System and method for facilitating responsible behaviour

• US 8,696,358 B2
• Filed: 08/27/2004
• Issued: 04/15/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/27/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: John Thomas Flanagan
• Original Assignee: John Thomas Flanagan
• Inventors: Flanagan, John Thomas
• Primary Examiner(s): GEBREMICHAEL, BRUK A
• Application Number:
  US10/566,042
• Publication Number:
  US 20080199838A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,518 Days
• Field of Search: 434/236, 434/238, 463/25, 463/29
• US Class Current: 434/236
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/32 for games, toys, sports, or amusements
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3237 about the players, e.g. profiling, responsible gaming, strategy/behavior of players, location of players
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3239 Tracking of individual players
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3255 Incentive, loyalty and/or promotion schemes, e.g. comps, gaming associated with a purchase, gaming funded by advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/0866 by active credit-cards adapted therefor G07F7/1008 takes precedence

Abstract

A system (2) for facilitating responsible behavior by an entity comprising an identification means (32) for identifying the entity, a facility (4) for verifying the identification means and facilitating pursuit of the behavior, a storage means (18) coupled to be in communication with the facility (4) for storing information related to the pursuit of the behavior by the entity, a modeler module (24) for comparing the information related to the pursuit of the behavior by the entity with a behavior model to determine a category of behavior of the entity and a resolver module (22) for determining one or more actions to be initiated in relation to the entity and their pursuit of the behavior such as initiating a change to one or more operating parameters of the facility (4) in response to the activation of one or more limits, blocks or triggers related to the entity.

Claims

1. A system for facilitating responsible gambling by a human entity, said system comprising:

an identification device to identify the human entity and required to pursue gambling;

a gambling facility to verify the identification device and to facilitate pursuit of gambling;

a storage device in communication with the gambling facility to store information related to the pursuit of gambling by the human entity, said information based at least on monitoring actual pursuit of gambling by the human entity; and

a modeler module in communication with the storage device to identify whether the human entity has a gambling problem and/or exhibits gambling behavior that may become problematic by comparing at least some of the stored information based on monitoring actual pursuit of gambling by the human entity with at least one behavior model;

wherein the at least one behavior model determines one or more categories of gambling behavior based on statistical modeling, the at least one behavior model comprising;

up to date information about the actual pursuit of gambling by the human entity;

information on the psychological understanding of gambling behavior; and

historical gambling behavior patterns describing;

gambling behavior of the human entity determined from the monitoring of the actual pursuit of gambling by the human entity; and

gambling behavior of a distribution of other human entities determined from monitoring of the actual pursuit of gambling by the other human entities, and

whereby the system facilitates responsible gambling by the human entity by using the modeler module to identify a category of gambling behavior for the human entity.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the behavior model describes one or more categories of the gambling behavior selected from the following:

at risk gambling behavior, or a sub-category thereof;

problem gambling behavior or a sub-category thereof; and

compulsive/addictive gambling behavior or a sub-category thereof.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the modeler module compares at least some of the stored information based on monitoring actual pursuit of the gambling by the human entity with at least one gambling behavior model describing earlier gambling behavior of the human entity.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the behavior model comprises one or more criteria related to the gambling behavior.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the criteria include one or more of:

an acceleration criterion, a chasing losses criterion, a frequency criterion, a duration criterion, an inter-behavior criterion, an income proportion criterion, an age criterion, a sex criterion, an override criterion, a disposable income criterion, and a proportion of time spent employed criterion.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the modeler module considers whether any limits, blocks, triggers and/or exclusions related to the human entity have been activated in determining the category of behavior of the human entity.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the modeler module considers whether any limits, blocks, triggers and/or exclusions related to the human entity have been overridden or have been attempted to be overridden by the human entity in determining the category of behavior of the human entity.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the modeler module attributes a different weight to the human entity overriding a limit, trigger, block and/or exclusion generated by the behavior model than to the human entity overriding a self-imposed limit, trigger, block and/or exclusion.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising a resolver module for checking whether limits, blocks or triggers related to the human entity have been activated.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein in response to the activation of one or more limits, blocks or triggers related to the human entity, a targeted message is sent to the human entity.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the targeted message is one or more of:

an electronic message sent to the facility, an SMS message sent to a portable communication device of the human entity, an email sent to an email address of the human entity, mail sent to a mailing address of the human entity, and a verbal message delivered in person to the human entity.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein in response to the activation of one or more limits, blocks or triggers related to the human entity, the resolver module initiates a change to one or more operating parameters of the facility.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the changes to one or more operating parameters of the facility include one or more of:

preventing pursuit of gambling, periodically preventing pursuit of gambling, limiting a maximum monetary amount spent for each pursuit of gambling, limiting a maximum length of time gambling can be pursued, limiting a number of times gambling can be pursued simultaneously, limiting a number of times gambling can be pursued consecutively, and reducing the speed at which gambling can be pursued.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the changes to one or more operating parameters include one or more of:

preventing play, periodically preventing play, limiting a maximum monetary amount gambled per play, limiting a maximum length of time gambling can be pursued, limiting a number of games played simultaneously, limiting a number of games played consecutively, limiting a number of lines or hands or spins or throws of play, and reducing the speed at which games are played.

