Patent ID: 7909693
Filing Date: 2011-03-22
Classification: G07F

Abstract:
1. A method of operating a gaming system having a central authority associated with a database and interconnected to a plurality of gaming machines, comprising: establishing in the database a player account associated with at least one player; providing a player card to the one player, said player card being associated with the player account; identifying a start of a first regular gaming session associated with the player account, wherein said start of the first regular gaming session occurs in response to an insertion of the player card into the one gaming machine; identifying an end of the first regular gaming session associated with the player account, wherein said end of the first regular gaming session occurs in response to a removal of the player card from the one gaming machine; collecting first activity data from the one gaming machine, wherein said first activity data corresponds to player activity on the one gaming machine that occurred during the first regular gaming session; subsequent to the removal of the player card from the one gaming machine, identifying a start of a first virtual gaming session associated with the player account, wherein said start of the first virtual gaming session occurs in response to an indication that the removal of the player card occurred while a game was in progress on the one gaming machine, while credits were available for play on the one gaming machine, or both; identifying an end of the first virtual gaming session associated with the player account, wherein said end of the first virtual gaming session occurs in response to either re-insertion of the player card into the one gaming machine or all credits left over from the regular gaming session being spent; collecting second activity data from the one gaming machine, wherein said second activity data corresponds to player activity on the one gaming machine that occurred during the first virtual gaming session; transmitting the first activity data and the second activity data to the central authority; and storing in the player account of the database information based on the first activity data and the second activity data.