Abstract:
At least one physical designation ( 16 ) associated with an object ( 12 ) available in a game draw is mapped to a preferably randomly generated virtual designation ( 32 ). The resulting map relating the physical designation ( 16 ) to a virtual designation ( 32 ) is not available to the game operator. When the physical designation ( 16 ) is drawn and entered into the game system ( 10 ), the system converts the entered physical designation ( 16 ) to the mapped or related virtual designation ( 32 ), and this virtual designation is the designation actually used in the play of the game. Thus, the operator is unable to cooperate with a player to cheat in the game by simply calling the physical designation ( 16 ) needed by the player to win.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION  
       [0001]    This application is related to U.S. provisional patent application No. 60/208,287, filed May 31, 2000, entitled SECURITY SYSTEM FOR OBJECT DRAW GAMES, the entire content of which is hereby incorporated herein by this reference. The Applicant hereby claims the benefit of this earlier pending provisional application under 35 U.S.C. §119(e). 
     
    
     
       TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    This invention relates to games of chance such as “bingo” which utilize a series of designations in the play of the game. More particularly, the invention relates to a security system which prevents fraud in the play of bingo-type games. The invention encompasses a method of generating a series of bingo designations, and also encompasses an apparatus and program product used in performing the method.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0003]    Certain games of chance utilize a randomly generated series of numbers or other indicia or designations in the play of the game. The game “bingo” is an example of such a game. In traditional bingo, players try to match randomly generated numbers to numbers on preprinted cards or electronic representations of preprinted cards. The random numbers are generated using a pool of objects such as balls each printed with a different number. These printed balls are mixed together in a mixing arrangement and individual balls are drawn at random. As each ball is drawn, the number printed on the respective ball is announced to the players as the next number in that game. The first player to produce a predetermined pattern of matched numbers on a card represents the winner of that game or that portion of the game. Depending upon the local regulations for such games of chance, the winning prizes may be products or cash.  
           [0004]    In order to increase the speed at which the game may be played, and thus generally make the game more exciting and interesting, many aspects of bingo games have been automated. The ball draw may be automated so that an operator need only read the presently drawn ball and enter that number into an announcing and monitoring system for the game. It is also possible for the number reading and entry to be automated, although regulations may require a game operator to manually enter numbers drawn in the game. Another type of automation involves the distribution of game cards. In order to avoid the relatively slow and cumbersome process of distributing or selling physical bingo cards, electronic representations of bingo cards may be distributed across a computer network including a number or plurality of player terminals. A player may purchase one or more cards at a player terminal and the terminal may display electronic representations of the purchased cards. Numbers announced in the game may be communicated to the player terminal through network communications and the terminal may automatically note matches on the player&#39;s cards and communicate a win back to the game operator.  
           [0005]    Security problems arise from the reliance on the operator to input numbers drawn in the ball draw. Where an operator inputs the drawn numbers, it is possible for a player and the operator to collaborate to cheat in the game and improperly obtain the winning prizes. In a typical scenario, a player may note the numbers needed to produce a winning pattern on their physical or electronically generated card and then communicate those numbers to the game operator. The operator cooperating with that player may then ignore the numbers actually drawn in the ball draw and instead enter the numbers needed for their partner to win. The operator and their player/partner then split the ill gotten winnings.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0006]    It is an object of the invention to provide a bingo-type designation generating system which reduces or eliminates the possibility of fraud in the play of a game utilizing the designation. It is also an object of the invention to provide an apparatus and program product for producing designations for the play of a bingo-type game.  
           [0007]    The method according to the invention includes mapping at least one physical designation available in the game draw to a virtual designation. The resulting map relating each physical designation to a virtual designation is not available to the game operator. When the physical designation is drawn and entered into the game system, the system converts the entered physical designation to the mapped or related virtual designation, and this virtual designation is the designation actually used in the play of the game. Thus, the operator is unable to cooperate with a player to cheat in the game by simply calling the physical designation needed by the player to win. The called physical designation will be converted to a virtual designation which will likely not be the designation needed by the player. The term “designation” will be used in this disclosure and the following claims to describe the designation or designations printed or otherwise physically associated with the objects used in the game draw. The designation may be a number or any other type of designation. The term “physical designation” refers to the actual designation physically associated with a particular object in an object draw system or the actual designation otherwise generated for the play of the bingo-type game, while the term “virtual designation” refers to the designation mapped to the physical designation but otherwise unrelated to the physical designation. Items used to form the pool of objects for the game draw will be referred to in this disclosure and the following claims as “objects.” Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the term “object” includes balls, cubes, or any other object which may be drawn or generated preferably at random from a pool of similar objects in a game draw. Importantly, the physical designation need not be associated with a “physical” object but may be drawn or generated by a suitable algorithm.  
