Apparatus and method for a gaming unit that changes with time

People who say that they see more wins at specific times might be on to something...
According to google this patent is currently assigned to IGT and expires in 2022

"Apparatus and method for a gaming unit that changes with time"

https://patents.google.com/patent/AU2002240419B2/en

In another example as illustrated in FIG. 16, the payout percentage may be varied in response to the time signal. For example, the payout percentage may be at a minimum during the busiest time for the gaming establishment because the gaming establishments do not have to have large payout percentages to attract customers.

However, payout percentages may be raised to attract more players during periods of slow play. In yet another example illustrated in FIG. 17, the games that are available to be played may be varied in response to the time signal. For example, the game blackjack may be the most profitable for a gaming establishment and poker may be the least profitable and the hours between 7 pm and 5 am may be when the WO 02/069289 PCT/US02/04901 -18casino is most busy. When the gaming establishment is busy and demand for gaming units is high, the gaming establishment may want to restrict the gaming unit to play only the most profitable game which may be blackjack. However, when the gaming establishment is not busy, other games which may be less profitable may be added to the gaming unit 10 to attract more customers.

In yet another example as illustrated in FIG. 20, the frequency of bonus games for a gaming unit 10 can be adjusted in response to the time signal. For example, a gaming establishment may be most busy between 9 pm and 3 am.

Accordingly, the frequency of bonus games may be lowered during the busy hours, allowing the gaming establishment to bring in additional revenue. In addition, the frequency of bonus games may be increased during the hours when the gaming establishment may not be as busy to attract more users.

In yet another example as illustrated in FIG. 21, the bonus game theme for a gaming unit 10 can be adjusted in response to the time signal. For example, a gaming establishment may be most busy between 9 pm and 3 am. Accordingly, the bonus theme may be a first bonus theme which pays a small bonus during the busy hours, allowing the gaming establishment to bring in additional revenue. In WO 02/069289 PCT/US02/04901 -19addition, the bonus theme may be a second bonus theme which pays a higher bonus during the hours when the gaming establishment may not be as busy to attract more users. The bonus game theme may also be adjusted to appeal to the preference of users who tend to gamble at a specific time. For example, novice users may tend to play between 7 pm and 9 pm and may be attracted to a "Wheel of Fortune" bonus game. Accordingly, the gaming unit 10 may be changed to highlight the "Wheel of Fortune" bonus game between 7 pm and 9 pm.

Is that all you do is look up patents that have never been approved for play and have never been used?


ZCore13

Well maybe this explains why ZK can’t win on holidays.

Now we just need to figure out why he can’t win on non-holidays.

Quote: Zcore13

Is that all you do is look up patents that have never been approved for play and have never been used?


ZCore13

Patents approved for play? You are telling me this is a thing?

and to answer your question, yes it's all i do because you would think the people who make money and DGAF about what the world says all while being backed by the government who might allow you to sue anyone who decides to make the idea without your consent would know a thing or two about casinos. its not like they hired lawyers and invested money into writing these stupid pieces of paper or use them in court, or what the hell is wrong with you?

Just because there is a patent doesn't mean that what is described in the patent is being used.

Just because there is a patent doesn't mean that what is described in the patent is legal to be used in any given jurisdiction.

Quote: Dalex64

Just because there is a patent doesn't mean that what is described in the patent is being used.

Just because there is a patent doesn't mean that what is described in the patent is legal to be used in any given jurisdiction.

Find me a jurisdiction that explicitly states that what I’m talking about is ILLEGAL

Quote: heatmap

Find me a jurisdiction that explicitly states that what I’m talking about is ILLEGAL

1.most, if not all, jurisdictions have a floor above which all slots must return xx%.

2. Most if not all jurisdictions insist that any representation of cards or dice or roulette balls must randomize those elements in line with the actual physical outcome expected.

3. I would think that variance COULD legally be introduced into slots as long as the overall percentage complied with the floor of RTP requirements. But I can't say I know all the mechanical and electronic requirements for approval in any particular jurisdiction. They may well require a fully- random or disabled time-function before approving a game.

