Patent Application
20130225272
Operators of land-based casinos and casino web sites offer wager games that have payout percentages that are slightly in the favor of the casino operators (i.e., less than 100%). The more players that sign up and play at a casino, and specifically the more wagering that is conducted, the more revenue the casino operator realizes. Hence, casinos typically expend large sums on marketing and promotions competing with each other to attract and retain players, particularly new players.
The methods, devices, and systems herein generally relate to wager games, and to enabling a workstation, such as a personal computer, to play wager games over a computer network such as the Internet. These wager games may provide bonuses to players in the form of restricted credits. Use of these restricted credits may allow a player a longer playing time for the player's initial stake.
There is a strong correlation between the retention rate of first-time casino players and their playing experience at the casino on their first visit. It is desirable that such first-time players either win on their first visit, or lose gradually so that they have a positive and enjoyable experience, thereby increasing the likelihood that the players will become long-term clients of the casino.
Online casinos may attract players through promotions that involve free credit (referred to herein as “promotion credit”), where the casino operator essentially adds “free money” to the player's credit account. The player may then use the credits in this account for placing wagers on wager games. However, promotional credit tends to be expensive for operators of online casinos and poker rooms, as the wagering of such credit may, in the long run, result in some net payout to players coming straight from the operator's bottom line.
Furthermore, while the use of promotion credit may attract new players to a casino website, it is likely to be insufficient to prevent a first-time player from having a negative playing experience. For example, the first time player may rapidly lose all of his or her credit, such as promotion credit and credit purchased with the player's own bankroll. Thus, it is desirable to offer wager games that provide payouts with a high perceived value to the player while still being profitable to an operator of the wager games.
Accordingly, in a first example embodiment, a server device may conduct a wager game with a player. The player may engage in the wager game via a client device, such as a personal computer connected to the Internet. The wager game may use a payout schedule that has a payout percentage above 100% of wagers made by the player. For example, the payout may have a statistical average of 110% of the wagered amount. In this case, for each unit of credit the player wagers, the player can expect a payout of 1.1 units of credit. However, for any given turn of the wager game, the player may receive more or fewer units of credit.
In order to allow the casino to maintain a reasonable profit margin over the long term, this credit may be awarded as a combination of restricted credit and unrestricted credit. The player may cash out the unrestricted credit at virtually any time, but may only be able to cash out the restricted credit when certain conditions are met.
In response to the client device completing a turn of the wager game, the server device may transmit an indication of the payout to the player. The payout may be based on the payout schedule, and may include restricted credit and/or unrestricted credit. In some embodiments, the unrestricted credit of the payout may have a statistical average of less than 100% of the wagered amount. In this way, the casino maintains a profit margin with respect to the payout of unrestricted credit, while the player is enticed to continue playing wager games until the conditions allowing cash out of the restricted credit are met, or the player's restricted credit is drained.
In a second example embodiment, a client device may use an account to play a wager game via a server device. The server device may receive, from the client device, a request to play the wager game, and the server device may determine whether a condition is met. This condition may relate to an extent that the account has been used to play the wager game. For example, the condition may be that a holder of the account is a first-time player of the wager game.
If the condition is met, the server device may engage in transactions with the client device to conduct the wager game. These transactions may be based on the wager game using a first payout schedule that has a first payout percentage above 100% of wagers made by the client device. The payouts to the client device may be based on the first payout schedule, and the payouts may comprise at least one of restricted credit and unrestricted credit.
On the other hand, if the condition is not met, the server device may also engage in transactions with the client device to conduct the wager game. However, these transactions may be based on the wager game using a second payout schedule that has a second payout percentage below 100% of wagers made by the client device. The payouts to the client device may be based on the second payout schedule, and the payouts may consist of unrestricted credit.
These and other aspects and advantages will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art by reading the following detailed description, with reference where appropriate to the accompanying drawings. Further, it should be understood that the foregoing overview is merely for purposes of illustration and is not intended to limit the scope of the invention as claimed.
Aspects of the embodiments herein may be suited for use in the context of playing of wager games over a computer network. As will be appreciated from the following discussion, these aspects are also suitable for use in other environments, including land or ship-based casinos, as well as other types of wagering environments.
Referring to
Each one of the online casino websites 3a and 3b may be accessible by a would-be player (not shown) through a player gaming workstation 4 in the form of an Internet-enabled computer workstation. The workstation 4 may have a display monitor 5 and an associated pointing device 5a such as a mouse or, alternatively, a touchpad. Online casino website 3a is shown as having one workstation 4 logically connected thereto, whereas online casino website 3b is shown as being logically connected to two workstations 4. It will be appreciated that such online casino websites 3a and 3b can be logically connected to any desired number of such workstations 4 simultaneously.
