Patent ID: 8696463
Filing Date: 2014-04-15
Classification: A63F,G07F

Abstract:
1. A method for conducting cashless gaming fund transfers on a gaming machine, the method comprising: receiving from a customer, in a gaming environment, independent pre-existing financial account information of the customer maintained by a financial institution outside the gaming environment, the independent pre-existing financial account information comprising information required to conduct electronic financial transactions with an independent financial account of the customer at a financial institution including at least an account number, an associated PIN, and a financial institution routing number, the independent pre-existing financial account being associated with a bank card; storing, in a gaming database maintained by the gaming environment, the independent pre-existing financial account information including at least the account number, the associated PIN, and the financial institution routing number; issuing a unique identifier for the customer; storing, in the gaming database, the unique identifier for the customer; associating, in the gaming database, the unique identifier of the customer with the independent pre-existing financial account information required to conduct electronic financial transactions with the financial institution and used to access the independent financial account of the customer; issuing to the customer a card containing machine readable information including the unique identifier, the card being different than the bank card; reading, through a card reader of the gaming machine, the machine readable information on the card, without reading the bank card issued by the financial institution containing the independent pre-existing financial account information; electronically decoding the machine readable information received from the card reader and retrieving the unique identifier therefrom; receiving on the gaming machine a desired credit value from the customer; transmitting the unique identifier from the gaming machine, without transmitting the independent pre-existing financial account information on the bank card issued by the financial institution from the gaming machine, to an authorization server capable of communicating with an external authorization center to request authorization for the desired credit value; matching the unique identifier transmitted to the authorization server with one of a plurality of unique identifiers stored on the gaming database; retrieving, from the gaming database, the independent financial account information associated with the unique identifier; transmitting, to the authorization server, the independent financial account information retrieved from the gaming database; electronically issuing a request from the authorization server to the authorization center to confirm the availability of the desired credit value from the independent financial account, the request including at least a portion of the independent financial account information retrieved from the gaming database and the desired credit value received on the gaming machine, and the request from the authorization server not including the machine readable information read through the card reader of the gaming machine; and crediting the gaming machine, upon approval of the request by the authorization center, with the desired credit value directly from the financial institution.