           [0008]    The term “bingo-type” game will be used in this disclosure and the accompanying claims to refer to any game in which drawn designations are matched to predetermined card designations on cards or card representations purchased by players of the game. This definition includes traditional bingo games played with paper bingo cards as well as bingo games implemented through electronic player terminals.  
           [0009]    Although the invention encompasses mapping just one physical designation available in a game to a virtual designation, the preferred form of the invention includes mapping each physical designation included in the entire list of physical designations available in the game to a respective virtual designation. This mapping may be accomplished by a mapping processing device under the control of mapping computer program code. Also, the step of mapping is preferably done prior to the start of the game or prior to the beginning of the game draw.  
           [0010]    The invention also preferably includes storing a mapping table. This mapping table includes an entry for each physical designation which has been mapped to a virtual designation. The mapping table may be stored in any suitable data storage device and may be generated using a processor under the control of computer program code. In one alternative form of the invention, each physical designation available in a game draw is mapped to a respective virtual designation and at least one additional virtual designation. In this form of the invention, each table entry includes the physical designation, the virtual designation, and each additional virtual designation. This form of the invention allows a single ball draw to be used to generate several different series of random designations for use in a number of the different games.  
           [0011]    The conversion from physical designation to virtual designation is performed by a suitable conversion processing device under the control of conversion program code. This conversion step preferably comprises looking up the drawn physical designation in the mapping table and retrieving the virtual designation from that respective table entry.  
           [0012]    The invention has particular application in a system in which an operator enters the physical designation from a drawn object into a monitoring computer connected to a network of player terminals. A network interface arrangement and associated interface program code communicates the designation in the game to the various player terminals. According to the invention, however, the interface communicates the virtual designation to the player terminals rather than the physical designation drawn in the game draw and entered by the game operator. Since the operator has no way of knowing which virtual designation will be related to a physical designation in the mapping step, the operator has no way of ensuring that a desired designation will be communicated to the players in the play of the game.  
           [0013]    These and other objects, advantages, and features of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiments, considered along with the accompanying drawings. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0014]    [0014]FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic representation of a gaming system embodying the principles of the invention.  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing the process for randomly generating designation for the play of a game according to the present invention.  
         [0016]    [0016]FIG. 3 is a representation of a portion of a mapping table embodying the principles of the invention.  
     
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0017]    Referring to FIG. 1, a gaming system  10  utilizes an object draw device  11  in the play of a game, such as “bingo” for example, which requires a series of randomly generated designations. The designations are generated by randomly drawing objects  12  from a pool  14  of objects associated with object draw device  11 . Each object  12  is marked or otherwise physically associated with a unique physical designation  16 . The required series of designations needed in the play of the game may thus be generated by randomly drawing individual objects  12  from the pool  14  and recording the physical designation  16  associated with each respective object as it is drawn.  
         [0018]    The invention is not limited to any particular type of object drawing device  11 . Older types of object draw devices may include a mixer for holding and mixing the pool of objects and an arrangement for stopping the mixer to allow an operator to physically reach in and draw one or more objects  12 . More modern and preferred object draw devices may automatically retrieve or draw a series of objects  12  from the pool  14  and hold the drawn objects in position to allow the game operator, generally indicated by reference numeral  17 , to read the designation from each object. Still other object draw devices may automate both the drawing of objects  12  from the pool  14  and reading the designation  16 , while providing an operator with the ability to intervene as necessary. The illustrated object draw device  11  may comprise any of these types of object draw devices or equivalent devices, including devices which simply generate the physical designations randomly according to some algorithm or numerical technique.  
         [0019]    It will also be appreciated that objects  12  may comprise balls as shown in the drawings, or any other type of object suitable for use in drawing device  11 . Designations  16  may typically comprise arabic numbers printed on the objects, but may comprise any type of identifying designation. The designation may also, or alternatively, be recorded in suitable form on a bar code or in electronic form in a memory device associated with the object. Coded physical designations may be particularly useful where automated reading devices are included in ball draw device  11 .  