4. Which brings us back to Doe. The game approval process is completely separate from the IP filing. Just like optical reader shufflers. CAN they be programmed to deal.cards for a pre-determi6ned result? Yes, it can be done. DO they? No, for several reasons.

I vaguely recall las vegas rules (which are codified in law) being discussed on this forum, about how long a machine had to be down/off to change the pay tables, when they could change the eeproms to affect that (a rather out of date notion but perhaps still required), signage changes, how the odds can't change while a person is playing, and prior approval from the gaming commission for any changes.

I am not sure how slots payouts work. When going from 80% to 90% is it the rng that changes, the payouts for each symbol, or the number of stops per real that changes? Or can it be all of those?

Just wondering if they could program VP machines to change payables throughout the day? Like make a 9-6 job game be 9-6 m-f 5am until 3pm but then automatically go to 8-5 on the other times.

Quote: GWAE

I am not sure how slots payouts work. When going from 80% to 90% is it the rng that changes, the payouts for each symbol, or the number of stops per real that changes? Or can it be all of those?

Just wondering if they could program VP machines to change payables throughout the day? Like make a 9-6 job game be 9-6 m-f 5am until 3pm but then automatically go to 8-5 on the other times.

Directly from the patent

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the video game is selected from the group of video games consisting of video poker, video slots, video blackjack, video keno and video bingo.

and to be honest, the way you describe it seems to be a bit less nefarious, but im pretty sure thats the point of the patent

Quote: GWAE

I am not sure how slots payouts work. When going from 80% to 90% is it the rng that changes, the payouts for each symbol, or the number of stops per real that changes? Or can it be all of those?

Just wondering if they could program VP machines to change payables throughout the day? Like make a 9-6 job game be 9-6 m-f 5am until 3pm but then automatically go to 8-5 on the other times.

Slot machines will have a separate model for each pay percentage available. Assume a typical slot machines has 5 different pays chedules built into the chip set. 85% 87% 89% 91% 93%. In most cases each different available pay percentage will have differently weighted reel strips. For example, the 93% game may have 10 bonus symbols where the 87% game may only have 6 bonus symbols.

Yes, a VP game could be configured to change paytables at certain times. These types of changes are legal in many jurisdictions.

Have not see a par sheet that allows for changing a hold percentage based on the time of day. They may be out there but at my store we run class III machines and if a hold percentage is changed then we have to treat this as a new machine. Co-mingling of hold percentages is not really allowed. Here is the wording the regulation we have to follow "Each change to a gaming machine's theoretical hold percentage, including progressive percentage contributions, shall result in that machine being treated as a new machine in the statistical reports (i.e., not commingling various hold percentages), except for adjustments made in accordance with paragraph (h)(2) of this section." So what that means is we have to send a tech out to change the hold percentage with a representative of Regulatory who witnesses the change and then seals the board. The tech this fills out a couple pages of tracking documents. So even though there is a patent out there, I doubt you would see it in any class III gaming stores. 25crf542.13 (h) (15) would be hard to work around for that type of machine.

Quote: DRich

Yes, a VP game could be configured to change paytables at certain times. These types of changes are legal in many jurisdictions.

Even though it's legal in many jurisdictions, is it commonly used for slots in casinos? It's definitely not for video poker.

Quote: heatmap

Find me a jurisdiction that explicitly states that what I’m talking about is ILLEGAL

That is a ridiculous statement. Games, electronics, gaming supplies, pay tables, computer chips and the sort have to be approved for use. Everything is unapproved until approved.


ZCore13

Quote: waasnoday

Have not see a par sheet that allows for changing a hold percentage based on the time of day. They may be out there but at my store we run class III machines and if a hold percentage is changed then we have to treat this as a new machine. Co-mingling of hold percentages is not really allowed. Here is the wording the regulation we have to follow "Each change to a gaming machine's theoretical hold percentage, including progressive percentage contributions, shall result in that machine being treated as a new machine in the statistical reports (i.e., not commingling various hold percentages), except for adjustments made in accordance with paragraph (h)(2) of this section." So what that means is we have to send a tech out to change the hold percentage with a representative of Regulatory who witnesses the change and then seals the board. The tech this fills out a couple pages of tracking documents. So even though there is a patent out there, I doubt you would see it in any class III gaming stores. 25crf542.13 (h) (15) would be hard to work around for that type of machine.

this is the kind of response i was looking for

i should let everyone know that what he is speaking about is INDIAN casino regulations now that i was able to find the law reference he was speaking about

Quote: heatmap

this is the kind of response i was looking for

i should let everyone know that what he is speaking about is INDIAN casino regulations now that i was able to find the law reference he was speaking about

Didn’t you say a month ago that you’d figured out a way to play blackjack and a bj side bet , whereby you come out ahead on every hand ?

