Systems and methods for utilizing RFID technology to facilitate a gaming system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11288917-B2
Application number	US-202016935150-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 21, 2020
Priority date	May 15, 2015
Publication date	Mar 29, 2022
Grant date	Mar 29, 2022

Abstract

In accordance with some embodiments, an RFID-enabled table game system provides for determining whether there is a variance between an expected balance of inventory and an actual balance of inventory in a game element container. If a variance is detected, the RFID-enabled game system may identify at least one characteristic associated with an RFID-enabled game element that is determined to be a source of the variance (e.g., a player position at which the RFID-enabled game element had last been detected, a denomination or value of the game element, and/or an identifier associated with the game element). In some embodiments, an alert may be output to game provider personnel (e.g., a dealer of a card game) at the end of a game play when such a variance is detected, thus allowing the variance to be corrected in an efficient and timely manner.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An RFID-enabled table system for facilitating a game, comprising:
a dealer antenna corresponding to a dealer area of a table surface and operable to detect data relating to an RFID-enabled gaming element placed within the dealer area;
a plurality of player position antennas, each of the player position antennas corresponding to a respective player area of a table surface and operable to detect data relating to an RFID-enabled gaming element placed within the respective player area;
a gaming element container antenna operable to detect data relating to a gaming element placed within the container;
a display device;
a processor; and
a memory storing a program for directing the processor, the processor being operable with the memory to:
direct the game element container antenna to perform an inventory scan to determine first data defining RFID-enabled game elements located within the game element container, thereby receiving current inventory data;
identify, based on the current inventory data, at least one RFID-enabled game element that was not detected by at least one player position antenna during a most recent game event and that was not previously detected by the game element container antenna in a most recent previous scan of contents of the game element container, thereby identifying at least one unexpected RFID-enabled game element;
determine second data, the second data corresponding to the at least one unexpected RFID-enabled game element;
match the second data to third data defining the most recent game event; and
change a status of the at least one unexpected RFID-enabled game element to indicate that it is faulty.

2. The RFID-enabled system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further operable with the program to:
output an instruction to casino personnel to remove the at least one unexpected RFID-enabled game element from the game element container.

3. The RFID-enabled system of claim 2 , wherein the instruction includes, for the at least one unexpected RFID-enabled game element, at least one of (i) a location in the chip tray; and (ii) a denomination.

4. The RFID-enabled system of claim 2 , wherein the processor being operable with the program to change the status of the at least one unexpected RFID-enabled game element comprises the processor being operable with the program to change the status as it is stored in a database of game elements available for game play.

5. The RFID-enabled system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further operable with the program to:
determine, based on previous interrogations of the at least one RFID-enabled game element, whether the at least one unexpected RFID-enabled game element responded with all expected data; and
only changing the status of the at least one unexpected RFID-enabled game element to indicate that it is faulty if the at least one unexpected RFID-enabled game element is determined to have failed to respond with all expected data in a minimum predetermined number of interrogations.

6. The RFID-enabled system of claim 5 , wherein the minimum predetermined number of interrogations is one.

7. The RFID-enabled system of claim 5 , wherein the processor is further operable with the program to:
changing the status of the at least one unexpected RFID-enabled game element to indicate that it is potentially faulty if the at least one unexpected RFID-enabled game element is determined to have failed to respond with all expected data in less than the minimum predetermined number of interrogations.

8. The RFID-enabled system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further operable with the program to:
determine that the at least one unexpected RFID-enabled game element is responding to an interrogation with a weak signal; and
only changing the status of the at least one unexpected RFID-enabled game element to indicate that it is faulty if it is determined that the at least one RFID-enabled game element has responded to the interrogation with the weak signal in in a minimum predetermined number of interrogations.

9. The RFID-enabled system of claim 8 , wherein the minimum predetermined number of interrogations is one.

10. The RFID-enabled system of claim 8 , wherein the processor is further operable with the program to:
changing the status of the at least one unexpected RFID-enabled game element to indicate that it is potentially faulty if the at least one unexpected RFID-enabled game element responds to the interrogation with the weak signal in less than the minimum predetermined number of interrogations.

Assignees

• Walker Digital Table Systems Llc

Inventors

• Moore Carolyn
• Singh Surinder
• Besterman Brian

Classifications

• A63F2003/00164

  Casino tables · CPC title

• A63F2009/2489

  by radio transmitters, e.g. using RFID · CPC title

• G07F17/322 Primary

  Casino tables, e.g. tables having integrated screens, chip detection means · CPC title

• G06Q20/352

  Contactless payments by cards · CPC title

• A63F1/18

  Scoring or registering devices; Indicators (A63F1/16 takes precedence) · CPC title