Amusement devices: games – Including means for processing electronic data – In a chance application
Reexamination Certificate
1998-08-26
2001-07-17
Layno, Benjamin H. (Department: 3711)
Amusement devices: games
Including means for processing electronic data
In a chance application
C273S14300R, C273S138200
Reexamination Certificate
active
06261178
ABSTRACT:
INTRODUCTION
The present invention relates to gaming machines of the type generally referred to as slot machines, fruit machines or poker machines, and in particular the invention provides an improvement to a game played on such a machine.
Players who regularly play gaming machines quickly tire of particular games and therefore it is necessary for manufacturers of these machines to come up with innovative game features that add interest to the games provided on such machines in order to keep the players amused and therefore willing to continue playing the game.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
Gaming or poker machines have been well known in the state of New South Wales for many years and have more recently gained considerable popularity throughout Australia, with quite substantial amounts of money wagered on these machines. There is a growing tendency for State governments to legalize the use of gaining machines by licensing operators, with resulting revenue gains through license fees and taxation of monies invested. The licensed operation of gaming machines is the subject of State legislation and regulation. This regulation most always dictates a minimum percentage payout for a gaming machine. For example, a minimum of 85% of monies invested must be returned as winnings, and manufacturers of gaming machines therefore must design their machines around these regulatory controls.
With the growth that has occurred in the gaming machine market there is intense competition between manufacturers to supply the various existing and new venues. When selecting a supplier of gaming machines, the operator of a venue will often pay close attention to the popularity of various games with their patrons.
Therefore, gaming machine manufacturers are keen to devise games which are popular with players, as a mechanism for improving sales.
Many various strategies have been tried in the past to make games more enticing to players, and these strategies are often aimed at either increasing the maximum prize payable on a machine or creating at least the perception of more winning opportunities. The present invention falls into the latter category. For quite a few years, it has been possible to bet on more than one pay line of a slot machine simultaneously. However this feature has been restricted by the number of pay lines that could be achieved on the display format commonly used in slot machines. It should be noted that while early machines exhibited “paylines” which comprised linear combinations of display symbol locations, in more recent times more complicated arrangements of display symbol locations have been employed as “paylines”. Throughout this specification the term “payline” will be taken to include any arrangement of symbol locations having the requisite characteristics to be a payline. This may include the requirement that the line includes only one symbol location in each display column, in the case of spinning reel machines, but may not include this restriction in the case of video display machines.
The present invention provides an arrangement whereby in addition to the paylines defined on the machine artwork, a further set of randomly selected symbol locations will be counted as a payline in each game.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention consists in a gaining machine having display means arranged to display a plurality of symbols in an array of n rows and m columns, game control means arranged to control images displayed on the display means the game control means being arranged to pay a prize when a predetermined combination of symbols is displayed in a predetermined arrangement of symbol locations displayed on the display means, the gaming machine being characterised in that during each game a further arrangement of symbol locations is randomly selected and a prize is paid in the event that a predetermined combination of symbols is displayed in the randomly selected arrangement of symbol locations.
Preferably, the randomly selected arrangement of symbol locations will include one location in every column of the display and more preferably only one location in each column.
The preferred embodiments of the invention use a display means which displays symbols in 3 rows and 3, 4 or 5 columns.
In particular embodiments, a player may cause the machine to randomly select more than one additional arrangement of locations in a game, with each such arrangement including one and only one symbol location in each column of the display.
The invention is equally applicable to video machines and machines employing spinning reels.
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Aristocrat Technologies Australia Pty Ltd.
Layno Benjamin H.
Rosenman & Colin, LLP.
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