WAGERING GAME ESTABLISHMENT DATA IMPORT/EXPORT ARCHITECTURE

• US 20110159966A1
• Filed: 09/07/2009
• Published: 06/30/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LNW Gaming Incorporated (Light & Wonder Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: WMS Gaming Incorporated (Light & Wonder Incorporated)
• Inventors: Lakshmanaperumal, Mahesh, Meluveettil, Krishnakumar, Gura, Damon E., Himawan, Budyanto, Schulhof, Scott H.
• Granted Patent: US 8,317,622 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 17/3223 Architectural aspects of a gaming system, e.g. internal configuration, master/slave, wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3276 wherein the players compete, e.g. tournament

Abstract

An architecture that employs an internal entity that controls import and export of data (“import/export controller”) and an external entity that operates as a liaison (“data liaison”) between the import/export controller and one or more online social communities allows online social community access in a secure manner. The import/export controller and the data liaison handle data transmissions (e.g., data feeds, data updates, etc.) between the secure entity and the one or more online social communities. The import/export controller applies rules that regulate import and export of data, and the data liaison allows the import/export controller to operate in obscurity. Funneling data transmissions through the import/export controller and the data liaison allows players to securely access an online social community from a wagering game machine while in a wagering game establishment.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

establishing a data feed between an online social community server and a server of a wagering game establishment through at least two intermediate machines;

evaluating content of the data feed with a first of the intermediate machines to ensure the content conforms to security rules of the wagering game establishment; and

obscuring the wagering game establishment server from the online social community server with the second of the two intermediate processes.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said establishing the data feed between the online social community server and the wagering game establishment server comprises:

the first intermediate machine validating a request for the data feed based on the security rules of the wagering game establishment.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising the first intermediate machine spawning one or more processes to handle the data feed if validated under the security rules.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said obscuring the wagering game establishment server comprises the second intermediate machine communicating with the online social community server and the first intermediate machine.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said evaluating the content of the data feed comprises the first intermediate machine sampling units of the data feed for the evaluating.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said establishing the data feed comprises establishing security measures for the data feed to comply with the security rules.

7. A method comprising:

validating a request to establish a data feed between a wagering game machine in a wagering game establishment and a server of an online social community against data import/export rules of a wagering game establishment;

establishing the data feed through a data liaison associated with the online social community and a data import/export controller of the wagering game establishment in accordance with the data import/export rules; and

expurgating units of the data feed in accordance with the import/export rules while maintaining the data feed and maintaining obscurity of the wagering game machine from the online social community server.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein establishing the data feed comprises spawning a process that reports current wagering gaming data of a player in the wagering game establishment to the server of the online social community.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the current wagering gaming data comprises one or more of current winnings, most frequently played wagering game, total wagers, and achievements awarded.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein establishing the data feed comprises spawning a process that bridges the data feed to a second wagering game machine at a different wagering game establishment and bridges a data feed from the second wagering game machine to the wagering game machine.

11. One or more machine-readable media having instructions encoded therein, which, when executed by a set of one or more processors, causes the set of one or more processors to perform operations that comprise:

validating a request to establish a data feed between a wagering game machine in a wagering game establishment and a server of an online social community against data import/export rules of a wagering game establishment;

establishing the data feed through a data liaison associated with the online social community and a data import/export controller of the wagering game establishment in accordance with the data import/export rules; and

expurgating units of the data feed in accordance with the import/export rules while maintaining the data feed and maintaining obscurity of the wagering game machine from the online social community server.

12. The machine-readable media of claim 11, wherein said operation of establishing the data feed comprises spawning a process that reports current wagering gaming data of a player in the wagering game establishment to the server of the online social community.

13. The machine-readable media of claim 12, wherein the current wagering gaming data comprises one or more of current winnings, most frequently played wagering game, total wagers, and achievements awarded.

14. The machine-readable media of claim 11, wherein said operation of establishing the data feed comprises spawning a process that bridges the data feed to a second wagering game machine at a different wagering game establishment and bridges a data feed from the second wagering game machine to the wagering game machine

15. An apparatus comprising:

a processor;

a set of one or more network interfaces; and

means for funneling data transmissions between a wagering game establishment and an online social community through an import/export controller that controls the data transmissions based on import/export rules for the wagering game establishment, and a data liaison associated with the online social community.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 further comprising means to expurgate data units of the data transmission in accordance with the import/export rules.

17. The apparatus of claim 15 further comprising means to validate requests for the data transmissions based on the import/export rules.

18. A network comprising:

a first machine configured to validate a request for a data feed between a server of a wagering game establishment and a server of an online social community, and configured to ensure the data feed complies with a set of rules of the wagering game establishment; and

a second machine communicatively coupled with the first machine, the second machine configured to liaise with the server of the online social community for the first machine to obscure the first machine.

19. The network of claim 18, wherein the first machine is obscured from the server of the online social community.

20. The network of claim 18 further comprising a wagering game server communicatively coupled with the first machine and a wagering game machine communicatively coupled with the first machine, wherein the first and the second machine are configured to obscure the wagering game machine and the wagering game machine server from the server of the online social community.