15. The system of claim 1, further comprising a referrer module for updating information stored in relation to the human entity where the human entity has been referred for assistance in relation to their gambling.

16. The system of claim 1, further comprising a reporter module for generating reports about the pursuit of gambling by the human entity.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the identification device stores only a unique identifier for identifying the human entity and no other information relating to the human entity.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein funds required to pursue gambling are stored electronically by the storage device.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the identification device electronically stores funds required to pursue gambling.

38. The system of claim 2, wherein the sub-category includes low, medium or high.

39. The system of claim 1, wherein the information on the psychological understanding of gambling behavior includes criteria from the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders or the South Oaks Gambling Screen.

20. A method for facilitating responsible gambling by a human entity, said method including:

facilitating pursuit of gambling via a gambling facility in response to verifying an identification device identifying the human entity, the identification device required to pursue gambling;

monitoring, via a processing device, actual pursuit of gambling by the human entity;

storing information related to the actual pursuit of gambling by the human entity in a storage device in communication with the gambling facility;

determining one or more categories of gambling behavior based on statistical modeling via at least one behavior model, the at least one behavior model comprising;

up to date information about the actual pursuit of gambling by the human entity;

information on the psychological understanding of gambling behavior; and

historical gambling behavior patterns describing;

gambling behavior of the human entity determined from the monitoring of the actual pursuit of gambling by the human entity; and

gambling behavior of a distribution of other human entities determined from monitoring of the actual pursuit of gambling by the other human entities; and

facilitating, via the processing device, responsible gambling by the human entity by comparing at least some of the information related to the actual pursuit of the gambling by the human entity with the at least one behavior model in a modeler module in communication with the storage device to identify whether the human entity has a gambling problem and/or exhibits gambling behavior that may become problematic by identifying a category of gambling behavior for the human entity.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein determining a category of gambling behavior of the human entity includes comparing at least some of the information related to the actual pursuit of gambling by the human entity with at least one behavior model describing earlier gambling behavior of the human entity.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein determining a category of gambling behavior of the human entity includes comparing at least some of the information related to the actual pursuit of gambling by the human entity with one or more criteria related to the gambling behavior.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the criteria include one or more of:

an acceleration criterion, a chasing losses criterion, a frequency criterion, a duration criterion, an inter-behavior criterion, an income proportion criterion, an age criterion, a sex criterion, an override criterion, a disposable income criterion, and a proportion of time spent employed criterion.

24. The method of claim 20, including considering whether any limits, blocks, triggers and/or exclusions related to the human entity have been activated.

25. The method of claim 20, including considering whether any limits, blocks, triggers and/or exclusions related to the human entity have been overridden or have been attempted to be overridden.

26. The method of claim 20, including attributing a different weight to the human entity overriding a limit, trigger, block and/or exclusion generated by the behavior model than a weight attributed to the human entity overriding a self-imposed limit, trigger, block and/or exclusion.

27. The method of claim 20, further including sending a targeted message to the human entity in response to the activation of one or more limits, blocks and/or triggers related to the human entity.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the targeted message is one or more of:

an electronic message sent to the facility, an SMS message sent to a portable communication device of the human entity, an email sent to an email address of the human entity, mail sent to a mailing address of the human entity, and a verbal message delivered in person to the human entity.

29. The method of claim 20, further including initiating a change to one or more operating parameters of the gambling facility in response to the activation of one or more limits, blocks and/or triggers related to the human entity.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the change to one or more operating parameters of the facility includes one or more of:

preventing pursuit of gambling, periodically preventing pursuit of gambling, limiting a maximum monetary amount spent for each pursuit of gambling, limiting a maximum length of time gambling can be pursued, limiting a number of times gambling can be pursued simultaneously, limiting a number of times gambling can be pursued consecutively, and reducing the speed at which gambling can be pursued.

31. The method of claim 29, wherein the change to one or more operating parameters of the facility includes one or more of:

preventing play, periodically preventing play, limiting a maximum monetary amount gambled per play, limiting a maximum length of time the gambling can be pursued, limiting a number of games played simultaneously, limiting a number of games played consecutively, limiting a number of lines or hands or spins or throws of play, and reducing the speed at which games are played.

32. The method of claim 20, further including referring the human entity for assistance in relation to their gambling.

33. The method of claim 20, wherein the human entity is referred for assistance following categorization of the behavior of the human entity as being at risk gambling behavior, problem gambling behavior or compulsive/addictive gambling behavior or a sub-category thereof.

34. The method of claim 20, further including generating reports about the pursuit of gambling by the human entity.

35. The method of claim 20, further including the identification device storing only a unique identifier for identifying the human entity and no other information relating to the human entity.

36. The method of claim 20, further including storing money electronically in the storage device for pursuit of gambling.

37. The method of claim 20, further including storing money electronically on the identification device for pursuit of the gambling.