Hiearchical multi-tiered system for gaming related communications

• US 8,303,417 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2011
• Issued: 11/06/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/24/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LNW Gaming Incorporated (Light & Wonder Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: WMS Gaming Incorporated (Light & Wonder Incorporated)
• Inventors: Burke, Mary M., Liber, Nevin J., Sylla, Craig J., Ward, Matthew J., Ganger, Mark B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Suhol, Dmitry
• Assistant Examiner(s): DUFFY, DAVID W
• Application Number:
  US13/250,919
• Publication Number:
  US 20120028716A1
• Time in Patent Office: 403 Days
• Field of Search: 463 40- 42
• US Class Current: 463/42
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/32 for games, toys, sports, or amusements
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3262 Player actions which determine the course of the game, e.g. selecting a prize to be won, outcome to be achieved, game to be played
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3286 Type of games

Abstract

A system, apparatus and method for gaming-related communications in a hierarchical multi-tiered system are described herein. In some embodiments, a method includes transmitting a master configuration from a central operations of a hierarchical multi-tiered system to a local gaming site having one or more gaming components. The method also includes receiving a selected configuration for one or more of the gaming components based on the master configuration. The method includes downloading the selected configuration to the one or more of the gaming components through the hierarchical multi-tiered system.

Claims

1. A central administration unit of a hierarchical multitiered system, comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one machine readable storage medium including instructions that when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising;

transmitting a master configuration to a local gaming site of the hierarchical multitiered system, the local gaming site having a site controller and one or more gaming components, the master configuration including a first set of configuration parameters;

receiving, from the site controller at the local gaming site, a selected configuration for at least one of the gaming components of the local gaming site, wherein the selected configuration is based on the master configuration, further limits the master configuration, and was selected by the site controller; and

facilitating a download of at least one game asset of the selected configuration by at least one of the site controller and the gaming components of the local gaming site.

2. The central administration unit of claim 1, wherein the operation of facilitating comprises:

transmitting, to at least one of the site controller and the gaming components of the local gaming site, the at least one game asset of the selected configuration.

3. The central administration unit of claim 2, wherein:

the hierarchical multitiered system further comprises a central game asset store that stores a plurality of game assets to be installed on gaming components of the hierarchical multitiered system;

the selected configuration includes at least one game asset of the plurality of game assets;

the operations further comprise retrieving, from the central game asset store, the at least one game asset included in the selected configuration; and

transmitting the selected configuration includes transmitting the at least one retrieved game asset to at least one of the site controller and the gaming components of the local gaming site.

4. The central administration unit of claim 1, wherein:

the hierarchical multitiered system further comprises a central game asset store that stores a plurality of game assets to be installed on gaming components of the hierarchical multitiered system;

the selected configuration includes at least one game asset of the plurality of game assets; and

the operation of facilitating comprises;

coordinating the download of the at least one game asset included in the selected configuration by at least one of the site controller and the gaming components of the local gaming site from the central game asset store.

5. The central administration unit of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

updating accounting data in an accounting data store based on the selected configuration.

6. The central administration unit of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

logging the download of the selected configuration into a central data store.

7. A site controller of a local gaming site of a hierarchical multitiered system, the local gaming site comprising the site controller and one or more gaming components, the site controller comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one machine readable storage medium including instructions which when executed by a machine cause the machine to perform operations comprising;

receiving, from a central administration site of the hierarchical multitiered system, a master configuration, the master configuration including a first set of configuration parameters;

determining, based on the master configuration, a selected configuration for at least one of the gaming components of the local gaming site, wherein the selected configuration is based on the master configuration and further limits the master configuration; and

transmitting the selected configuration to the central administration site.

8. The site controller of claim 7, the operations further comprising:

downloading at least one game asset included in the selected configuration from the central administration site; and

distributing the at least one game asset included in the selected configuration to at least one of the gaming components at the local gaming site.

9. The site controller of claim 7, the operations further comprising:

facilitating a download of at least one game asset included in the selected configuration from the central administration site by one or more gaming components.

10. The site controller of claim 7, wherein determining the selected configuration comprises:

deriving a second configuration from the master configuration, the second configuration having a second set of configuration parameters that further limit the first set of configuration parameters; and

determining the selected configuration from the second configuration.

11. At least two non-transitory machine-readable storage media storing instructions for a plurality of machines of a hierarchical multitiered system, said plurality of machines comprising at least one central administration machine of a central administration site and at least one site controller machine of a local gaming site, the at least two non-transitory machine readable storage media including a first non-transitory machine-readable storage medium and a second machine readable storage medium,

the first non-transitory machine readable storage medium storing instructions that when executed by at least one central administration machine, cause the at least one central administration machine to perform central site operations comprising:

transmitting a master configuration from the central administration site to the local gaming site, the local gaming site including the at least one site controller machine and one or more gaming components, the master configuration having a first set of configuration parameters;

receiving from the site controller at the local gaming site, by the at least one central administration machine, a selected configuration for one or more of the gaming components of the local gaming site, wherein the selected configuration is based on the master configuration, further limits the master configuration, and was selected by the site controller; and

facilitating, by the at least one central administration machine, the download of at least one game asset of the selected configuration by one or more of the gaming components through the hierarchical multi-tiered system; and

the second non-transitory machine readable storage medium storing instructions that when executed by at least one of the at least one site controller machine and the one or more gaming components of the local gaming site, cause the at least one of the at least one site controller machine and the one or more gaming components of the local gaming site to perform local site operations comprising determining, based on the master configuration, the selected configuration.

12. The at least two non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 11, the central site operations further comprising logging the downloading of the at least one game asset of the selected configuration in a data store that is part of the central administration site.

13. The at least two non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 11, the central site operations further comprising updating an accounting data store based on the downloading of the at least one game asset of the selected configuration.

14. The at least two non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 11, the local site operations further comprising downloading a digital certificate with the selected configuration, wherein the one or more gaming components authenticate the at least one game asset of the selected configuration based on the digital certificate.

15. The at least two non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 11, the local site operations further comprising executing a contingency operation, by a component of the local gaming site, in response to a determination that a network link between the local gaming site and the central administration site is disrupted, wherein the contingency operation is executable by the component at the local gaming site and executable by a component at the central administration site.

16. The at least two non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 15, wherein executing the contingency operation comprises downloading a game asset to one or more gaming machines at the local gaming site at a scheduled time.

17. The at least two non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 15, wherein executing the contingency operation comprises downloading at least one game asset of an updated configuration by one or more gaming machines at the local gaming site.

18. The at least two non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 15, the local site operations further comprising receiving a request, from a gaming machine at the local gaming site, to execute the contingency operation.

19. The at least two non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 15, wherein executing the contingency operation comprises:

retrieving configuration data from a local data store at the local gaming site; and

transmitting the configuration data to a gaming machine at the local gaming site.

20. The at least two non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 15, wherein executing the contingency operation comprises:

retrieving a game asset from a local data store at the local gaming site; and

transmitting the game asset to the gaming machine.

21. The at least two non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 15, wherein determining the selected configuration comprises:

deriving, by the at least one site controller machine, a second configuration from the master configuration, the second configuration having a second set of configuration parameters that further limit the first set of configuration parameters; and

determining the selected configuration from the second configuration.