game table located remote from the gaming terminal, andsimultaneously with the display of the first game, a player wagering area including a first results bar which displays historical data associated with at least two previously played games that occurred at a second game table located remoted from the gaming terminal, andseparate from any placement of a bet on the first game taking place at the first game table and responsive to receipt of data associated with a selection of the displayed first results bar, communicate data to the gaming terminal which results in the display device of the gaming terminal switching to display a second game taking place at the second game table.

14. The gaming system server of claim 13, wherein at least one of the display of the first game taking place at the first game table comprises a display of a video of the first game taking place at the first game table and the display of the second game taking place at the second game table comprises a display of a video of the second game taking place at the second game table.

15. The gaming system server of claim 13, wherein the displayed player wagering area further comprises a bet button, wherein a bet is placed on the first game taking place at the first game table responsive to a selection of the bet button.

16. The gaming system server of claim 13, wherein the displayed player wagering area further comprises a second results bar which displays historical data associated with at least two previously played games that occurred at a third game table located remoted from the gaming terminal.

17. The gaming system server of claim 16, wherein the displayed player wagering area further comprises a third results bar which displays historical data associated with at least two previously played games that occurred at the first game table.

18. The gaming system server of claim 17, wherein the third results bar displays historical data associated with a greater quantity of previously played games that occurred at the first game table than a quantity of previously played games that occurred at the second game table and a quantity of previously played games that occurred at the third game table.

19. The gaming system server of claim 13, wherein at least one of the first game and the second game is selected from the group consisting of: a baccarat game, a dice game, a roulette game, and a table game associated with game cards.

20. The gaming system server of claim 13, wherein the data is wirelessly communicated to the gaming terminal.