HIEARCHICAL MULTI-TIERED SYSTEM FOR GAMING RELATED COMMUNICATIONS

• US 20060217202A1
• Filed: 03/21/2006
• Published: 09/28/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/24/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LNW Gaming Incorporated
• Original Assignee: WMS Gaming Incorporated (Scientific Games Corporation)
• Inventors: Gagner, Mark B., Burke, Mary M., Sylla, Craig J., Ward, Matthew J., Liber, Nevin J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,029,365 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• 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 method comprising:

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;

receiving a selected configuration for one or more of the gaming components based on the master configuration; and

downloading the selected configuration to the one or more of the gaming components through the hierarchical multi-tiered system.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising logging the downloading of the selected configuration in a data store that is part of the central operations.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising updating an accounting data store based on the downloading of the selected configuration.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising downloading a digital certificate with the selected configuration, wherein the one or more gaming components authenticate the selected configuration based on the digital certificate.

5. A method comprising:

executing an operation, by a component at a local gaming site, in response to a determination that a network link between the local gaming site and a central operations is disrupted, wherein the operation is executable by the component at the local gaming site and executable by a component at the central operations.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein executing the operation comprises downloading a game asset to one or more gaming machines at the local gaming site at a scheduled time.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein executing the operation comprises downloading an updated configuration to one or more gaming machines at the local gaming site.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein executing the operation comprises:

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

transmitting the configuration data to the gaming machine.

10. The method of claim 5, wherein executing the 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.

8. The method of clam 5, further comprising receiving a request, from a gaming machine at the local gaming site, to execute the operation.

11. A machine-readable medium including instructions which when executed by a machine causes the machine to perform operations comprising:

transmitting, from a central operations of a multi-tiered system, a request for one or more performance criteria to a gaming machine at a local gaming site;

receiving a response that includes the one or more performance criteria from the gaming machine through the multi-tiered system; and

transmitting a configuration update to the gaming machine through the multi-tiered system, if the one or more performance criteria are below a threshold.

12. The machine-readable medium of claim 11, further comprising logging the downloading of the configuration update in a data store that is part of the central operations.

13. The machine-readable medium of claim 11, further comprising updating an accounting data store based on the configuration update.

14. The machine-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the one or more performance criteria is from a group consisting of an amount of coins inserted into the gaming machine, a net win of the gaming machine, a number of handle pulls of the gaming machine, an average bet on the gaming machine and a percent usage of the gaming machine.

15. A system comprising:

a central data store to store a master configuration for a number of gaming components at a local gaming site; and

a central administration unit to transmit the master configuration to the local gaming site, wherein the central administration unit is to receive a selected configuration for one of the number of gaming components based on the master configuration.

16. The system of claim 15, further comprising a central game asset store to store a number of game assets to be installed on the number of gaming components, wherein the selected configuration is to include one of the number of game assets.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the central administration unit is to download the selected configuration to the one of the number of gaming components.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the central administration unit is to log the download of the selected configuration into the central data store.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the central administration unit is to update accounting data in an accounting data store based on the selected configuration.

20. A system comprising:

a gaming machine at a local gaming site; and

a site controller to execute a scheduled operation related to the gaming machine, if a network link between the central operations and the local gaming site is disrupted, wherein a component in a central operations is scheduled to execute the scheduled operation.

21. The system of claim 20, further comprising a local game asset store, wherein the scheduled operation is to download a game asset from the local game asset store to the gaming machine.

22. The system of claim 20, further comprising a local data store, wherein the scheduled operation is to download an updated configuration from the local data store to the gaming machine.