Automatic daubing apparatus and method for electronic bingo gaming systems

• US 20040176169A1
• Filed: 03/25/2004
• Published: 09/09/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 01/30/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Everi Games Inc. (Everi Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Clifton Lind, Gary Loebig, Jefferson C. Lind, Joseph R. Enzminger
• Inventors: Lind, Jefferson C., Enzminger, Joseph R., Loebig, Gary L., Lind, Clifton
• Granted Patent: US 7,708,631 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/42
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/32 for games, toys, sports, or amusements
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/323 wherein the player is informed, e.g. advertisements, odds, instructions
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3232 wherein the operator is informed
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3244 Payment aspects of a gaming system, e.g. payment schemes, setting payout ratio, bonus or consolation prizes
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3251 involving media of variable value, e.g. programmable cards, programmable tokens
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3258 Cumulative reward schemes, e.g. jackpots
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3262 Player actions which determine the course of the game, e.g. selecting a prize to be won, outcome to be achieved, game to be played
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3286 Type of games
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3288 Betting, e.g. on live events, bookmaking
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/329 Regular and instant lottery, e.g. electronic scratch cards

Abstract

Players participate in bingo-type games through player stations each having a suitable player interface. Once a player is assigned a bingo card representation and a game designation set is associated with the bingo card representation, daubing the bingo card representation may be performed manually by the player at the player'"'"'s respective player station using a suitable interface at the player station. Alternatively to manual daubing, the present invention includes automatically daubing one or more bingo card representations in response to an automatic daub input made by the player at the player station using a suitable input device.

Claims

1. A gaming system for conducting bingo-type games, the gaming system including:

(a) a back office system including a data storage device for storing a number of bingo card representations and for storing a designation set for matching to at least one of the bingo card representations;

(b) a player station including a player station display, the player station being in communication with the back office system for receiving at least a result associated with at least one player bingo card representation;

(c) a user interface device included with the player station for enabling a player using the player station to enter an automatic daub input; and

(d) an automatic daub control for automatically daubing the at least one player bingo card representation in response to the automatic daub input.

2. The gaming system of claim 1 wherein the automatic daub control is for automatically daubing multiple player bingo card representations in response to the automatic daub input.

3. The gaming system of claim 1 further including a manual daub interface for enabling the player using the player station to manually daub at least one player bingo card representation as an alternative to automatic daubing.

4. The gaming system of claim 3 wherein the player station display includes a touch screen display and the manual daub interface includes the touch screen display.

5. The gaming system of claim 1 wherein a game play request entered through the player station in the gaming system comprises a request for automatic daubing performed at a back office device included in the back office system, the back office device being separate from the player station.

6. A gaming system for conducting bingo-type games, the gaming system including:

(a) a back office system including a data storage device for storing a number of bingo card representations;

(b) a number of player stations, each player station in communication with the back office system to receive a respective bingo card representation from the number of bingo card representations;

(c) a respective user interface device included with each respective player station for enabling a player using the respective player station to enter an automatic daub input; and

(d) a respective automatic daub control included with each respective player station for automatically daubing the respective player bingo card representation received at the respective player station in response to the automatic daub input.

7. The gaming system of claim 6 wherein the automatic daub control is for automatically daubing additional player bingo card representations in response to the automatic daub input.

8. The gaming system of claim 6 further including a respective manual daub interface included with each respective player station for enabling the player using the respective player station to manually daub an additional player bingo card representation received at the respective player station as an alternative to automatic daubing.

9. The gaming system of claim 8 wherein the manual daub interface included with at least one respective player station includes a touch screen display.

10. The gaming system of claim 6 wherein each respective game play request entered through a respective one of the player stations in the gaming system comprises a request for automatic daubing performed at the back office system.

11. A method for conducting a bingo-type game, the method including the steps of:

(a) associating a game play request initiated by a player with a bingo card representation;

(b) associating the bingo card representation with a set of bingo designations;

(c) receiving an automatic daub input from the player; and

(d) in response to the automatic daub input, daubing the bingo card representation using the set of bingo designations.

12. The method of claim 11 further including the step of automatically daubing a number of respective bingo card representations in response to the automatic daub input.

13. The method of claim 11 further including the step of enabling the player to manually daub the bingo card representation using a manual daub interface available to the player.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the manual daub interface includes a touch screen display.

15. The method of claim 11 wherein the automatic daub input is entered by the player through an input device at a player terminal through which the player participates in the bingo-type game.