Remote Authentication For Gaming Appalications

• US 20070298887A1
• Filed: 09/14/2005
• Published: 12/27/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sg Gaming, Inc. (Scientific Games Corporation)
• Original Assignee: WMS Gaming Incorporated (Scientific Games Corporation)
• Inventors: Ryan, Chad
• Granted Patent: US 8,221,239 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 17/3241 Security aspects of a gaming system, e.g. detecting cheating, device integrity, surveillance computer security G06F21/00

Abstract

Techniques for authenticating gaming applications are presented. Authentication requests are periodically and regularly sent by a requestor to a gaming device for purposes of authenticating configurable portions of a gaming application. The gaming device generates results which are transmitted back to the requestor. The requestor compares the results against known results to determine if the configurable portions are authenticated or not authenticated.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

transmitting, periodically and regularly, an authentication request over a network to a gaming device for authenticating a gaming application resident on the gaming device, wherein the request identifies a configurable portion of the gaming application; and

receiving a result from the gaming device over the network in response to the request, wherein the result is compared against a known value and if a match occurs, the configurable portion is considered authenticated.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting further includes transmitting with the request a seed value for use by the gaming device in calculating the result.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein transmitting further includes, transmitting with the request an offset value into storage associated with the gaming application, wherein the offset value is a beginning portion of the gaming application to be used by the gaming application in calculating the result.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein transmitting further includes, transmitting with the request a length value that when combined with the offset value permits the gaming application to identify the configurable portion of the gaming application for use in calculating the result.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising, calculating the known result based on a copy of the gaming application, wherein the copy is locally accessible to the method and wherein same parameters are used in calculating the known result as were used in calculating the result.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising, calculating the known result by identifying an authenticated copy of the gaming application over the network and requesting that a service supply the known result for the configurable portion.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising, calculating the known result by identifying an authenticated copy of the gaming application over the network and requesting that a copy of the configurable portion be supplied for purposes of generating the known result.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising, calculating the known result by locating an authenticated copy of the gaming application over the network and requesting that a copy of the configurable portion be supplied to a service that generates the known result.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising, transmitting to the gaming application an identity for an algorithm which permits the gaming device to process the algorithm using the configurable portion of the gaming application in order to generate the result.

10. A method comprising:

receiving, periodically and regularly, an authentication request over a network for authenticating a locally resident gaming application, wherein the request identifies a configurable portion of the gaming application to authenticate;

calculating a result in response to the configurable portion; and

transmitting the result to a remote requestor over the network.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein calculating further includes selecting an algorithm that generates the result in response to the configurable portion.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein selecting further includes selecting the algorithm based on an algorithm identifier supplied with the request.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein selecting further includes selecting the algorithm based on profiles or configurations associated with the gaming application or the method.

14. The method of claim 10 further comprising, resolving the configurable portion in response to at least one of an offset value and a length value supplied with the request.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein calculating further includes generating the result also in response to a seed value supplied with the request.

16. A system, comprising:

a gaming device adapted to process a gaming application and a result algorithm, wherein the result algorithm generates results in response to authentication requests which are periodically and regularly received from a requester service; and

the requestor service adapted to periodically issue the authentication requests to the gaming device over a network and further adapted to compare the results against known results for purposes of authenticating configurable portions of the gaming application.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the requests include at least one of an identity of the gaming application, an offset value into the gaming application, a length value, a seed value adapted to be used by the result algorithm, an identity for the result algorithm.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein a frequency or a period with which the requestor service is adapted to issue the authentication requests is configurable.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the network is at least one of hardwired, secure, and wireless.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the requestor service is further adapted to generate known results using a copy of the gaming application that is locally accessible to the requester service in combination with same parameters consumed by the result algorithm in generating the results.

21. The system of claim 16, wherein the result algorithm is a check sum algorithm, a cyclical redundancy check (CRC) algorithm, a hash algorithm, or a digital signature algorithm.

22. The system of claim 16, wherein the requester service is adapted to terminate or remove the gaming application if one of the results does not match a corresponding one of the known results.

23. A gaming device, comprising:

a gaming application;

a result algorithm; and

a requestor interface, wherein the requestor interface is adapted to communicate with a requestor over a network for purposes of periodically and regularly receiving authentication requests that are directed to configurable portions of the gaming application, the result algorithm is adapted to generate results in response to the authentication requests and the requestor interface is further adapted to transmit the results over the network to the requester.

24. The gaming device of claim 23, wherein the gaming application is defined and represented as at least one of an electronic file, a directory, a database table, and a set of instructions within the gaming device.

25. The gaming device of claim 23, wherein the gaming application resides on removable media interfaced to the gaming device.

26. The gaming device of claim 23, wherein the gaming application resides in storage or memory of the gaming device.

27. The gaming device of claim 23, wherein the result algorithm is adapted to be dynamically supplied by the requestor and adapted to be dynamically loaded and processed within the gaming device.

28. The gaming device of claim 23, wherein the result algorithm is adapted to generate the results in response to at least one of a seed value, an offset value into the configurable portion of the gaming application, and a length value.