The gaming server 2, the online casino web servers (not shown) corresponding to the online casino websites 3a and 3b, and the workstations 4 are capable of communicating with each other by means of an open communication network, such as the Internet or another type of Internet Protocol (IP) network. The Internet is represented in
Each online casino operates an account facility 14a and 14b, respectively, with a credit account corresponding to each player who participates in a wager game offered by the online casino. In the illustrated embodiment, therefore, the account facility 14a has at least one player credit account associated with it, while account facility 14b has at least two associated, but separate, player accounts.
A stored workstation program (not shown) may be resident in the workstation 4. This program may enable a participating player to browse an online casino website and to interact with the gaming server 2 to play wager games such as slot machines (slots), poker, Black Jack, Roulette and other wager games. The stored workstation program may include tools for displaying, on the user interface display 5, gaming symbols (e.g., slot machine reels, cards,
Roulette wheels, etc.), gaming controls by which the player can place wagers, spin the reels, etc., and the results of play. The stored workstation program may also include gaming logic for facilitating the execution of a turn of a wager game, and communications facilities for communicating player actions to the gaming server 2, and receiving messages (e.g., datagrams) from the gaming server 2 containing results of play. The data representing results of play may be translated to graphical symbols which are presented on the user interface display 5. Further details are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/550,744, filed Sep. 23, 2005, and hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Each workstation 4 may take the form, for example, of a conventional personal computer operating under a WINDOWS XP®, WINDOWS VISTA®, WINDOWS® 7, or other operating system, which is well known and commercially available from Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Washington, or other operating system such as provided by Apple Computer or a LINUX® operating system. The workstation 4 may also take the form of a portable computing device such as a tablet device, a personal digital assistant, or a cellular telephone. The workstation 4 may alternatively take the form of an electronic gaming terminal that is wholly or partially dedicated to playing casino games.
The gaming server 2 may operate under control of a server-stored program (not shown) that co-operates with the stored workstation program in order to enable a player at the computer workstation 4 to play a wager game. The gaming server 2 operates, for example, under the WINDOWS NT®, WINDOWS SERVER®, or LINUX® operating system.
The stored workstation 4 program or application (not shown) and the corresponding stored gaming server 2 program will be referred to, for convenience, as a client process and a server process, respectively. The server process may generate one or more random events that determine the outcome of turns of the wager game, such as determining the outcome of spins of the slot machine reels in the various slots games of the participating players. The client process of any particular workstation 4 may obtain the result of the random events from the gaming server 2 along the communication network 8 and may display the outcome of the wager game on the display monitor 5 of the workstation 4 in an intelligible manner. For example, the client process may cause the player's set of slots reels to spin and to come to rest at a position corresponding to the outcome.
In order to play the wager games from any particular workstation 4, the client process (not shown) may first be downloaded to that computer workstation from the gaming server 2 or, alternatively, from a separate web server (not shown), and then installed on the workstation 4.
A program that is arranged to execute on either the gaming server 2 or the workstation 4 may reside on a non-transitory computer-readable medium, such as random access memory (RAM) or read only memory (ROM), which may encompass magnetic memory, optical memory, and/or additional forms of computer memory. The computer-readable medium may have stored thereon program instructions that, if executed by a computing device (e.g., the gaming server 2 or the workstation 4), cause the computing device to perform operations consistent with any of the embodiments described herein.
A player wishing to participate in a wager game may use the workstation 4 to access an online casino website 3a or 3b of his or her choice. When the player navigates using a web browser to a home page of a casino, a promotional message may be displayed (described below). The player may be presented with an icon on the graphical user interface (GUI) of the workstation 4, which the player can activate in order to download the client process and register with the casino operator. Following these tasks, the player may request to play wager games provided on the casino website by clicking on an appropriate icon or taking other similar action.
The online casino websites 3a and 3b may be provisioned as one or more virtual slots rooms where slots is the only wager game available to would-be players, or one where a variety of different wager games are offered to the players. It will be noted again that a system implementing the methods of this invention need not include two (or more) separate online casino websites 3a and 3b, and that only one online casino website may be linked to the gaming server 2.
When a new player clicks on or navigates to one of the only casino websites 3a and 3b, they may be presented with a “home page” that contains information about the casino and its features.
In the example of
After the player downloads the client process and registers with the casino, the player may select a wager game they wish to play. It is assumed in this example that the player selects to play a wager game specifically for first-time players, in this example a 3-reel video slot wager game.
