Gaming machine system operable with general purpose charge cards
First Claim
1. A method of using a general purpose charge card to obtain and use playing credit for games of chance played on a first gaming machine at a first location which is remote from and is different from a financial institution which maintains an account for said general purpose charge card and bills the person to whom said charge card is issued, comprising the steps of:
- causing information from said general purpose charge card to be received by said first gaming machine;
requesting a playing credit through said first gaming machine based on said charge card;
determining whether to grant the requested playing credit and, in case of a determination to grant, transmitting a credit approval to said first gaming machine;
conditioning said first gaming machine in response to said credit approval to permit plays thereon using said playing credit as payment for the plays;
maintaining a net playing credit which accounts for said credit approval and for plays on said first gaming machine; and
selectively causing said first gaming machine to transmit information respecting said net playing credit to a processing facility for use in maintaining said account for said general purpose charge card.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
In a gaming establishment, a player feeds a general purpose charge card such as a VISA, MasterCard or AMERICAN EXPRESS card to a reader at a gaming machine or enters on a keyboard or other input device, information relating to the general purpose charge card, and keys in a desired amount of playing credit and optionally, a PIN (personal identification number) for automatic transmission to a remote financial institution (VISA or other charge card facility) either directly or through an intermediate transaction processing facility. Also transmitted are an identification of the gaming machine and the gaming operator. Upon approval of the requested playing credit, the gaming machine is enabled and thereafter a running net (balance) is kept for the player and/or each machine and/or the gaming operator by accounting for win-lose-draws. After the playing session is over, net playing credit information is automatically transmitted to the financial institution either directly or through an intermediate transaction processing facility so that the entire playing sessions can be a single line item on the player'"'"'s regular statement from that financial institution. Provisions are made to allow a player to use the same playing credit to play on more than one machine at the same time, to quit a machine and quickly move to another and still keep the same running balance, and to move from one gaming establishment to another on the same running balance.
271 Citations
50 Claims
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1. A method of using a general purpose charge card to obtain and use playing credit for games of chance played on a first gaming machine at a first location which is remote from and is different from a financial institution which maintains an account for said general purpose charge card and bills the person to whom said charge card is issued, comprising the steps of:
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causing information from said general purpose charge card to be received by said first gaming machine; requesting a playing credit through said first gaming machine based on said charge card; determining whether to grant the requested playing credit and, in case of a determination to grant, transmitting a credit approval to said first gaming machine; conditioning said first gaming machine in response to said credit approval to permit plays thereon using said playing credit as payment for the plays; maintaining a net playing credit which accounts for said credit approval and for plays on said first gaming machine; and selectively causing said first gaming machine to transmit information respecting said net playing credit to a processing facility for use in maintaining said account for said general purpose charge card. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A method comprising the steps of:
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supplying a general purpose charge card to a gaming machine at a location; causing the gaming machine to read selected information from the charge card and to validate the card and to request a personal identification number (PIN) for a validated card; entering a PIN in the machine in response to said request; causing the gaming machine to validate said PIN and, upon validation thereof, to prompt a player to enter an amount of requested playing credit; entering an amount of requested credit; determining whether to grant the requested credit on the basis of selected criteria; displaying the amount of granted playing credit available for play or pay-out at said gaming machine, and enabling the gaming machine to use said playing credit; detecting plays and win/lose/draw results therefrom, any pay-out requests and any end-of-play requests and updating credit balances for the gaming machine, for the player and for a gaming operator of said gaming machine and displaying at least the updated balance for the player; posting a daily balance for at least the player to a credit process facility; and processing the balances posted to the credit process facility to update accounts for the player and for said gaming operator therein. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25)
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26. An apparatus for enabling a general purpose charge card to obtain playing credit for use in games of chance played on a first gaming machine at a first location which is remote from and is different from a financial institution which maintains an account for said general purpose charge card and bills a person to whom said general purpose charge card is issued, comprising:
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means for causing information from said general purpose charge card to be received by said first gaming machine; means for requesting playing credit through said first gaming machine based on said general purpose charge card; means for determining whether to grant said playing credit; means for transmitting a credit approval to said first gaming machine; means for conditioning said first gaming machine in response to said credit approval to permit plays thereon using said playing credit as payment for said plays; means for maintaining a net playing credit which accounts for said credit approval, said playing credit and said plays on said first gaming machine; and means for selectively causing said first gaming machine to transmit information respecting said net playing credit to a processing facility for use in maintaining said account for said general purpose charge card. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47)
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48. An apparatus comprising:
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means for supplying a general purpose charge card to a gaming machine at a location; means for causing said gaming machine to read selected information from said general purpose charge card; means to validate said general purpose charge card; means to request a personal identification number (PIN) for a validated general purpose charge card; means for entering said PIN in said gaming machine in response to said request; means for causing said gaming machine to validate said PIN; means for validating said PIN; means for prompting a player to enter an amount of requested playing credit; means for entering said amount of requested playing credit; means for determining whether to grant said requested playing credit on the basis of selected criteria; means for displaying an amount of granted playing credit available for play or pay-out at said gaming machine; means for enabling said gaming machine to use said granted playing credit; means for detecting plays and win/lose/draw results, any pay-out requests and any end-of-play requests; means for updating credit balances for said gaming machine, for said player and for a gaming operator of said gaming machine; means for displaying at least said credit balance for said player; means for posting a daily balance for at least said player to a credit process facility; and means for processing said daily balance to update accounts for said player and for said gaming operator. - View Dependent Claims (49, 50)
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Specification