System and method for casino management

• US 20020152120A1
• Filed: 10/18/2001
• Published: 10/17/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 10/18/2000
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Gtech Austria GmbH (GTECH German Holdings Corp. GmbH)
• Original Assignee: MIS International/Usa
• Inventors: Howington, David K.
• Application Number:
  US09/981,653
• Publication Number:
  US 20020152120A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0208 Trade or exchange of goods or services in exchange for incentives or rewards
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0209 Incentive being awarded or redeemed in connection with the playing of a video game
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0211 Determining the effectiveness of discounts or incentives
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0224 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0235 constrained by time limit or expiration date
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/32 for games, toys, sports, or amusements
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3232 wherein the operator is informed
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3234 about the performance of a gaming system, e.g. revenue, diagnosis of the gaming system
• 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

Abstract

A casino resort management system collects patron data, manages patron data in a high performance data warehouse, shares patron data with other systems and reports vital patron information. The system particularly tracks machine history, including changes in location, configuration and performance, and tracks the location history, including game type and denomination, and allows for placards to be moved from one gaming machine to another without losing historical machine or location information. In addition, the system provides two particularly useful graphical displays that simplify visual analysis of the large amounts of data within a casino. One display method depicts tables of thin bar graphs that compactly allow side-by-side comparison of different groupings of machines and another display method depicts machines in three dimensions so that each dimension can provide visual information to a viewer.

Claims

1. A casino management method comprising the steps of:

collecting patron data, for each of a plurality of patrons, throughout a casino using respective patron cards;

storing said patron data in a data warehouse;

analyzing said patron data; and

determining one or more incentives for each of the plurality of patrons based on the analysis of said patron data.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the one or more incentives includes at least one of:

gaming coupons, discounted airfare, restaurant coupons, discounted fares for activities at a resort affiliated with the casino; and

incentives for another casino affiliated with the casino.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of collecting patron data is performed by a magnetic card reader located at each of a plurality of games in the casino.

4. A casino management method for tracking and managing data related to operation of a casino including the steps of:

tracking and managing gaming activity within a casino;

tracking and managing patron data, for each of a plurality of patrons, throughout a casino using respective patron cards, said patron data comprising;

(a) club points associated with a particular patron;

(b) comps associated with the particular patron;

(c) preferences associated with the particular patron; and

(d) other activity of the particular patron in a resort affiliated with the casino,

in response to a query regarding the patron data, generating a report of selected patron data.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the preferences include personal preferences, family preferences, and group preferences.

6. The method according to claim 4, wherein the preferences include travel preferences, cocktail preferences, and hotel preferences.

7. A casino management method for tracking history of gaming machines and casino locations, comprising the steps of:

assigning a respective location identifier to each location within a casino;

associating a respective machine placard with each machine within the casino;

associating a respective machine identifier with each machine within the casino;

tracking within a database a history of the correlation between location, placard and machine identifiers as machines and placards are moved within the casino.

8. The method according to claim 7, further comprising the step of:

generating a report based on the tracked history in the database, the report organized according to any of the location identifier, the placard identifier, and the machine identifier.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the report simultaneously display historical data organized according location identifier, placard identifier and machine identifier.

10. The method according to claim 7, further comprising the step of:

acquiring respective performance data associated with each machine within the casino.

11. The method according to claim 10, further comprising the step of:

determining and reporting a historical performance of different gaming machines at a particular location in the casino.

12. The method according to claim 11, further comprising the steps of:

organizing locations within a casino into one or more zones; and

determining and reporting a historical performance of a particular zone within the casino.

13. The method according to claim 10, further comprising the step of:

determining and reporting a historical performance of a particular gaming machine at different locations in the casino.

14. The method according to claim 10, further comprising the step of:

determining and reporting a historical performance of different machines associated with a particular placard identifier.

15. The method according to claim 10, wherein performance data includes one or more of coin in, jackpot, win/loss, par % and act %.

18. The method according to claim 17, further comprising the steps of:

associating a respective location identifier with each location within the casino;

associating a respective machine identifier with each gaming machine within the casino; and

using the location identifiers and the machine identifiers associated with the first and second gaming machines and the first and second locations when tracking said first, second and third performances.

