Patent Application
20130190075
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.
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.
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
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
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
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
Still referring to
Referring to
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
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
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.
The present application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 13/042,633 filed Mar. 8, 2011 entitled “Betting terminal and system” which is a continuing application of U.S. Ser. No. 11/497,708 filed Aug. 1, 2006, and a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 11/042,732, filed Jan. 24, 2005, U.S. application Ser. No. 11/198,218, filed on Aug. 5, 2005 and U.S. application Ser. No. 11/312,150, filed on Dec. 19, 2005, the entire contents of all applications which are incorporated by this reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 11497708 | Aug 2006 | US |
| Child | 13042633 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 13042633 | Mar 2011 | US |
| Child | 13685226 | US | |
| Parent | 11042732 | Jan 2005 | US |
| Child | 11497708 | US | |
| Parent | 11198218 | Aug 2005 | US |
| Child | 11042732 | US | |
| Parent | 11312150 | Dec 2005 | US |
| Child | 11198218 | US |
