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

Claim 15:
16. A gaming machine comprising:
a user interface;
a network interface;
a processor coupled with the user interface and network 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 a group formation request from a player member to form a multi-player group comprising the player member, the group formation request comprising an invitation code to be input by each invited potential player member and one of: a number of player members invited to be in the multi-player group, a predetermined rule set defining, for a winning outcome, a winning outcome allocation among the player members of the multi-player group, and a duration of the multi-player group;
send, via the network interface to a gaming device associated with each of a plurality of potential player members for the multi-player group, a join request comprising an invitation to join the multi-player group;
receive, via the network interface, a plurality of join request responses;
validate each join request response by confirming for each join request: that a sequence of characters in the join request response matches the invitation code and one of: that a location of a corresponding gaming device is within a specified location, that the join request 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 was received substantially synchronously with a group chat comprising the corresponding gaming device; and

when the join request response of a selected potential player member is validated successfully, cause the user interface to notify the player member that the multi-player group has been formed.