Bingo system with discrete payout categories

• US 20070155473A1
• Filed: 05/26/2006
• Published: 07/05/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: IGT (International Game Technology)
• Original Assignee: IGT (International Game Technology)
• Inventors: Krum, Justin, Wolf, Bryan, Powell, Tracy
• Granted Patent: US 8,262,451 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/19
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/32 for games, toys, sports, or amusements
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3244 Payment aspects of a gaming system, e.g. payment schemes, setting payout ratio, bonus or consolation prizes

Abstract

Novel methods, devices and systems are described for mapping pay amounts for a variety of Class III game themes to a common set of bingo pay amounts. Each Class III game theme may cause a different type of entertaining display on a gaming machine when bingo is played, based upon a corresponding Class III game. Preferably, each Class III game theme will offer game play and paytable percentages closely matching those of the original Class III game. Some implementations allow flexibility in matching the probabilities of bingo outcomes and Class III game outcomes by mapping ranges of Class III pay amounts to a single bingo pay amount. Some implementations provide a system wherein electronic gaming machines presenting entertaining displays of various Class III game themes are linked to a single bingo server.

Claims

1. A gaming machine, comprising:

a network interface;

a storage medium;

a payout device;

at least one display device; and

at least one logic device configured to perform the following tasks;

control a first display of a bingo game according to bingo game information received via the network interface;

determine a bingo payout amount for a result of the bingo game;

select a Class III payout amount from a global bingo paytable corresponding with a first Class III game and the bingo payout amount;

control a second display of a simulated Class III game outcome corresponding with the Class III payout amount; and

determine whether there is a difference between the Class III payout amount and the bingo payout amount.

2. The gaming machine of claim 1, wherein, when a logic device determines that there is a difference between the Class III payout amount and the bingo payout amount, the logic device is further configured to control the payout device to award the Class III payout amount plus a bonus equal to the difference between the Class III payout amount and the bingo payout amount.

3. The gaming machine of claim 1, wherein, when a logic device determines that there is no difference between the Class III payout amount and the bingo payout amount, the logic device is further configured to control the payout device to award the Class III payout amount.

4. The gaming machine of claim 1, wherein the selecting step comprises selecting a Class III payout amount having a first probability that is approximately equal to a second probability of the bingo payout amount.

5. The gaming machine of claim 1, wherein the selecting step performed by the logic device comprises searching a data structure stored in the storage medium, the data structure comprising M bingo payout amounts and N Class III payout amounts.

6. The gaming machine of claim 1, wherein the selecting step performed by the logic device comprises selecting one of a plurality of Class III payout amounts corresponding to the bingo payout amount.

7. The gaming machine of claim 1, wherein the bingo payout amount and the Class III payout amount are equal to zero.

8. The gaming machine of claim 1, wherein the gaming machine comprises a first display device and a second display device, wherein the bingo game is displayed on the first display device and wherein a simulated Class III game is displayed on the second display device.

9. The gaming machine of claim 1, wherein a logic device is configured for performing the following tasks:

receiving an indication that a second Class III game has been selected; and

mapping payout amounts of the second Class III game to the global bingo paytable.

10. The gaming machine of claim 6, wherein the selecting step performed by the logic device comprises applying a weighting function to select one of the plurality of Class III payout amounts.

11. The gaming machine of claim 6, wherein the storage medium contains numbers of Class III outcome representations corresponding to a plurality of Class III payout amounts, the numbers being in proportion to the relative probabilities of the Class III payout amounts, and wherein the selecting step comprises randomly selecting one of the Class III outcome representations.

12. The gaming machine of claim 9, wherein a logic device is configured for selecting a Class III payment amount from the global bingo paytable according to a bingo payout amount and the second Class III game.

13. The gaming machine of claim 10, wherein the weighting function applies a weight in proportion to a probability of a Class III payout amount.

14. The gaming machine of claim 11, wherein the Class III outcome representations comprise RNG seeds.

15. A method of forming a global bingo payout set, comprising:

establishing B predetermined bingo payout amounts;

assigning at least one bingo pattern to each of the B predetermined bingo payout amounts; and

mapping each of the B predetermined bingo payout amounts to at least one Class III payout amount of a first Class III game.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the mapping step comprises mapping ranges of Class III payout amounts to corresponding individual bingo payout amounts.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the mapping step comprises mapping a single Class III payout amount to more than one bingo payout amount.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising assigning at least one Class III outcome to each Class III payout amount.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the mapping step comprises mapping at least one individual Class III payout amount to an equal bingo payout amount.