16. A casino management method that tracks history of a plurality of gaming machines and casino locations, comprising the steps of:

tracking a respective first history of each gaming machine in a casino, each said first history including changes in location of the machine within the casino, changes in machine configuration, and machine performance;

tracking a respective history of each location within a casino, each said second history including a type of game at the location, denomination of the game at the location, and information associated with the location;

exchanging placards among the plurality of gaming machines while maintaining tracking of the first and second histories, said placards comprising a unique placard associated with each of the gaming machines.

17. A casino management method for evaluating machine and location performances, comprising the steps of:

evaluating a first performance of a first gaming machine at a first location;

evaluating a second performance of a second gaming machine at a second location;

after relocation of the first gaming machine to the second location, evaluating a third performance of the first gaming machine at the second location; and

comparing the first performance and the third performance in order to generate comparative performance data for the first gaming machine according to location within a casino.

19. A casino management method for evaluating performance of different gaming machines and locations within a casino, comprising the steps of:

associating a respective location identifier with each of a plurality of locations within the casino;

associating a respective machine identifier with each of a plurality of gaming machines within the casino;

tracking a relationship between a particular gaming machine and a particular location based on the location identifiers and the machine identifiers;

placing a first gaming machine in a plurality of different locations within the casino;

evaluating a respective performance of the first gaming machine at each of the plurality of different locations; and

locating the first game machine in the casino based on the respective performances.

20. A casino management method for evaluating performance of different gaming machines and locations within a casino, comprising the steps of:

associating a respective location identifier with each of a plurality of locations within the casino;

associating a respective machine identifier with each of a plurality of gaming machines within the casino;

tracking a relationship between a particular gaming machine and a particular location based on the location identifiers and the machine identifiers;

tracking respective additional information about each of different gaming machines at a particular location; and

generating a report providing a comparison of the respective additional information.

21. The method according to claim 20, wherein the respective additional information relates to revisions of the different gaming machines.

22. The method according to claim 21, wherein revisions include one or more of location movements, glass changes, software changes, peripheral additions and changes, location in/out of service changes, gaming machine in/out of service changes, maintenance changes, and alarm conditions.

23. The method according to claim 20, wherein the respective additional information relates to gaming machine characteristics and player characteristics.

24. The method according to claim 23, wherein:

gaming machine characteristics includes one or more of game type, game denomination, and game location; and

player characteristics includes one or more of group, age, sex, status and club level.

25. The method according to claim 20, wherein the respective additional information relates to different patron playing performance in a predetermined time frame.

27. The method according to claim 26, wherein the respective additional information relates to revisions of the different gaming machines.

28. The method -according to claim 27, wherein revisions include one or more of location movements, glass changes, software changes, peripheral additions and changes, location in/out of service changes, gaming machine in/out of service changes, maintenance changes, and alarm conditions.

29. The method according to claim 26, wherein the respective additional information relates to gaming machine characteristics and player characteristics.

30. The method according to claim 29, wherein:

gaming machine characteristics includes one or more of game type, game denomination, and game location; and

player characteristics includes one or more of group, age, sex, status and club level.

31. The method according to claim 26, wherein the respective additional information relates to different patron playing performance in a predetermined time frame.

26. A casino management method for evaluating performance of different gaming machines and locations within a casino, comprising the steps of:

associating a respective location identifier with each of a plurality of locations within the casino;

associating a respective machine identifier with each of a plurality of gaming machines within the casino;

tracking a relationship between a particular gaming machine and a particular location based on the location identifiers and the machine identifiers;

tracking respective additional information about a particular gaming machine at each of different locations; and

generating a report providing a comparison of the respective additional information.

32. A visual analysis method comprising the steps of:

acquiring gaming machine data;

providing for sorting of the acquired gaming machine data; and

presenting the acquired gaming machine data in a table with multiple thin bar graphs.

33. The method according to claim 32, wherein the sorted data is presented.

34. The method according to claim 32, wherein the gaming machine data relates to the operating performance of the machine.