Why are you even bothering playing these other games

Hey waasnoday, what about (25 CFR 542.13 h iii )

(iii) On an annual basis, adjust the theoretical hold percentage in the gaming machine statistical report to a weighted average based upon the ratio of coin-in for each game paytable.

how do you explain that?

Quote: michael99000

Didn’t you say a month ago that you’d figured out a way to play blackjack and a bj side bet , whereby you come out ahead on every hand ?

Why are you even bothering playing these other games

not quite and the only reason i am even looking at anything slot related is because its just so hard to miss when reasearching anything casino. hell i found that trove of slot PAR sheets by accident. as much as i dont play slot machines the fact that the wizard has started to talk more about slot AP the more i notice when searching for other stuff

The full citation is 25cfr542.13 (h) (2) (iii) and the reason I state that is because the (2) is the important part "For multi-game/multi-denominational machines, an employee or department independent of the gaming machine department shall:". "(iii) On an annual basis, adjust the theoretical hold percentage in the gaming machine statistical report to a weighted average based upon the ratio of coin-in for each game paytable." This applies to all those machines with multi-games (ex. VP machines) and multi-denoms (machines that allows various coin bets like .10, .25, 1.00 etc.). This reg requires us to come up with a weighted average because each of those various denoms and various games could all have a different hold percentage and various levels of play associated with each denom or game. Maybe the higher denom will be looser than the lower denom, or vice versa. The same goes with the various games. In order for management to see how well the machine is performing, a weighted average will be applied that shows how a machine is doing as a whole. Partly we want to see if it still performing as expected year in and year out. Honestly for myself, I want to see how each game or denom is performing but when you have a multi-game which also has multi-denoms, well you could be looking a hundred different hold percentages on just one machine. When I was auditing I use to hate it when some of these machines came up on the random sample. I and the tech would be tied up for quite some time as we looked at and verified each game and its various denoms.

Should also state if there were a paytable change on these machines, we would still count it as a new machine and would again require a tech changing the paytable at the machine with Regulatory standing there watching it all and then sealing the board. We really are not required to seal all the stuff we do at my store, but I think it is a good practice.

I have seen Coke machines that the cost of the product is directly related to the outside temperature. The hotter it is, the more expensive the product.

If there is a hypothetical VP machine where the paytable changes based on time, I have never seen or heard of it.

I am sure that in Nevada, there is no current law to allow the slot machine theoretical to be changed without a whole bunch of paperwork and hoops to jump through. There is no way that the slot product is in play.

I will do some checking though.

I could see the VP version of this being allowed, as the paytable is in full view (although I doubt it could be changed while someone is playing it). However, with some of the new VP variants where you have an unknown probability (like wheel poker) I would assume that changing the weighting of the wheel would be comparable to changing a slot payback, and not allowed.

I thought some of the casinos had central servers and they were allowed to change the paybacks as long as it was idle for x amount of time?

Quote: tringlomane

Even though it's legal in many jurisdictions, is it commonly used for slots in casinos? It's definitely not for video poker.

Is it commonly used for slots? I personally don't know of any casinos doing it.

Quote: waasnoday

Should also state if there were a paytable change on these machines, we would still count it as a new machine and would again require a tech changing the paytable at the machine with Regulatory standing there watching it all and then sealing the board. We really are not required to seal all the stuff we do at my store, but I think it is a good practice.

Most of the machines that are capable of this are server based. Changes are usually made from the SBX console.

Quote: AxelWolf

I thought some of the casinos had central servers and they were allowed to change the paybacks as long as it was idle for x amount of time?

They do.