Amusement devices: games – Including means for processing electronic data – In a chance application
Reexamination Certificate
2000-02-14
2004-05-11
Sager, Mark (Department: 3714)
Amusement devices: games
Including means for processing electronic data
In a chance application
C463S042000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06733385
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to electronically implemented games of chance and, more particularly, to data communications in electronic lottery-type games. The invention encompasses a method and apparatus for facilitating game play in an electronic lottery-type game, and a program product for facilitating the play of the game.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Lottery-type games are popular sources of revenue for governmental agencies and charitable organizations. As used in this disclosure, a “lottery-type game” comprises a game having a predetermined number of payouts or prizes and a determined chance of winning. For example, a lottery-type game may comprise a scratch-off or pull-tab game having a number of pre-printed tickets. Each ticket has some type of printed result indicator which indicates if the particular ticket is a winning ticket and, if the ticket is a winning ticket, indicates the prize or payout. The result indicator is commonly covered with some opaque cover material which may be scratched off or otherwise removed to reveal the indicator below. Thus, the ticket purchaser cannot see if the ticket is a winning ticket until purchasing the ticket and removing the opaque cover material.
Lottery-type games may be implemented through computer-based, electronic systems. Prior related U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/479,975, describes an electronic, multi-level lottery type game in which the play of the game may imitate a regular casino game. However, the game described in this prior application is played with pools of game play records having predetermined outcomes similar to standard paper ticket based lottery games. Thus, the game provides the excitement of a regular casino-type game such as draw poker, for example, but with the security, verifiability, and fixed chances of winning provided by paper ticket based lottery games.
Electronically implemented lottery-type games may be implemented using a central processing system for storing the various pools of game play records and for distributing the game play records to player terminals which are in communication with the central processing system. The player terminals provide a display device for displaying information to the player, an arrangement for accepting a wager, and an arrangement for providing inputs from the player. A player enters the electronically implemented lottery-type game by making a game play request at a player terminal. In response to a game play request entered by the player, the central processing system sends information regarding a particular game play record to the player terminal. The player terminal then displays the information regarding the game play, and, in the case of the system described in prior related application Ser. No. 09/479,975, allows the player to make a response. This response enters the player in another or second level lottery-type game and results in information regarding a second level game play being communicated from the central processing system to the player terminal.
The prior electronic game described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,324,035 to Morris et al. incorporates all information required to define a game play into a video ticket. The incorporated information includes data for the various graphic symbols to be displayed to the player through the player terminal. This arrangement results in relatively large amounts of data having to be transferred to the player terminal for each game play.
The prior electronic game described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,494,197 to Troy et al. It utilizes a counter register and winning ticket table at a central processor. In response to a play request from a player terminal, the value in the counter register is incremented and then the winning ticket table is queried to determine if the resulting count corresponds to a winning electronic ticket. The central processor then sends back to the player terminal a packet of information including a winning or losing code as appropriate. The winning code includes the amount won on the play. The Troy Patent also suggests using the amount won to produce a graphic representation of the result at the player terminal. However, using the amount won on a play to communicate a winning ticket to a player terminal constrains the payout structure and graphics available in the game.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the invention to provide a system which overcomes the above-described deficiencies and others in prior electronic lottery-type games. More particularly, it is an object of the invention to provide a method which reduces the amount of data transferred to the player terminals to communicate a game play in an electronic lottery-type game, and which provides flexibility in payout schedules as well as facilitates multi-level game play. A further object of the invention is to provide an apparatus and program product to implement the method.
In order to accomplish these objects, game play records include or comprise a record index. The method according to the invention employs the record index to initiate a process using data stored at the player terminal to produce graphic representations at the player terminal. This method reduces the amount of data which must be communicated to the player terminal in response to a game play request. Also, the present method facilitates the play of interrelated, multi-level electronic lottery-type games which may imitate casino-type games while retaining the fairness and predetermined payouts associated with traditional paper ticket lottery games.
The invention includes the step of storing at least one pool of game play records at a central processing system. Each game play record includes a record index selected from a set of unique index values. In this sense “unique” means that the index values in the set are each different and do not repeat within the set. Each index value in the set of unique index values is associated with a different result type. For example, in an electronic lottery game intended to imitate the play of draw poker, each unique index value in the set is associated with a type of hand in draw poker. Each type of hand corresponds to a particular result type and thus the result type defines the particular type of hand. One unique index value may be associated with the hand or result type “three of a kind” while another unique index value may be associated with a “full house”, for example. The number of different index values used in a game is equal to the number of different result types available in the game.
It will be noted that each different index value in the set of unique index values is associated with a result type and not a specific embodiment of the result type. For example, an index value associated with the result type “full house” does not specify the particular cards included in the hand, other than cards which amount to a “full house,” that is, a pair of one type of card and three of another type of card. It will also be noted that the result type is not evident from the index value which may be a numerical or alphanumeric value. Thus, the index value is distinct from the result type and outcome associated with a game play record and the game play record itself need not indicate whether it is a winning or losing record or any amount which may be won.
The method according to the present invention also includes the step of communicating the record index associated with a particular game play record from the central processing system to the player terminal. The particular record index is communicated to the player terminal in response to a game play request which a player has entered at the player terminal. The player terminal responds to the received record index by generating display commands to produce a graphic representation at the player terminal. This graphic representation is consistent with the result type associated with the particular record index which has been communicated to the player terminal.
Again using the example of a game adapted to imitate the play of draw poker, the graphic representati
Enzminger Joseph R.
Lind Clifton
Lind Jefferson C.
Ashburn Steven
Culbertson Russell D.
Multimedia Games, Inc.
Sager Mark
Shaffer & Culbertson L.L.P.
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