Remote game processing

• US 8,663,010 B2
• Filed: 01/19/2006
• Issued: 03/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sg Gaming, Inc. (Scientific Games Corporation)
• Original Assignee: WMS Gaming Incorporated (Scientific Games Corporation)
• Inventors: Thomas, Alfred, Frattinger, Christopher J., Warkentin, Terry D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bumgarner, Melba
• Assistant Examiner(s): HENRY, THOMAS HAYNES
• Application Number:
  US11/335,440
• Publication Number:
  US 20060205511A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,966 Days
• Field of Search: 463/42
• US Class Current: 463/42
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/32 for games, toys, sports, or amusements
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3202 Hardware aspects of a gaming system, e.g. components, construction, architecture thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3218 wherein at least part of the system is portable

Abstract

Techniques and systems for remote gaming are presented. Gaming applications reside and process on portable gaming cards and the portable gaming cards are remote from the gaming terminal. Moreover, the portable gaming cards are interfaced to a gaming system processor, which facilitates the processing of the gaming applications. Interactions with the gaming terminal result in the remote and portable gaming card processing an appropriate gaming application. The results produced are communicated back to the gaming terminal. Furthermore, the results may alter multimedia presented or played on the gaming terminal.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

at least one portable gaming card coupled to a gaming system processor, the gaming system processor having a plurality of slots, each slot receives a particular portable gaming card, and each slot has its own unique address within the gaming system processor and each slot maps that slot to a particular gaming terminal, the mapping defined in tables, some policies group selective gaming terminals to a single portable gaming card via a particular slot of the gaming system processor, and each of the portable gaming cards includes its own memory, storage, and processor and a single unique gaming application that is executed on that specific portable gaming card, the unique gaming application is a wagering game, and each of the portable gaming cards is capable of being dynamically removed from its slot and dynamically plugged into another slot; and

a particular gaming terminal selected from the plurality of gaming terminals, the particular gaming terminal is mapped to a specific one of the slots, which the at least one portable gaming card is plugged into, the at least one portable gaming card and the particular gaming terminal are remote from one another and communicate with one another over a network, and a unique and particular gaming application resides and executes on the at least one portable gaming card in cooperation with the gaming system processor, and results from the processing are communicated to and driven by interactions with the particular gaming terminal over the network.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprising, an intermediate device that facilitates communications among the particular gaming terminal, the at least one portable gaming card, and the gaming system processor.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the intermediate device is at least one of a router, a proxy, a firewall, and a server.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the intermediate device provides at least one of authentication and encryption services for communications among the particular gaming terminal, the at least one portable gaming card, and the gaming system processor.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the gaming application is adapted to be at least one of dynamically modified, dynamically added, dynamically downloaded, and dynamically deleted from the at least one portable gaming card.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one portable gaming card is adapted to be moved from one slot to another interface slot within the gaming system processor and dynamically associated with a different gaming terminal.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the gaming system processor is a rack or jukebox device adapted to house the at least one portable gaming card and a plurality of additional portable gaming cards, and wherein each of the plurality of additional portable gaming cards communicate remotely with the particular gaming terminal or with other one of the plurality of terminals.

8. A method, comprising:

transmitting, via a particular gaming terminal, an interaction to a remote gaming card, the remote gaming card is interfaced to a gaming system processor via a unique slot of the gaming system processor, the unique slot having a unique address, and the gaming system processor is also interfaced with a plurality of additional remote gaming cards via other slots of the gaming system processor, and the unique slot of the gamming system processor is mapped to the particular gaming terminal via a unique address for the slot and a table having the associating between the slot and its address with the particular gaming terminal, the remote gaming card includes its own memory, storage, and processor and executes a single and unique gaming application for a wagering game on behalf of the particular gaming terminal; and

receiving, at the particular gaming terminal, a result from the remote gaming card in response to the interaction; and

presenting, at the particular gaming terminal, a modified presentation on a display in response to the result.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein transmitting further includes transmitting the interaction over the network to an intermediate device that identifies and interacts directly with the remote gaming card.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein transmitting further includes at least one of wirelessly transmitting the interaction over a wireless network and transmitting the interaction over a wired network.

11. The method of claim 8 further comprising, implementing security procedures for transmitting the interaction and for receiving the result.

12. The method of claim 8 further comprising, dynamically selecting the gaming application associated with the remote gaming card, and wherein selecting determines an identity of the remote gaming card before transmitting the interaction.

13. The method of claim 8 further comprising, processing at least one of video data, graphical data, audio data, image data, and textual data in response to the result.

14. The method of claim 8 further comprising, using the interaction transmitted to the remote gaming card and the result received from the remote gaming card to interactively and dynamically play the wagering game.

15. A method, comprising:

receiving, at a portable gaming card having its own memory, storage, and processor, a game command that originates from a remote gaming terminal over a network;

processing, by a gaming application residing and executing on the portable gaming card, the game command, and the portable gaming card is interfaced to a gaming system processor via a slot having a unique address that maps via a table using the unique address for the slot having the portable gaming card to the remote gaming terminal, the gaming system processor includes a plurality of additional portable gaming cards each additional portable gaming card associated with its own unique slot in the gaming system processor, each additional portable gaming card is mapped via the table using an address for that portable card'"'"'s slot to a specific remote gaming terminal selected from a plurality of remote gaming terminals, the mapping is achieved via a specific slot of the gaming system processor that a particular portable gaming card is plugged into and each additional portable gaming card including its own memory, storage, processor, and unique gaming application that processes on that additional portable gaming card, and each additional portable and the portable gaming card capable of being dynamically removed from and dynamically plugged into slots for the gaming system processor; and

transmitting a result produced by the gaming application to the remote gaming terminal.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising, maintaining data associated with the gaming application, the game command, and the result within the memory or the storage associated with the portable gaming card.

17. The method of claim 15 further comprising, dynamically directing the game command to the portable gaming card within and at a particular slot of the gaming system processor in response to an identity associated with the remote gaming terminal.

18. The method of claim 15 further comprising, simultaneously transmitting the result to at least one additional remote gaming terminal selected from the plurality of remote gaming terminals and one of the additional portable gaming cards.

19. The method of claim 15 further comprising, identifying the gaming application in response to at least one of features associated with the remote gaming terminal, the gaming command, and an identity associated with the remote gaming terminal.

20. The method of claim 15, further comprising dynamically replacing the gaming application with a different gaming application by dynamically associating the gaming terminal with one of the additional gaming cards of the gaming system processor.