NATIONAL CUSTOMER RECOGNITION SYSTEM AND METHOD

• US 20020142841A1
• Filed: 02/05/2001
• Published: 10/03/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 05/24/1996
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Caesars Entertainment Operating Co., Inc. (Caesars Entertainment, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: John Michael Boushy
• Inventors: Boushy, John Michael
• Granted Patent: US 7,419,427 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/42
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06375 Prediction of business process outcome or impact based on a proposed change
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/387 Payment using discounts or coupons relating to marketing G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0204 Market segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0209 Incentive being awarded or redeemed in connection with the playing of a video game
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0212 Chance discounts or incentives
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0215 Including financial accounts
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0226 Incentive systems for frequent usage, e.g. frequent flyer miles programs or point systems
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/32 for games, toys, sports, or amusements
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3223 Architectural aspects of a gaming system, e.g. internal configuration, master/slave, wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3237 about the players, e.g. profiling, responsible gaming, strategy/behavior of players, location of players
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3239 Tracking of individual players
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3255 Incentive, loyalty and/or promotion schemes, e.g. comps, gaming associated with a purchase, gaming funded by advertisements

Abstract

A system and method for implementing a customer tracking and recognition program that encompasses customers'"'"' gaming and non-gaming activity alike at a plurality of affiliated casino properties. Customer information is accumulated at each affiliated casino through one or more LAN-based management systems, updated to a central patron database (CPDB) that is coupled to each casino LAN through a WAN, and made available to each affiliated casino property as needed. Customer accounts are automatically activated and provided with data from the CPDB when a customer from one casino property first visits an affiliated casino property. Customer accounts are updated with new activity data whenever a management system associated with the casino receives customer data from input devices, such as card readers, workstations, and dumb terminals, located at various venues throughout the casino. Customers are awarded points, based on their tracked activity at all affiliated casino properties. The point awards have a monetary value and are redeemable for gifts, meals, cash and the like, at any of the casino properties. The point awards may embody different promotional schemes in which point awards are adjusted to target different casino properties or different venues within a casino. Summary customer data, including point levels, is regularly updated to reflect ongoing customer activity at the casino property. This data is made available to employees at any affiliated casino property, as needed, to personalize customer services.

Claims

1. In a system including a computer network communicatively coupling a plurality of casino properties, a computer implemented method for tracking patronage of a plurality of customers, each of the customers assigned an account, the method comprising:

storing a portion of the customer accounts in each of a plurality of databases, each database associated with one of the casino properties and communicatively coupled to the network at the casino property;

receiving at the database of a first casino property customer betting activity data from a second casino property; and

updating the customer'"'"'s account in the database of the first casino property, including updating the customer'"'"'s theoretical win profile as a function of the betting activity.

3. The method of claim 1 or 2, further comprising:

for each customer, accumulating points in the customer'"'"'s account as a function of monetary value of the customer'"'"'s betting activity at any of the casino properties.

2. In a system including a computer network communicatively coupling a plurality of casino properties, a computer implemented method for rewarding patronage of a plurality of customers, each of the customers assigned an account, the method comprising:

storing a portion of the customer accounts in each of a plurality of databases, each database associated with one of the casino properties and communicatively coupled to the network at the casino property;

receiving at a first database of a first casino property a request from a second database at a second casino property for a customer'"'"'s theoretical win profile from a customer account stored in the first database; and

transmitting the customer'"'"'s theoretical win profile from the first database to the second database.

4. A system for tracking customer activity at a plurality of casino properties using customer accounts and customer IDs, the system comprising:

a local computer system at each of the casino properties;

a communications network communicatively coupling the local computer systems;

at least one input device at each casino property and coupled to the local computer system for transmitting customer activity data received at the input device, including a customer ID and any customer betting activity, to the local computer system;

a management system coupled to each of the local computer systems for receiving the customer activity data from the coupled input devices, the management system being further coupled to a distributed database for selectively retrieving customer account data from the distributed database associated with the customer ID, and selectively updating the retrieved customer account data with the received customer activity data from the coupled input device; and

a distributed database comprising;

a plurality of customer accounts for the customers, each customer account having an associated customer ID, and customer activity data including an accumulated point balance, and a theoretical win profile generated from the betting activity of the customer at any of the plurality of casino properties; and

a database management program for receiving customer activity data from each casino property and updating the customer accounts of the distributed database, including the accumulated point balance and the theoretical win profile each customer account, to reflect customer activity data at the plurality of casino properties, and providing selected customer activity data to a local computer system at a casino property through the management system coupled to the local computer system.

5. A method for making a theoretical win profile of any of a plurality of customers available at a plurality of casino properties, the method comprising:

at each of the casino properties, storing in a local database a plurality of customer accounts for a portion of the customers, each customer account in the local database associated with a customer ID and a theoretical win profile;

in response to an input of a customer ID to a computer system at a first casino property, retrieving from the local database of a second casino property the theoretical win profile from the customer account associated with the input customer ID;

receiving at the first casino property, customer betting activity data of the customer associated with the customer ID; and

updating the theoretical win profile of the customer account in the local database of the first casino property as a function of the received customer betting activity and the retrieved theoretical win profile.

6. A computer implemented method for tracking patronage of customers, the method comprising:

storing at each casino property a database of customer accounts, each customer account associated with a customer, each of the databases communicatively coupled to a computer network;

receiving via the network at the first database of a first one of the casino properties, customer betting activity data from a second casino property; and

updating in the customer'"'"'s account in the first database a theoretical win profile as a function of the received customer betting activity data.

7. A system for tracking patronage of a plurality of customers at a plurality of casino properties, the system comprising:

a local computer system at each of the casino properties, each local computer system including a local database storing accounts for a portion of the plurality of customers, each account associated with a customer and a theoretical win profile generated as a function of betting activity of the customer at any of the plurality of casino properties;

for each local computer system, a database management program communicatively coupled to the local database of the local computer system, for receiving customer betting activity data of a customer, for updating the theoretical win profile of the customer in the customer'"'"'s account in local database; and

a communications network communicatively coupling each of the local computer systems, allowing the local databases to communicate to each other customer betting activity of a customer or a customer'"'"'s theoretical win profile.

8. The system of claim 7, further comprising:

a plurality of gaming machines at each casino property, each gaming machine communicatively coupled to the local computer system for transmitting customer betting activity data received at the gaming machine to the local computer system.