METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR STORING INFORMATION ON A WAGER GAMING VOUCHER

• US 20070021191A1
• Filed: 02/15/2006
• Published: 01/25/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/15/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Sg Gaming, Inc. (Light & Wonder Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Sg Gaming, Inc. (Light & Wonder Incorporated)
• Inventors: Mercado, Victor, White, Michael
• Application Number:
  US11/276,147
• Publication Number:
  US 20070021191A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/25
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/32 for games, toys, sports, or amusements
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3248 involving non-monetary media of fixed value, e.g. casino chips of fixed value

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses for processing and storing information on a wager gaming voucher are described herein. In one embodiment, a wager gaming voucher includes a single machine-readable indicium. The single machine-readable indicium includes a remote database index associated with a set of one or more fields in a remote database and a portable voucher database to store information.

Claims

1. A wager gaming voucher comprising:

a single machine-readable indicium including,

a remote database index associated with a set of one or more tables in a remote database; and

a portable voucher database to store voucher information.

2. The wager gaming voucher of claim 1, wherein the portable voucher database includes a monetary value of the wager gaming voucher.

3. The wager gaming voucher of claim 1, wherein the monetary value can be accessed without accessing the remote database.

4. The wager gaming voucher of claim 1, wherein the voucher information can be accessed without accessing the remote database.

5. The wager gaming voucher of claim 1, wherein the portable voucher database includes information selected from the group consisting of a player identifier, a set of player preferences, a validation number, non-monetary awards, game entry data, lottery entry, and a game state.

6. The wager gaming voucher of claim 1, wherein the single indicium is a two-dimensional barcode.

7. The wager gaming voucher of claim 1, wherein the portable voucher database includes validation information that can be used to validate the wager gaming voucher without accessing a network.

8. The wager gaming voucher of claim 1, wherein the voucher information is encrypted.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the wager gaming voucher further includes unencrypted voucher information in the indicium needed for decryption.

10. A method comprising:

reading a single wager gaming voucher indicium, wherein the single wager gaming voucher indicium includes,

a portable voucher database including a monetary value; and

an index into a remote database; and

accessing the monetary value without accessing the remote database.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the accessing the monetary value is performed without accessing a network.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the portable voucher database also includes voucher information, wherein the accessing step includes accessing the voucher information without accessing a network.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the portable voucher database is encrypted, and wherein the accessing includes decrypting the portable voucher database.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein a public key is used to encrypt and a private key is used to decrypt the portable voucher database.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein symmetric keys are used to encrypt and decrypt the portable voucher database.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the wager gaming voucher further includes unencrypted voucher information in the indicium.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the unencrypted voucher information enables the decrypting of the encrypted portable voucher database.

18. The method of claim 10, wherein the single wager gaming voucher indicium resides on a wager gaming voucher, and wherein the portable voucher database includes a first random validation identifier, the method further including,

receiving a second random validation identifier;

validating the wager gaming voucher without communicating with any remote computer, wherein the wager gaming voucher is valid if the first random validation identifier matches the second random validation identifier; and

if the wager gaming voucher is valid, dispensing cash in an amount of the monetary value.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the first and second random validation identifiers are created by a first and a second random number generator, each random number generator having the same output for a given seed value.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the seed used to generate the first random validation identifier is used in the validating step to determine the second validation number.

21. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

using indicium validation rules to determine whether the single wager gaming voucher indicium is valid.

22. The wager gaming voucher of claim 10, wherein the single indicium is a two-dimensional barcode.

23. The method of claim 10, further including redeeming the wager gaming voucher for the monetary value wherein the accessing the monetary value is performed without accessing a network.

24. A machine-readable medium that provides instructions which when executed by a machine cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

receiving an indication to generate a wager gaming voucher;

generating a portable voucher database;

determining an index for accessing data in a remote database, wherein the data is associated with the wager gaming voucher;

creating an indicium that includes the portable voucher database and the index; and

generating a voucher that includes the indicium.

25. The machine-readable medium of claim 24, the operations further comprising:

encrypting the portable voucher database.

26. The machine-readable medium of claim 24, wherein the indicium is a single two-dimensional barcode.

27. The machine-readable medium of claim 24, wherein the portable database includes information selected from the group consisting of a player identifier, a set of player preferences, a validation number, a non-monetary award, a monetary award, game entry data, a lottery entry, and a game state.

28. A double-sided wager gaming voucher comprising:

a first machine-readable indicium including game-specific information, the game-specific information usable by one of a set of wagering game types;

a second machine-readable indicium including a voucher identifier, the voucher identifier associated with data in a remote database, the voucher identifier usable by all of the set of wagering game types.

29. The wager gaming voucher of claim 28, wherein the game-specific information is selected from the set consisting of a player identifier, a set of player preferences, a set of bonus awards, and a game state.

30. The wager gaming voucher of claim 28, wherein the first and second machine-readable indicium are selected from the group of linear barcodes or two-dimensional barcodes.