         [0020]    The illustrated gaming system also includes a monitoring and control computer  20  connected to communicate with several player terminals  21 . Computer  20  includes an operator input device  22 , CPU or processor  23 , storage device  24 , and network interface device  25 . In the illustrated example, each player terminal  21  is connected to computer  20  through a network hub  26 .  
         [0021]    In a bingo game played through gaming system  10 , a player obtains an electronic representation of a bingo card (not shown) through their respective player terminal  21 . Once the sale of cards has been closed for a particular game, the object draw device  11  randomly draws objects  12  and displays the objects for reading or confirmation by game operator  17 . Each object  12  is associated with physical designation  16  such as the number “1” shown in FIG. 1. Game operator  17  reads the physical designation  16  associated with the drawn object  12  and enters the physical designation into the system through the input device  22  associated with computer  20 . Computer  20  then announces or communicates that physical designation  16  or a virtual designation, as will be described below, to each player terminal  21  in the network. Player terminals  21  may indicate when the announced designation matches designation on the respective player&#39;s card and may report matches or wins back to monitoring computer  20 .  
         [0022]    It will be appreciated that the bingo gaming system  10  shown in FIG. 1 is shown only as a convenient example with which to describe the present invention. The invention may be used in numerous bingo-type gaming systems different from that shown in FIG. 1. In particular, the designation generating method according to the present invention may be used in a traditional bingo gaming establishment which uses paper bingo cards rather than electronic bingo card representations requiring player terminals  21 .  
         [0023]    The method of generating designations in the play of a game may now be described with reference to FIG. 1, the flow chart shown in FIG. 2, and the mapping table illustrated in FIG. 3. As shown at step  28  in FIG. 2, the method includes mapping the physical designation  16  associated with a particular object  12  in the pool  14  of objects to a virtual designation. Although mapping only a portion of the physical designations available in a game to respective virtual designations increases security in the system, the preferred form of the invention includes mapping each physical designation  16  available in the game to a different virtual designation. Also, each physical designation  16  may be mapped to at least one additional virtual designation. Whether each physical designation is mapped to only a single virtual designation or to one or more additional virtual designations, the mapping step is preferably performed prior to the start of the game. The results of mapping may be stored at step  29  in a mapping table. An illustrative mapping table  30  is shown in FIG. 3. Each entry  31  in table  30  includes the physical designation  16  and a virtual designation  32  to which the physical designation is mapped. Where the physical designation is mapped to one or more additional virtual designations, each entry  31  in table  30  includes the respective additional virtual designations  33 . Mapping table  30  is stored along with a table identifier (not shown) by which the particular table may be identified. All tables generated during the course of play are preferably retained for accounting and verification purposes, and distinguished by their respective table identifier.  
         [0024]    The example mapping table  30  shown in FIG. 3 includes entries  31  for the physical designation “1,” “2,” and “3.” Referring to the table entry for physical designation “1,” that physical designation has been mapped to virtual designation  32  comprising the number “25,” and additional virtual designation  33  comprising the number “3.” Physical designation “2” has been mapped to a virtual designation comprising the number “8” and an additional virtual designation comprising the number “31”. Physical designation “3” has been mapped to a virtual designation comprising the number “11” and a additional virtual designation comprising the number “29.” 
         [0025]    An important aspect of the invention is that the mapping tables  30  are not available to the game operator  17 . The virtual designations  32  and any additional virtual designations  33  are generated by computer  20  using suitable program code. The preferred program code randomly generates the virtual designations and any additional virtual designations, although the virtual designation generation step need not be purely random. Also, each mapping table  30  is stored in storage device  24  associated with computer  20  in a manner in which no one, including the game operator, has knowledge of the mapped virtual designations  32  and additional virtual designations  33  prior to the time the respective virtual designation and any additional virtual designation is announced or otherwise used in the play of the game.  
         [0026]    Once all physical designations  16  to be mapped are mapped to the respective virtual designations  32  and any additional virtual designations  33 , and the relationship is stored, the game preferably proceeds with the physical object draw or other physical designation generation at step  34  in FIG. 2. This step may be accomplished using object draw device  11  and a pool  14  of objects  12  shown in FIG. 1. When an object  12  is drawn, operator  17  reads the physical designation  16  associated with the drawn object and enters that physical designation  16  into computer  20  through operator input  22 . If the particular physical designation  16  entered has been mapped to a virtual designation  32 , the invention includes converting the entered physical designation  16  to the mapped virtual designation  32  as indicated at step  36  in FIG. 2. This virtual designation  32  is then used in the play the game. As shown at step  37 , computer  20  announces or communicates virtual designations  32  to the network player terminals  21  through network interface  25  (hardware shown in FIG. 1).  