Such a 3-reel video slot wager game is illustrated in
The arrangement of the symbols on three reels 41, 42, and 43 is illustrated in
There are 22 symbols on each of the reels 41, 42, and 43, which means that there are 10,648 (i.e., 22×22×22) possible outcomes for each turn of the wager game. The outcome probabilities are shown in the table of
Each entry also includes a probability 54 of that outcome occurring in a turn of the wager game, for example, the probability of the “Lemon/Lemon/Lemon” outcome occurring is 42/10,648=0.00394 i.e. 0.394%). Moreover, each entry in the table indicates a range of integers 55 from 1 to 10,648 that correspond to that outcome. The gaming server 2 may generate a random number in the range 1 to 10,648 in order to determine the outcome of a turn of the wager game. For example, a randomly-generated number in the range 10,467 to 10,508 correspond to the at-rest position of the reels being the outcome “Lemon/Lemon/Lemon”.
An example pay table of the three-reel slot wager game is illustrated in
In a possible embodiment, the traditional 3-reel video slot wager game of
While the modified 3-reel video slot wager game of
However, in order to make the wager game both enjoyable for the player and reasonably profitable for the casino, the modified wager game with the payout schedule of
In addition to dividing the payout into restricted and unrestricted credits, a player's account may be required to contain at least a predetermined proportion and/or amount of unrestricted (i.e. cashable) credit at all times. Further, the player's gaming session may terminate when this proportion and/or amount of unrestricted credit in the player's account falls below the required predetermined proportion and/or amount. In this way, the casino operator can limit the player's ability to use restricted credits for additional gameplay.
The player commences the playing session of
Furthermore,
Comparing the tables in
The player may be able to consume these restricted credits on the same or other games offered by the casino operator, or may cash out these credits if one or more conditions are met.
For example, once the player's unrestricted credit reaches a threshold unrestricted credit value (e.g., $0, $3, $5, $10, etc.), the player may be prohibited from continued play of the wager game. However, the player may be permitted to wager his or her remaining restricted credits on other wager games. In some embodiments, these other wager games may exhibit payout percentages less than 100%. Alternatively or additionally, the player may be permitted to continue playing the wager game, but the wager game may use a different pay table that exhibits a payout percentage less than 100% (for example, see
Since general player expectation is for a playing session to result in a loss, the value and enjoyment that a player derives from game play is ultimately related to how long a player is able to sustain game play with a given initial bankroll. The modified wager game thus provides the player with increased “time on device” which is the length of time that the player can spend playing wager games for a given initial credit balance. A first-time player who plays the modified wager game is thus likely to have a satisfactory and exciting playing experience from a monetary perspective.
In order to facilitate this goal, or for other reasons, the casino operator can configure at least the following parameters of the modified wager game: the overall payout percentage of the wager game, the proportion of each payout that consists of restricted credit, and the minimum proportion of unrestricted credit in the players account required at all times during a playing session. These parameters can be adjusted to meet a large range of commercial objectives. In an alternative embodiment, the pay table of the modified wager game may be arranged such that some lower-order payouts (i.e., smaller payouts) consist of restricted credit, while some higher-order payouts (i.e., larger payouts) are made with unrestricted credit. An example of such a pay table is illustrated in
A further alternative embodiment employs a dynamic pay table rather than a static pay table. For example, the wager game may have a two-tier pay table, the first tier comprising the pay table of
A first-time player may be defined to be a player who has recently registered for game play with the gaming server 2. Alternatively, a first-time player may also be defined as a player who has played less than a particular number of turns of the wager game, or wagered less than a certain amount of unrestricted credits on the wager game. Thus, a player may be considered a first-time player despite playing the wager game over multiple gaming sessions or over a relatively long period of time. One reason for categorizing players as first-time players or non-first-time is to grant first-time players the ability to earn restricted credits as a bonus for signing up to play the wager game, while limiting or prohibiting non-first-time players from earning restricted credits.
After about 500 turns on average, the player's credit balance has been converted from the initial $100 to about $250 of restricted credit. At this stage, the player may elect to continue playing the wager game, causing the second tier of the pay table (i.e., the pay table of
The wager game may use a payout schedule that has a payout percentage above 100% of wagers made by the client device. Thus, the payout of an individual turn of the wager game may vary. But, over time, the player can expect that the wager game will pay out more than the player wagers.
