Slot machine games

• US 20070105611A1
• Filed: 11/03/2006
• Published: 05/10/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sg Gaming, Inc. (Scientific Games Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Stargames Corporation Party Limited Incorporated
• Inventors: O'Halloran, Terry
• Granted Patent: US 8,251,794 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/16
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3244 Payment aspects of a gaming system, e.g. payment schemes, setting payout ratio, bonus or consolation prizes

Abstract

A slot machine includes an option in which the probability of an outcome is influenced by changing the probability of one or more symbols (204,206,208) on one or more reels (reel1,reel2 . . . )by randomly or pseudo-randomly selecting reels from a set of two or more reels. The probability can be adjusted by changing, adding or subtracting symbols on a reel strip.

Claims

1. A method of operating a slot machine game, the method including:

providing a set of two or more reel strip options; and

selecting one of the reel strip options from the set for use in a game.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the selection of the reel strips occurs in response to the previous game result corresponding with one or more predetermined outcomes.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the selection of the reel is performed on a random or pseudo-random basis.

4. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the selection is made from two or more sets of reels.

5. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the selection is made on a reel by reel basis.

6. A method as claimed in claim 5, wherein the selection of each reel influences the availability of subsequent reels for selection.

7. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the slot machine is an electronic gaming machine.

8. A method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the selection is performed under the control of the electronic gaming machine software.

9. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the combined average return of the reel strip options is the average of the returns of the individual reel strips in the set.

10. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the weighting of one or more reel strips in the set is changed by adding one or more symbols to the reel.

11. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the weighting of one or ore reel strips in the set is changed by removing one or more symbols from the reel.

12. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the weighting of one or more reel strips is changed by changing one or more symbols

13. A method as claimed in claim 12, wherein the number of symbols in the strip is unchanged.

19. A slot machine implementing the method of claim 1.

20. A slot machine implementing the method of claim 10.

21. A slot machine implementing the method of claim 11.

22. A slot machine implementing the method of claim 12.

14. A method of operating a video gaming machine that provides symbols for display in columns and rows, with at least one column represented by a virtual reel, the method comprising:

for at least one column, providing at least two different virtual reels; and

selecting only one of the at least two virtual reels for use in a single game on the video gaming machine.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein each column has at least two different virtual reels that may be selected for use, one at a time, in a single game on the video machine.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein one of the at least two different virtual reels provide different probabilities of at least one winning outcome on the single game as compared to another one of the at least two virtual reels.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein a one of the at least two virtual reels available for a column is randomly selected for use in the single game.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the display comprises 3×

5 rows and columns.

23. A video gaming machine implementing the method of claim 14.