Charitable contribution station with promotional game piece feature

• US 7,236,943 B1
• Filed: 11/09/2000
• Issued: 06/26/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/09/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Heflin D. Keith
• Original Assignee: Heflin D. Keith
• Inventors: Heflin, D. Keith
• Primary Examiner(s): Fischer; Andrew J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sherr; Cristina Owen
• Application Number:
  US09/711,171
• Time in Patent Office: 2,420 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14, 705/7, 705/26, 705/27, 705/30, 705/39
• US Class Current: 705/14.12
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/06 Private payment circuits, e.g. involving electronic currency used among participants of a common payment scheme
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0209 Incentive being awarded or redeemed in connection with the playing of a video game
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/32 for games, toys, sports, or amusements
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3244 Payment aspects of a gaming system, e.g. payment schemes, setting payout ratio, bonus or consolation prizes
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3255 Incentive, loyalty and/or promotion schemes, e.g. comps, gaming associated with a purchase, gaming funded by advertisements

Abstract

A game system, for soliciting donations to charities and organizations as a promotion to expose charitable groups or other organizations to a wider range of potential donors as well as to expand the locations currently available. To encourage such donations the system includes a sub-system that provides the donor and non-donors alike with an opportunity to play a game of chance with the credits that the person receives with each donation. The donor may then save such credits or play them, and to the extent a person wins, a promotional prize will be awarded.

Claims

1. An apparatus for soliciting monetary donations from a donor to a donee, the apparatus comprising:

a video display;

a donation acceptor generating a donation received signal in response to receiving a monetary donation from a donor, the donation received signal corresponding to the monetary value of the donation;

a computer operatively connected to the display and to the donation acceptor, the computer receiving the donation received signal and determining a promotional credits score corresponding to the donation received signal, the computer further determining an accumulated promotional credits score including the promotional credits score, the computer comprising;

a memory, the memory storing the promotional credits score and the accumulated promotional credits score;

an executable video game software resident in the memory, the video game software causing the computer to generate and operate a promotional video game for play by a donor in response to and conditioned on receipt of the donation received signal, each play of the video game conditioned on selection of a promotional credit wager;

an executable donee information software resident in the memory, the donee information software causing the computer to generate information associated with a donee at the display; and

an executable game information software resident in the memory, the game information software causing the computer to generate game information at the display for playing the promotional video game, the game information including the accumulated promotional credits score and the selected promotional credit wager; and

a donor control panel operatively connected to the computer, the donor control panel configured to allow the donor to select a game play input during the operation of the promotional game, the selected game input including the selected promotional credit wager, the donor control panel communicating a selected game play input signal to the computer in response to receipt of the selected game play input.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the selected promotional credit wager comprises at least a portion of the accumulated promotional credits.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the selected promotional credit wager comprises at least a portion of the winning score of the previous promotional play of the video game.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the donation acceptor comprises a currency acceptor.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the donation acceptor comprises a credit card acceptor.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a game credit accumulator operatively connected to the donation acceptor and to the computer, the computer further comprising a game credit software resident on the memory and causing the computer to;

increment the accumulated promotional credits score by an amount corresponding to the promotional credits score in response to a donation received signal;

increment or decrement the accumulated promotional credits score in response to the playing of the promotional game, and

store the accumulated promotional credits score available to the donor for playing the promotional game.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a game credit dispenser operable to dispense a physical record of at least a selected portion of the accumulated promotional credits score to the donor.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, the game credit dispenser including a printer.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a credit adjustor operably connected to the computer for adjusting the accumulated promotional credits score.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the credit adjustor includes a credit removal switch.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the credit adjustor includes a promotional play switch.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

an input donation meter operatively connected to the donation acceptor, the input donation meter recording the monetary amount of the donation in response to the donation received signal.

13. The apparatus of claim 7, further comprising:

an output credit meter operatively connected to the computer, the output credit meter recording the selected portion of the accumulated promotional credits score issued by the game credit dispenser.

14. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a promotional play meter operatively connected to the computer, the promotional play meter recording plays of the promotional game.

15. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a modem operatively connected to the computer.