At step 134, in response to the client device completing a turn of the wager game, the server device may transmit an indication of a payout to the client device. The payout may be based on the payout schedule, and may include at least one of restricted credit and unrestricted credit (i.e., the payout may include restricted credit, unrestricted credit, or both restricted credit and unrestricted credit). For example, the payout percentage may include an unrestricted credit payout percentage below 100% of the wagers made by the client device, and a restricted credit payout percentage of a difference between the payout percentage and the unrestricted credit payout percentage. In some embodiments, the unrestricted credit may be greater than the restricted credit, and in other embodiments, the unrestricted credit may be less than or equal to the restricted credit.
The server device may permit the client device to cash out the unrestricted credit upon demand, but might permit the client device to cash out the restricted credit only when one or more conditions are met. These conditions may include, for instance, whether the client device has played a threshold number of turns of the wager game, and/or whether the client device has wagered a threshold amount of unrestricted credit. Thus, for example, the server device may determine whether a restricted credit condition has been met. If the restricted credit condition has been met, the server device may allow the client device to cash out at least some of the restricted credit. However, if the restricted credit condition has not been met, the server device may not permit the client device to cash out any of the restricted credit.
In order to facilitate the determination of these conditions, facilitate wagering and payouts, or for other purposes, the client device may be associated with an account that holds total restricted credit and total unrestricted credit available to the client device. The server device may determine that the total unrestricted credit is at or below a threshold unrestricted credit value. In response to determining that the total unrestricted credit is at or below the threshold unrestricted credit value, the server device may prohibit the client device from playing the wager game. At some point after prohibiting the client device from playing the wager game, the server device may determine that the total unrestricted credit is once again above the threshold unrestricted credit value. In response to determining that the total unrestricted credit is above the threshold unrestricted credit value, the server device may allow the client device to play the wager game. Alternatively or additionally, the server device may determine that the total unrestricted credit is at or below a threshold unrestricted credit value, and in response to the determination, the server device may transition to conducting the wager game using a second payout schedule that has a second payout percentage below 100% of wagers made by the client device.
In some embodiments, the payout schedule may associate outcomes of the wager game with respective payouts. For example, a first respective payout of the payout schedule may consist of the restricted credit, a second respective payout of the payout schedule may consist of the unrestricted credit, and a third respective payout of the payout schedule may consist of no credit. The server device may award the first respective payout, the second respective payout, and the third respective payout to the client device in different turns of the wager game. At least some of the respective payouts of the payout schedule that are below a payout threshold may consist of the restricted credit, and at least some of the respective payouts of the payout schedule that are at or above the payout threshold may consist of the unrestricted credit.
If the condition is met, at step 146 the server device may engage in transactions with the client device to conduct the wager game. For example, these transactions may be based on the wager game using a first payout schedule that has a first payout percentage above 100% of wagers made by the client device. Payouts to the client device may be based on the first payout schedule, and the payouts may comprise at least one of restricted credit and unrestricted credit.
On the other hand, if the condition is not met, at step 148 the server device may also engage in transactions with the client device to conduct the wager game. However, these transactions may be based on the wager game using a second payout schedule that has a second payout percentage below 100% of wagers made by the client device. The payouts to the client device may be based on the second payout schedule, and the payouts may consist of unrestricted credit.
It should be understood that the flow charts of
In another example embodiment, which is illustrated by one or more of
The data processing apparatus is in data communication with a user device, which is operated by the user, to wager the sums on the outcomes of the events. These payouts are in accordance with a payout schedule, stored by the data processing apparatus, which defines the payouts for different outcomes of events. The data processing apparatus stores an account for the user, and payouts from successful wagers, in accordance with the schedule of payouts, are credited to the user account as payout credit. The data processing apparatus is configured such that the user may use payout credit in the user's account to serve as sums to be wagered and may convert payout credit in the user's account into cash credit to be paid to the user.
The schedule of payouts stored by the data processing apparatus provides for a return to the user of credit payouts such that the total expected payout to the user exceeds 100% of the total sum wagered by the user. The data processing apparatus is also configured to store data indicating whether a payout credited to the user account is to be treated as unrestricted credit or restricted credit.
The data processing apparatus is further configured such that unrestricted credit may be converted into the cash credit to be paid to the user, and restricted credit may only be converted into the cash credit to be paid to the user if conditions defined within the data processing apparatus are met, the conditions being such that the user having wagered a threshold unrestricted credit amount or the user having played a threshold number of turns of the wager game.
While a number of example aspects and embodiments have been discussed above, those of skill in the art will recognize certain modifications, permutations, additions and sub-combinations thereof are present in the disclosure. Furthermore, other variations from the disclosed embodiments may be made without departure from the scope of the invention. All questions concerning scope are to be answered by reference to the appended claims.
This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 12/974,690, filed Dec. 21, 2010 and herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 12974690 | Dec 2010 | US |
| Child | 13856124 | US |