35. The method according to claim 32, wherein the step of sorting is performed based on one or more of a placard identifier, a machine identifier, and a location identifier;

each of said identifiers associated with a respective one of a plurality of gaming machines in a casino.

36. The method according to claim 32, wherein the table presents the thin bar graphs allowing side-by-side comparison of a first gaming machine and a second gaming machine.

38. The method according to claim 37, further comprising the steps of:

receiving cash or cash equivalent from the patron;

determining the associated monetary value based on the received cash.

39. The method according to claim 37, wherein the adjusting step is performed by the first game.

40. The method according to claim 37, wherein the associated monetary value is stored on the patron card.

41. The method according to claim 37, wherein the associated monetary value is stored in a database, said database in communication with the first game and storing an association between the patron card and the associated monetary value.

42. The method according to claim 37, further comprising the step of:

generating a receipt related to the adjusted associated monetary value.

43. The method according to claim 37, further comprising the steps of:

providing a second game at the casino that accepts the patron card and recognizes the adjusted associated monetary value to allow a patron to play the game;

further adjusting the adjusted associated monetary value based on the patrons play of the second game.

37. A method of managing a cashless casino, comprising the steps of:

providing an patron card to a patron of a casino;

associating a monetary value with the patron card;

providing a first game at the casino that accepts the patron card and recognizes the associated monetary value to allow a patron to play the game;

adjusting the associated monetary value based on the patrons play of the first game; and

upon receiving a request by the patron, exchanging the patron card for an amount of money based on the adjusted associated monetary value.

44. A visual analysis method comprising the steps of:

acquiring respective gaming machine data for each of a plurality of gaming machines in a casino, said gaming machine data having at least three separate components;

generating a plurality of three-dimensional icons, each icon corresponding to one of the plurality of gaming machines;

for each particular generated icon;

associating a first component of the corresponding gaming machine data with a first color of a side of the particular icon;

associating a second component of the corresponding gaming machine data with a second color of a top of the particular icon, and

associating a third component of the corresponding gaming machine data with a size of the particular icon, and

simultaneously displaying the plurality of three-dimensional icons such that the respective first, second and third components are visually discernable.

45. The visual analysis method of claim 44, further comprising the step of:

arranging the display of the plurality of three-dimensional icons to correspond to a physical layout of the plurality of gaming machines within the casino.

46. The visual analysis method of claim 44, wherein the gaming machine data includes performance, denomination, alarm conditions, manufacturer.

47. The visual analysis method of claim 46, wherein alarm conditions include any of an alarm, alarm category, and alarm type.

48. The visual analysis method of claim 44, further comprising the steps of:

associating a respective location identifier with each of a plurality of locations within the casino;

associating a respective machine identifier with each of the plurality of gaming machines within the casino;

tracking a relationship between a particular gaming machine and a particular location based on the location identifiers and the machine identifiers.

49. The visual analysis method of claim 48, further comprising the step of:

based on the tracked relationship, arranging the display of the plurality of three-dimensional icons to correspond to a physical layout of the plurality of gaming machines.

50. The visual analysis method of claim 44, further comprising the step of:

adjusting a viewing angle of the display of the plurality of three-dimensional icons so as to emphasize one of the first, second and third components.

51. The visual analysis method of claim 44, further comprising the steps of:

acquiring respective patron data for one or more of the plurality of gaming machines; and

in response to one of the displayed three-dimensional icons being selected, displaying the respective patron data.

52. The visual analysis method of claim 51, wherein the patron data includes a picture of the patron.

53. The visual analysis method of claim 51, further comprising the steps of:

determining from the respective patron data, a set of the displayed three-dimensional icons, said set of icons corresponding to those gaming machines being played by a patron matching a predetermined criteria, and

automatically displaying, in sequence, the set of icons.

54. The visual analysis method of claim 44, wherein the size of the particular icon is the height of the particular icon.

55. The visual analysis method of claim 44 further comprising the steps of:

determining from the respective gaming machine data, a set of displayed three-dimensional icons, said set of icons corresponding to those gaming machines experiencing an alarm condition, and

automatically displaying, in sequence, the set of icons.