MANAGEMENT OF ONLINE WAGERING COMMUNITIES

• US 20110212767A1
• Filed: 11/09/2009
• Published: 09/01/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/10/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LNW Gaming Incorporated (Light & Wonder Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: WMS Gaming Incorporated (Light & Wonder Incorporated)
• Inventors: Ng, Darren Yat-man, Wright, Tracey L., Guinn, Andrew C., Barclay, Brian J., Louie, Daniel P.
• Granted Patent: US 8,585,492 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/25
• 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 17/3225 Data transfer within a gaming system, e.g. data sent between gaming machines and users
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3272 Games involving multiple players

Abstract

The document describes operations for managing online wagering game casinos. In some embodiments of the inventive subject matter, the operations include presenting wagering games to players in an online casino; facilitating messaging between the players and a wagering game attendant; reporting results of the wagering games to the attendant; and detecting, from the wagering game attendant, a request to present a community bonus opportunity to one or more of the players. The operations can also include presenting the community bonus opportunity to the players; detecting responses to the community bonus opportunity, wherein the responses are associated with the players; determining one or more winners of prizes offered in the community bonus opportunity; and awarding the prizes to the one or more winners.

Claims

1. One or more machine-readable storage media having stored therein a program product, which when executed by a set of one or more processor units causes the set of one or more processor units to perform operations that comprise:

presenting wagering games to players in an online casino;

facilitating messaging between the players and a wagering game attendant;

reporting results of the wagering games to the attendant;

detecting, from the wagering game attendant, a request to present a community bonus opportunity to one or more of the players;

presenting the community bonus opportunity to the players;

detecting responses to the community bonus opportunity, wherein the responses are associated with the players;

determining one or more winners of prizes offered in the community bonus opportunity; and

awarding the prizes to the one or more winners.

2. The machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the wagering game attendant is one of an employee of the online casino, a player who meets qualifications, and a bot.

3. The machine-readable medium of claim 2, wherein the bot is configured to analyze results of the wagering game, and suggest a side-bet to the players based on the results.

4. The machine-readable medium of claim 2, wherein the qualifications are at least one of an average amount wagered, frequency of play in the online casino, and a number of social contacts.

5. The machine-readable medium of claim 1, the operations further comprising:

determining, based on the results, that one or more of the players are inactive.

indicating the one or more inactive players to the wagering game attendant.

6. A method for monitoring chat in a wagering game environment, the method comprising:

presenting wagering games to a plurality of players in a wagering game environment;

detecting an indication of one of the players engaged in questionable chat;

soliciting, from the plurality of players, feedback about the questionable chat;

determining that the questionable chat is offensive to some of the plurality of players based on the feedback;

assigning a value to a reputation rating associated with the one of the players based on a level of offensiveness associated with the questionable chat;

determining that the reputation rating of the one of the players is beyond a threshold; and

revoking one or more privileges of the one of the players.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the indication comprises at least one of an identifier of the one of the players, a quote of the questionable chat, and a description of the offensive chat.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the level of offensiveness is determined based on at least one of comments in the feedback, how many of the players found the chat offensive, and a reputation of at least one of the players.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the privileges comprise an ability to chat with the players, and ability to participate in community bonus opportunities, and an ability to join a wagering game community.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the privileges may be revoked temporarily.

11. The method of claim 6 further comprises:

allowing the one of the players to rehabilitate the reputation rating.

12. An apparatus for facilitating side betting on a wagering game in an online wagering game environment, the apparatus comprising:

means for presenting the wagering game for play by players in the online wagering game environment;

means for detecting a request, by a first player of the players, to place a side bet on game play controlled by a second player of the players, wherein the game play is associated with the wagering game;

means for accepting the side bet;

means for determining that the first player has won the side bet;

means for determining an award for the side bet;

means for depositing the award in an online wagering account.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 further comprising:

means for detecting additional conditions for the side bet, wherein the additional conditions are entered by a wagering game attendant.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the award is a monetary value.

15. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the request to place a side bet is received from a wagering game attendant.

16. An apparatus comprising:

a wagering game controller configured to present wagering games;

a wagering game attendant controller configured to,

present wagering games to players in an online casino;

facilitate messaging between the players and a wagering game attendant;

report results of the wagering games to the attendant;

detect, from the wagering game attendant, a request to present a community bonus opportunity to one or more of the players;

present the community bonus opportunity to the players;

detect responses to the community bonus opportunity, wherein the responses are associated with the players;

determine one or more winners of prizes offered in the community bonus opportunity; and

award the prizes to the one or more winners.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 further comprising:

a side betting controller configured to receive side bet conditions entered through a user interface and to place the side-bets.

18. The apparatus of claim 16 further comprising:

a newsfeed controller configured to detect wins by the players and report the wins to subscribes of a newsfeed.

19. The apparatus of claim 16 further comprising:

chat controller configured to deliver chat messages to the players and determines that ones of the chat messages are offensive by soliciting feedback from the players.

20. A computer-implemented method comprising:

presenting wagering games to players in an online casino;

facilitating messaging between the players and a wagering game attendant;

reporting results of the wagering games to the attendant;

detecting, from the wagering game attendant, a request to present a community bonus opportunity to one or more of the players;

presenting the community bonus opportunity to the players;

detecting responses to the community bonus opportunity, wherein the responses are associated with the players;

determining one or more winners of prizes offered in the community bonus opportunity; and

awarding the prizes to the one or more winners.

21. The computer-implemented method of claim 20, wherein the wagering game attendant is one of an employee of the online casino, a player who meets qualifications, and a bot.

22. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, wherein the bot:

analyzes results of the wagering game; and

suggests a side-bet to the players based on the results.

23. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, wherein the qualifications are at least one of an average amount wagered, frequency of play in the online casino, and a number of social contacts.

24. The computer-implemented method of claim 20, further comprising:

determining, based on the results, that one or more of the players are inactive.

indicating the one or more inactive players to the wagering game attendant.