Flexible loyalty points programs

• US 7,946,917 B2
• Filed: 08/06/2002
• Issued: 05/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: IGT (International Game Technology)
• Original Assignee: IGT (International Game Technology)
• Inventors: Rowe, Richard E., Kaminkow, Joseph E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Vo; Peter DungBa
• Assistant Examiner(s): Yoo; Jasson H
• Application Number:
  US10/214,936
• Publication Number:
  US 20030036425A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,213 Days
• Field of Search: 463/25, 463/29, 463/42, 463/43, 463 16- 20
• US Class Current: 463/25
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3433 the counter having monetary units
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/387 Payment using discounts or coupons relating to marketing G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/257 electronically G07C9/26 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/37 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voice recognition
• 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 17/3206 Player sensing means, e.g. presence detection, biometrics
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3239 Tracking of individual players
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3248 involving non-monetary media of fixed value, e.g. casino chips of fixed value
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3251 involving media of variable value, e.g. programmable cards, programmable tokens
• 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 7/02 by keys or other credit registering devices

Abstract

A gaming machine comprising a non-physical contact data interface is described. The non-physical contact data interface may be capable of reading loyalty program data from a loyalty program instrument without contact between the loyalty program instrument and the non-physical contact data interface. The non-physical contact data interface may be one of a bill validator, a bar-code reader and a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag reader. The loyalty program instrument may be a substrate including at least one of a 1-D bar-code printed on the substrate, a 2-D bar-code printed on the substrate, a symbol printed on the substrate, alpha-numeric character printed on the substrate, a RFID tag embedded in the substrate, a RFID tag printed on the substrate and combinations thereof. The loyalty program instrument may be used to store an index to a record in a database or a portable data file.

Claims

1. A gaming machine comprising:

a master gaming controller configured to i) control a game of chance played on the gaming machine and ii) generate data for use in a loyalty program session;

a display mechanism for displaying the game of chance controlled by the master gaming controller;

a loyalty program session status interface separate from the display mechanism operable to at least visually display a status of the loyalty program session;

a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag reader configured to read loyalty program instrument data from a loyalty program instrument, said loyalty program instrument comprising an RFID tag, said RFID tag reader comprising an antenna operable to receive the loyalty program instrument data from the RFID tag when the RFID tag is proximate to the gaming machine;

an input mechanism operable to receive an indicia of credit or money for a wager on the game of chance; and

an output mechanism operable to output the indicia of credit or the money;

wherein

the gaming machine is configured to

a) determine a first gaming event has occurred on the gaming machine, said first gaming event comprising at least one of (i) a deposit of an indicia of credit into the gaming machine, (ii) an insertion of a card into a card slot on the gaming machine, (iii) an activation of an input button on the gaming machine, (iv) an input of a loyalty program instrument into the input mechanism on the gaming machine, (v) an input of a code into the gaming machine, (vi) an input of biometric information into the gaming machine;

b) broadcast an RFID tag compatible signal, in response to determining the first gaming event has occurred;

c) receive loyalty program instrument data from the RFID tag;

d) after receiving the loyalty program instrument data, output on the loyalty program session status interface an indication that a loyalty program session is active;

e) determine a second gaming event has occurred on the gaming machine;

f) determine that the second gaming event is to result in a termination of the loyalty program session;

g) in response to determining the second gaming event is to result in the termination of the loyalty program session, output on the loyalty program session status interface an indication that the loyalty program session interface is inactive;

h) prior to changing a status of the loyalty program session and in response to determining the second gaming event is to result in the termination of the loyalty program session, output on the loyalty program session status interface an indication that the loyalty program status is about to change.

2. The gaming machine of claim 1, wherein the RFID reader is operable to read the loyalty program instrument data from the loyalty program instrument for the loyalty program instrument in a fixed position relative to the antenna during the reading of data from the loyalty program instrument data.

3. The gaming machine of claim 1, wherein the RFID reader is operable to read the loyalty program instrument data from the loyalty program instrument for the loyalty program instrument in a time varying orientation relative to the antenna during the reading of data from the loyalty program instrument data.

4. The gaming machine of claim 1, wherein the RFID reader is operable to read the loyalty program instrument data from the loyalty program instrument for the loyalty program instrument in a time varying distance relative to the antenna during the reading of data from the loyalty program instrument data.

5. The gaming machine of claim 1, wherein the RFID reader is operable to read the loyalty program instrument data from the loyalty program instrument for the loyalty program instrument in a plurality of distances relative to the antenna.

6. The gaming machine of claim 1, wherein the RFID reader is operable to read the loyalty program instrument data from the loyalty program instrument for the loyalty program instrument in a plurality of orientations relative to the antenna.

7. The gaming machine of claim 1, wherein the loyalty program instrument data stored on the RFID tag includes one or more of a plurality of index numbers, each of said index numbers corresponding to a different loyalty program.

8. The gaming machine of claim 7, wherein the gaming machine further comprises logic for selecting index numbers from the plurality of index numbers that are valid for use on the gaming machine.