20. The method of claim 15, further comprising the step of weighting the Class III payout amounts according to their probability in an underlying Class III game.

21. The method of claim 15, wherein the mapping step comprises mapping a plurality of bingo payouts to a Class III payout such that a sum of probabilities of the plurality of bingo payouts approximately equals a probability of the Class III payout.

22. The method of claim 15, wherein the mapping step comprises controlling D, a difference between a bingo payout amount and a Class III payout amount.

23. The method of claim 15, wherein the mapping step comprises controlling a ratio of a Class III payout amount to a total payout amount.

24. The method of claim 15, wherein the mapping step comprises scaling Class III probabilities according to a ratio between a total Class III probability and a total bingo probability.

25. The method of claim 15, wherein the mapping step comprises assigning a 100% probability that a predetermined bingo payout amount will result in a corresponding Class III payout amount.

26. The method of claim 16, wherein each Class III payout amount in a range is less than or equal to a corresponding bingo payout amount.

27. The method of claim 16, wherein the mapping step comprises associating a plurality of Class III payout amounts in a range with the corresponding bingo payout amount such that when a bingo payout amount is awarded in a bingo game, an outcome corresponding to one of the Class III payout amounts in the range will be displayed on a gaming machine.

28. The method of claim 17, wherein a probability of a bingo payout amount is approximately equal to a sum of probabilities of the Class III payout amounts in the corresponding range.

29. The method of claim 20, wherein the weighting step comprises providing relatively more Class III outcomes for Class III payout amounts having relatively higher probabilities.

30. The method of claim 20, wherein the weighting step comprises applying a relatively higher weighting function to Class III payout amounts that have relatively higher probabilities.

31. The method of claim 20, wherein the weighting step comprises approximating Class III win frequencies of the first Class III game, scaled to the a ratio of the total Class II probabilities and the total Class III probabilities.

32. The method of claim 20, wherein the weighting step comprises assigning a higher priority to matching probabilities of low payouts of the Class III game.

33. The method of claim 20, wherein the weighting step comprises assigning a higher priority to matching probabilities of high payouts of the Class III game.

34. The method of claim 22, wherein the mapping step comprises minimizing D.

35. The method of claim 22, wherein the mapping step comprises controlling D to be no more than a predetermined fraction of the bingo payout amount.

36. The method of claim 22, wherein the mapping step comprises controlling Class III payout probabilities to be inversely proportional to D.

37. The method of claim 35, wherein the fraction is one of ⅓

, ½

, ⅔ and

¾

.

38. Software embodied in at least one tangible medium, the software including instructions for controlling a gaming machine to perform the following tasks:

controlling a first display of a bingo game according to bingo game information received via a network interface;

determining a bingo payout amount for a result of the bingo game;

selecting a Class III payout amount from a first plurality of Class III payout amounts corresponding to the bingo payout amount; and

controlling a second display of a simulated Class III game outcome corresponding with the Class III payout amount.

39. The software of claim 38, wherein the selecting step comprises applying a weighting function to select one of the first plurality of Class III payout amounts.

40. The software of claim 38, wherein the selecting step comprises randomly selecting a Class III outcome representation from among a second plurality of Class III outcome representations corresponding to the first plurality of Class III payout amounts, the numbers of Class III outcome representations for each of the first plurality of Class III payout amounts being in proportion to the relative probabilities of the Class III payout amounts.

41. The software of claim 38, wherein the selecting step comprises using a weighting function that applies a weight in proportion to a probability of a Class III payout amount.

42. The software of claim 38, wherein the software further comprises instructions for determining whether there is a difference between the Class III payout amount and the bingo payout amount.

43. The software of claim 38, wherein the software further comprises instructions for controlling, when it is determined that there is a difference between the Class III payout amount and the bingo payout amount, a payout device to award the Class III payout amount plus a bonus equal to the difference.