Amusement devices: games – Including means for processing electronic data – Credit/debit monitoring or manipulation
Reexamination Certificate
1997-07-01
2001-05-08
Sager, Mark (Department: 3713)
Amusement devices: games
Including means for processing electronic data
Credit/debit monitoring or manipulation
C463S020000, C705S014270, C235S380000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06227972
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to prepaid casino cards, and more particularly, to prepaid casino cards that expire in predefined amounts over predefined periods of time.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Slot machines, including video poker, video keno or video blackjack (hereinafter, collectively referred to as “slot machines”) are an important source of income for the gambling industry. Accordingly, casinos constantly search for new gaming strategies and features to provide additional incentives for slot machine players to continue play and to distinguish their slot machines from competitors in the industry. For example, as an added incentive to play slot machines and to increase customer loyalty, many casinos offer “slot club” programs to reward slot machine players. Each player in a slot club is generally issued a player tracking card encoded with his identification number. The casino awards “player reward points” for the player as he plays slot machines in that casino. The “player reward points” can generally be redeemed for merchandise or services at the casino hotel. In many cases, however, these incentives may not be sufficient to attract new players or to retain existing casino players at slot machines.
While such slot clubs were initially successful in building customer loyalty, it has been found that conventional slot clubs have now become only a secondary consideration when a player is selecting a casino to frequent, in view of the availability of virtually indistinguishable slot clubs at most casinos. Generally, a customer can join a slot club at practically any selected casino, with each slot club offering similar programs to reward slot machine play. Thus, for many players, a slot club does not provide a sufficient novelty to incent players to return to a particular casino.
In order to attract new customers and build customer loyalty, many casinos offer “bus packages” to customers, which include transportation to the casino. Typically, customers pay a fee for such packages, with at least a portion of the fee generally being returned to the customer upon arrival at the casino, in the form of food coupons and coins or tokens which may be used for slot machine play. In addition, such “bus packages” typically include a coupon, good for a predefined period of time, which permits the customer to obtain additional money, if the customer makes a return trip to the casino. Typically, however, casinos have no way to ensure that a monetary amount provided to a “bus package” customer for slot machine play is actually spent in the casino.
Traditionally, players obtained coins or tokens for slot machine plays from clerks who circulated through the casino or from cashiers at centralized booths. When players ran out of coins, they were thus required to return to the cashier for more coins, and thereby risk losing their position at a particular slot machine, or otherwise await the return of a circulating clerk. In order to increase customer convenience, as well as casino revenues, a number of casinos have recently introduced proprietary prepaid casino cards that permit cashless gambling. U.S. Pat. No. 5,265,874, entitled “Cashless Gaming Apparatus and Method,” to Dickinson et al. and assigned to International Game Technology (IGT), discloses one such cashless gaming system suitable for casinos.
Generally, such cashless gaming systems allow players to provide a form of payment to a clerk and obtain a prepaid casino card, encoded with an identification number. An account, identified by the identification number, is typically created in a centralized database with the appropriate balance. Thereafter, the player selects a slot machine and inserts the prepaid casino card in a card reader provided on the slot machine. The card reader retrieves the player'identification number from the prepaid casino card, and the previously stored cash amount is retrieved from the central database and downloaded to the selected slot machine. The player may then play the selected slot machine for as long as the player desires, until the previously stored cash amount is depleted.
In addition, with conventional prepaid casino cards, any money which a customer places on a prepaid card is generally available to the customer, as desired, and thus the customer is not required to make a return trip to the casino to access further portions of the available balance. U.S. Pat. No. 5,321,241, entitled “System and Method for Tracking Casino Promotional Funds and Apparatus For Use Therewith,” to Craine (the “Craine Patent”), for example, discloses a system that permits a casino to ensure that monetary amounts provided to a customer as part of a promotion are actually spent in the casino. The Craine Patent suggests varying or throttling the amount of money per hour that can be credited against a prepaid casino card for gambling on the slot machines. In this manner, a player can be limited to a predefined amount of money to spend in the casino within predefined time periods. The total balance on the prepaid card may expire on a given date, at the discretion of the casino. The system disclosed in the Craine Patent does not incent a player to make return trips to a casino, but rather, it incents the player to stay longer at the casino on any given visit.
As apparent from the above-described deficiencies with conventional casino loyalty programs, a need exists for a prepaid casino card system that incents a player to make return visits to a casino. A further need exists for a prepaid casino card system that provides flexible alternatives for providing players with fixed or variable expiration amounts over fixed or variable expiration periods, to suit various casino objectives and to permit the casino to implement numerous casino promotions. Yet another need exists for a casino prepaid card ail system that permits players to budget their spending. In addition, a further need exists for a casino loyalty program that stimulates business in a casino during off-peak periods. A further need exists for a prepaid casino card system that provides a monetary amount that expires in predefined expiration amounts over a plurality of expiration periods, thereby leaving any expiration amounts which are forfeited by the player as breakage (profits) for the casino.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Generally, according to one aspect of the invention, a player of a slot machine can as utilize an expiring prepaid casino card to provide payment for slot machine play or other gambling activities. The expiring prepaid casino card is preferably a pointer to a monetary amount stored in a casino prepaid card database that expires in predefined expiration amounts over each of a plurality of predefined expiration periods. In an alternate implementation, the expiring prepaid casino card may be embodied as a smart card or a general-purpose debit card programmed with the predefined expiration amounts for each predefined expiration period, or a cardless electronic key or personal identification number (PIN) which may be utilized to access data records which have been programmed with the predefined expiration amounts for each predefined expiration period.
According to a further feature of the present invention, the expiring prepaid casino card provides a casino with a number of flexible alternatives for providing players with fixed or variable expiration amounts over fixed or variable expiration periods, as desired, to suit various casino objectives and to permit the casino to implement numerous casino promotions. The expiring prepaid casino card can preferably be (i) purchased by the player at face value, or at a discount; (ii) given out by the casino to a player for free as part of a promotion, or to preferred players; or (iii) issued to a player as part of a payout on a slot machine.
If a player does not utilize the entire predefined expiration amount, for a given predefined expiration period, the remaining balance on the expiring prepaid casino card allocated for the expiration period automatically expires and does not roll
Jorasch James A.
Van Luchene Andrew S.
Walker Jay S.
Sager Mark
Santisi Steven M.
Walker Digital, LLC
LandOfFree
Method and apparatus for expiration of prepaid slot machine... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Method and apparatus for expiration of prepaid slot machine..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Method and apparatus for expiration of prepaid slot machine... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2443702