9. The gaming machine of claim 1, wherein the gaming machine is operable to provide a gaming service using loyalty program instrument data read from the loyalty program instrument wherein the gaming service is provided after reading the loyalty program instrument data and prior to contacting a remote server.

10. The gaming machine of claim 9, wherein the gaming service is selected from the group consisting of providing a player tracking session and configuring the gaming machine according to a preferred gaming machine configuration.

11. The gaming of machine of claim 1, further comprising:

one or more physical guides for aligning the loyalty program instrument relative to the antenna.

12. The gaming machine of claim 1, further comprising:

a sound projection device for emitting a sound in response to a data read by the RFID reader.

13. The gaming machine of claim 1, further comprising:

a lighting device for generating light in response to a data read by the RFID reader.

14. The gaming machine of claim 13, wherein the lighting device changes color in response to a data read by the RFID reader.

15. The gaming machine of claim 13, wherein the lighting device generates one of a first color, first light pattern and combinations thereof when the status of the loyalty program session is active and wherein the lighting device generates one of a second color, a second light pattern and combinations thereof when the status of the loyalty program session is inactive.

16. The gaming machine of claim 15, wherein the lighting device generates one of a third color, a third light pattern and combinations thereof when the status of the loyalty program session is about to change.

17. The gaming machine of claim 1, further comprising:

the loyalty program session status interface comprising;

a lighting device and a sound projection device.

18. The gaming machine of claim 17, wherein the loyalty program session status interface generates one of a sound, a light pattern, a light color and combinations thereof when data is read correctly by the RFID reader.

19. The gaming machine of claim 17, wherein the loyalty program session status interface generates one of a sound, a light pattern, a light color and combinations thereof when data is read incorrectly by the RFID reader.

20. The gaming machine of claim 17, wherein the loyalty program session status interface generates one of a sound, a light pattern, a light color and combinations thereof when a status of the loyalty program session is active.

21. The gaming machine of claim 17, wherein the loyalty program session status interface generates one of a sound, a light pattern, a light color and combinations thereof when a status of the loyalty program session is inactive.

22. The gaming machine of claim 17, wherein the loyalty program session status interface generates one of a sound, a light pattern, a light color and combinations thereof when a status of the loyalty program session is about to change.

23. The gaming machine of claim 1, further comprising:

a housing for mounting within an interior of the gaming machine, said housing comprising;

a front surface including an opening allowing the loyalty program instrument to be inserted into the gaming machine and to be removed from the gaming machine wherein the front surface of the housing is part of an exterior of surface of the gaming machine.

24. The gaming machine of claim 1, wherein the game of chance is selected from the group consisting of video slot games, mechanical slot games, video black jack games, video poker games, video keno games, video pachinko games, video card games, video games of chance and combinations thereof.

25. The gaming machine of claim 1, wherein RFID tag reader is coupled to a player tracking unit mounted within the gaming machine.

26. The gaming machine of claim 1, wherein the second gaming event is one or more of a tilt condition, an error condition, and a request for a loyalty program instrument.

27. The gaming machine of claim 1, wherein the RFID tag is an inductively coupled RFID tag or a capacitively coupled RFID tag.

28. The gaming machine of claim 1, wherein the RFID tag is operable to store an index to a record in a loyalty program database, a record of data in a loyalty program database or combinations thereof.

29. The gaming machine of claim 1, wherein the stored data is encrypted.

30. The gaming machine of claim 1, wherein stored data is one of 1) loyalty program information, 2) biometric information, 3) player preferences, 4) promotional information, 5) gaming machine configuration settings, 6) prize information, 7) cashless transaction information and 8) and combinations thereof.

31. The gaming machine of claim 1, wherein the RFID tag further comprises at least one of 1) a logic device and 2) a random access memory.

32. The gaming machine of claim 1, wherein the RFID reader is designed to program the RFID tag or a first RFID tag stored on the gaming machine.

33. The gaming machine of claim 1, wherein the RFID reader is designed to read data from a plurality of RFID tags carried by a game player.

34. The gaming machine of claim 1, further comprising:

a printer.

35. The gaming machine of claim 34, wherein the printer is capable of generating an electronic circuit on a printable media stored on the gaming machine.

36. The gaming machine of claim 35, wherein the printable media is flexible.

37. The gaming machine of claim 35, wherein the master game controller is further configured to program the electronic circuit to store loyalty instrument data.

38. The gaming machine of claim 35, wherein the electronic circuit is part of an RFID tag.

39. The gaming machine of claim 1, wherein the second gaming event is one or more of i) an occurrence of zero credits on the gaming machine, ii) an amount of idle time on the gaming machine exceeding a specified limit, iii) a cashout request, iv) a timeout condition, v) an inability to detect a user at the gaming machine or vi) combinations thereof.

40. The gaming machine of claim 1, wherein the RFID tag is designed or configured to only respond to the RFID reader in response to receiving power from the RFID reader.