FLEXIBLE LOYALTY POINTS PROGRAMS

• US 20080051193A1
• Filed: 07/30/2007
• Published: 02/28/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: IGT (International Game Technology)
• Original Assignee: IGT (International Game Technology)
• Inventors: Rowe, Richard, Kaminkow, Joseph
• Granted Patent: US 7,997,978 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/25
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3433 the counter having monetary units
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/387 Payment using discounts or coupons relating to marketing G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/257 electronically G07C9/26 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/37 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voice recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/32 for games, toys, sports, or amusements
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3202 Hardware aspects of a gaming system, e.g. components, construction, architecture thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3206 Player sensing means, e.g. presence detection, biometrics
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3239 Tracking of individual players
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3248 involving non-monetary media of fixed value, e.g. casino chips of fixed value
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3251 involving media of variable value, e.g. programmable cards, programmable tokens
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3255 Incentive, loyalty and/or promotion schemes, e.g. comps, gaming associated with a purchase, gaming funded by advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/02 by keys or other credit registering devices

Abstract

A disclosed a gaming machine includes an input mechanism with a non-physical contact data interface. The non-physical contact data interface may be capable of reading loyalty program data from a loyalty program instrument without contact between the loyalty program instrument and the non-physical contact data interface. The input mechanism with the non-physical contact data interface may be one of a bill validator, a bar-code reader and a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag reader. The loyalty program instrument may be a substrate including at least one of a 1-D bar-code printed on the substrate, a 2-D bar-code printed on the substrate, a symbol printed on the substrate, alpha-numeric character printed on the substrate, a RFID tag embedded in the substrate, a RFID tag printed on the substrate and combinations thereof. The loyalty program instrument may be used to store an index to a record in a database or a portable data file.

Claims

1. A gaming machine comprising:

a master gaming controller designed or configured to i) control a game of chance played on the gaming machine and ii) generate data for use in a loyalty program session and

a wireless interface for receiving loyalty program instrument data from a portable wireless device

wherein the gaming machine is operable to a) receive the loyalty program instrument data from the portable wireless device, b) after receiving the loyalty program instrument data, initiate a loyalty program session, c) determine a second gaming event has occurred on the gaming machine, d) terminate the loyalty program session in response to the second gaming event wherein the second gaming event is one or more of i) an occurrence of zero credits on the gaming machine, ii) an amount of idle time on the gaming machine exceeding a specified limit, iii) a cashout request, iv) a timeout condition, v) an inability to detect a user at the gaming machine or vi) combinations thereof;

an input mechanism operable to receive an indicia of credit or money for a wager on the game of chance; and

an output mechanism operable to output the indicia of credit or the money.

2. The gaming machine of claim 1, wherein the game of chance is selected from the group consisting of video slot games, mechanical slot games, video black jack games, video poker games, video keno games, video pachinko games, video card games, video games of chance and combinations thereof.

3. The gaming machine of claim 1, wherein loyalty program instrument data is one of 1) loyalty program information, 2) biometric information, 3) player preferences, 4) promotional information, 5) gaming machine configuration settings, 6) prize information, 7) cashless transaction information and 8) and combinations thereof.

4. The gaming machine of claim 1, wherein the portable wireless device further comprises one of 1) a logic device, 2) a power source, 3) a non-volatile memory, 4) a read-only memory, 5) a random access memory, or 6) combinations thereof.

5. A gaming machine comprising:

a master gaming controller designed or configured to i) control a game of chance played on the gaming machine and ii) generate data for use in a loyalty program session; and

a bar-code reader designed or configured to read loyalty program instrument data stored on a loyalty point instrument wherein the loyalty program instrument data is formatted as a 2-D bar-code;

wherein the gaming machine is operable to a) receive the loyalty program instrument data from the loyalty program instrument, b) after receiving the loyalty program instrument data, initiate a loyalty program session, c) determine a second gaming event has occurred on the gaming machine, d) terminate the loyalty program session in response to the second gaming event wherein the second gaming event is one or more of i) an occurrence of zero credits on the gaming machine, ii) an amount of idle time on the gaming machine exceeding a specified limit, iii) a cashout request, iv) a timeout condition, v) an inability to detect a user at the gaming machine or vi) combinations thereof;

an input mechanism operable to receive an indicia of credit or money for a wager on the game of chance; and

an output mechanism operable to output the indicia of credit or the money.