Gaming system and method which enables multiple players to simultaneously play multiple individual games or group games on a central display

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9858750-B2
Application number	US-201514947359-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 20, 2015
Priority date	Sep 8, 2006
Publication date	Jan 2, 2018
Grant date	Jan 2, 2018

Abstract

The present disclosure provides a gaming system including a central controller, a central display which includes a plurality of display segments and a plurality player stations. The display segments are configured to each separately display one of a plurality of games, to co-act to display a plurality of games, or to co-act to display one game. Each player station is configured to enable a player to play one or more of the games displayed by the display segments. The gaming system enables a plurality of players to play a group game on the central display, a plurality of players to simultaneously play multiple group games on the central display, and a plurality of players to each simultaneously play multiple individual games on the central display.

First claim

The invention is claimed as follows:

1. A gaming system comprising:
at least one processor; and
at least one memory device storing a plurality of instructions, which when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to:
for each of a plurality of player stations, enable a player at said player station to use at least one input device of said player station during a participation period to make at least one input to individually wager on at least one play of at least one game of a plurality of different games displayed by a plurality of display segments of a display device, wherein the display device is separate from each of the player stations, the display device is separate from any player station display devices of any of the player stations and each of the plurality of display segments of the display device is configured to display one of the plurality of different games,
after a termination of the participation period, for the play of each of the different games displayed by the plurality of display segments of the display device, randomly determine a game outcome independent of whether any inputs were made at any of the player stations to individually wager on the play of said game,
cause the display segments of the display device to simultaneously display the randomly determined game outcomes, and
for each player station at which at least one wager was made on at least one of the plays of at least one of the different games, for each wager made, cause a player station display device of said player station to:
display the randomly determined game outcome associated with said wagered on play of the game, and
display any awards based on said displayed game outcome and an amount the player wagered on said play of said game.

2. The gaming system of claim 1 , wherein the display device is a single device.

3. The gaming system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the different games is an interactive game.

4. The gaming system of claim 3 , wherein when executed by the at least one processor, the plurality of instructions cause the at least one processor to enable a single player to control the interactive game.

5. The gaming system of claim 3 , wherein when executed by the at least one processor, the plurality of instructions cause the at least one processor to enable multiple players to control the interactive game.

6. The gaming system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one input device of each of the player stations enables the player at said player station to select which of the different games to play and the wagered amount of each selected game.

7. The gaming system of claim 1 , wherein when executed by the at least one processor, the plurality of instructions cause the at least one processor to cause a display of an indication of at least one player who received a winning game outcome.

8. The gaming system of claim 1 , wherein the different games include a plurality of different types of games.

9. The gaming system of claim 1 , wherein when executed by the at least one processor, the plurality of instructions cause the at least one processor to provide a next participation period to enable the plurality of players to each individually wager using the at least one input device of the player station on the plays of the different games displayed by the display segments, wherein the next participation period begins before any awards are displayed at the player stations for the plays of the wagered on games.

10. The gaming system of claim 1 , wherein when executed by the at least one processor upon the termination of the participation period, the plurality of instructions cause the at least one processor to simultaneously cause a display of the plays of each of the games displayed on the display segments of the display device.

11. The gaming system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the player stations includes a housing, and a plurality of input devices supported by the housing, said plurality of input devices including an acceptor, and a cashout device, wherein responsive to a physical item being received via the acceptor, a credit balance is established based, at least in part, on a monetary value associated with the received physical item, and responsive to a cashout input being received via the cashout device, an initiation of any payout associated with the credit balance is caused to occur.

12. The gaming system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the player stations comprises a mobile device.

13. A gaming system comprising:
at least one processor; and
at least one memory device storing a plurality of instructions, which when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to:
for each of a plurality of player stations, enable a player at said player station to use at least one input device of said player station to make any inputs to individually wager on a play of one game of a plurality of different games displayed by a plurality of display segments of a display device, wherein the display device is separate from each of the player stations, the display device is separate from any player station display devices of any of the player stations and each display segment of the display device to configured to display one of the plurality of different games,
upon a wager placed on the play of the one game of the different games displayed by the plurality of display segments of the display device, begin a participation period for the play of that wagered on game,
during the participation period, enable the players at said player stations to place wagers on the play of that wagered on game,
after a termination of the participation period, randomly determine a game outcome for the play of that wagered on game, wherein said random determination occurs independent of whether any inputs were made at any of the player stations to individually wager on the play of that game,
cause one of the display segments of the display device to display the randomly determined game outcome, and
for each player that wagered on the play of that game, cause a player station display device of the player station where the wager was placed to:
display the randomly determined game outcome associated with the wagered on play of that game, and
display any awards based on the displayed game outcome and an amount the player wagered on the play of that wagered on game.

14. The gaming system of claim 13 , wherein the display device is a single device.

15. The gaming system of claim 13 , wherein the different games are simultaneously displayable by the display segments.

16. The gaming system of claim 13 , wherein at least one of the different games is an interactive game.

17. The gaming system of claim 16 , wherein when executed by the at least one processor, the plurality of instructions cause the at least one processor to enable a single player to control the interactive game.

18. The gaming system of claim 16 , wherein when executed by the at least one processor, the plurality of instructions cause the at least one processor to enable multiple players to control the interactive game.

19. The gaming system of claim 13 , wherein the at least one input device of each of the player stations enables the player to select each of the different games to play and the wagered amount of each selected game.

20. The gaming system of claim 13 , wherein when executed by the at least one processor, the plurality of instructions cause the at least one processor to cause a display of at least on

Assignees

• Igt Reno Nev

Inventors

• Kovacs James K
• Baerlocher Anthony J
• Oberberger Michael M
• Wolf Bryan D

Classifications

• G07F17/3216 Primary

  Construction aspects of a gaming system, e.g. housing, seats, ergonomic aspects · CPC title

• G07F17/3211

  Display means · CPC title

• G07F17/3276

  wherein the players compete, e.g. tournament · CPC title

• G07F17/3269

  Timing aspects of game play, e.g. blocking/halting the operation of a gaming machine · CPC title

• G07F17/3272

  Games involving multiple players · CPC title