         [0027]    Using the mapping table  30  shown in FIG. 3 as an example, assume that the particular object  12  bearing physical designation “1” is drawn at random using object draw device  11 . When physical designation “1” is entered into computer  20 , processor  23  operates to convert that physical designation to the mapped virtual designation “25.” This virtual designation comprising the number “25” is then quickly announces or communicated across the network of player terminals  21  in place of the physical designation comprising the number “1.” 
         [0028]    The conversion step  36  preferably includes accessing the mapping table  30  for the particular game and looking up the table entry  31  for the respective physical designation  16 . This accessing step is shown at reference numeral  38  in FIG. 2. Once the respective table entry  31  is located, the respective virtual designation  32  may be retrieved and used in the play of the game. It will be noted that mapping to additional virtual designation  33  creates an additional series of randomly generated designations. This additional set of designations may be used to play a second game either at the same time as the first game utilizing virtual designations  32 , or at a later time. Thus, mapping to additional virtual designations allows a single physical draw to an generate series of designations for multiple games.  
         [0029]    [0029]FIG. 2 shows the preferred sequence of implementing the invention in which physical designations are mapped to virtual designations and any additional virtual designations prior to the object draw or other generation of physical designations for a game. However, other implementations within the scope of the invention may follow different sequences. For example, a virtual designation and any additional virtual designations may be mapped by the various processing equipment “on the fly” as each physical designation for a game is generated. In this case no table look up is required to convert the physical designation to virtual designation, although a table such as that shown in FIG. 3 may be created for record keeping purposes. The mapping step could also conceivably be performed after all of the physical designations for a game are generated, and a mapping table created at that point.  
         [0030]    Mapping physical designations  16  to virtual designations  32  (either prior to physical designation generation or “on the fly” as each physical designation is generated) and the use of virtual designation in the play of the game prevents the operator  17  from cooperating with a player to cheat. Since the virtual designation  32  which is actually used in the game is not available to the operator, but rather stored internally in computer  20 , the operator does not know what designation will be announced when they input a given physical designation  16 . The present system of mapping and using virtual designations in the play of the game also has the advantage of eliminating the delay between the timer the designation to be announced is generated and the time the designation is announced to players. Although the time delay between the draw and the entry of the physical designation  16  is still present, only the virtual designation  32  need be used in the game and the delay occasioned by the conversion and announcement steps,  36  and  37  in FIG. 2, are negligible.  
         [0031]    In the illustrated preferred form of the invention, processor  23  performs the mapping and conversion steps under software control. More specifically, processor  23  functions as a mapping processing device under the control of mapping program code in order to generate virtual designations  32  and any additional virtual designations  33 , and map the physical designations  16  to the respective virtual designations. Processor  23  also executes storage program code to direct the storage of mapping table  30  in storage device  24 . For the physical designation to virtual designation conversion step shown at  36  in FIG. 2, processor  23  functions as a conversion processing device under the control of conversion program code. Processor  23  executes network interface program code to effect the network communication or interface operations required to announce or communicate the virtual designations to player terminals  21 .  
         [0032]    The above described preferred embodiments are intended to illustrate the principles of the invention, but not to limit the scope of the invention. Various other embodiments and modifications to these preferred embodiments may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the following claims. For example, gaming system  10  shown in FIG. 1 is intended only as an example to serve as a point of reference for describing the present invention. Many details of the operation of gaming system  10  are omitted from the present disclosure since a knowledge of such details is not necessary for an understanding of the present invention. For instance, the manner in which card representations are created is omitted from this disclosure as is the manner in which then card representations are displayed to and used by players at the player terminals  21 . The specific methods of network communications as well as various accounting function performed by monitoring computer  20  are also transparent to the present invention and are not described in this disclosure so as not to obscure the invention in unnecessary detail. Furthermore, although a single processor  23  and computer  20  are shown for purposes of example, it will be appreciated that the various processing functions required by the invention may be distributed between any number of processing devices. This distributed processing implementation is to be considered equivalent to the single processor implementation shown in FIG. 1.  
         [0033]    Numerous other variations are possible within the scope of the present invention as set out in the following claims. For example, although th invention has particular application to bingo-type games in which the bingo cards or card representations are purchased by players before the object draw is performed as indicated at step  34  in FIG. 2, the invention may be applied to games in which the bingo cards or card representations are purchased by players after the physical draw is accomplished.