Patent ID: 11935364
Assignee: IGT
Field: Control (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 8:
9. An electronic gaming system comprising:
a communication interface;
a processor coupled with the communication interface; and
a memory coupled with and readable by the processor and storing therein a set of instructions which, when executed by the processor causes the processor to:
receive, from a first player member, a group formation request to form a multi-player group to play a gaming session comprising multiple games to be played by the multi-player group on multiple electronic gaming machines, the group formation request comprising a number of potential player members to be invited to be in the multi-player group and a predetermined sequence of characters to be input by each of the invited potential player member and one of a predetermined rule set defining an allocation of a winning outcome among player members of the multi-player group and a duration of the multi-player group;
send, via the communication interface to the number of potential player members, a join request comprising an invitation to join the multi-player group;
receive, from a selected potential player member of the number of potential player members, a join request response to join the multi-player group, the join request response comprising the predetermined sequence of characters;
validate the join request response of the selected potential player member by confirming: that a sequence of characters in the join request response matches a predetermined sequence of characters and one of: that a location of a user device corresponding to the selected potential player member is within a specified location, that the join request response was received within a selected period of time, that the join request response was sent by a selected communication modality, and that the join request response was received substantially synchronously with a group chat comprising the selected potential player member; and
when the join request response of the selected potential player member is validated successfully, designate the selected potential player member as a player member of the multi-player group.