ROULETTE PLAYING DEVICE

Abstract: The roulette playing device according to this invention comprises a release opening (8) for releasing a ball (20) formed in a circular wall (6) at a position higher than that where the ball runs on the outermost circumference thereof. The circular wall is preferably tilted from a vertical plane toward a roulette wheel (2). Such arrangement prevents the ball from running astray, dropping into the release opening. The roulette playing device further comprises ball sensors (82a-d) for detecting the ball running on the circular runway, means for detecting a time the ball takes to run between two of the ball sensors, an average speed, control means for outputting an instruction for prohibing any more betting when the detected value by the detecting means reaches a preset value. Such arrangement enables the behavior of the ball to be detected accurately and NO BETTING operation to be timed stably, whereby roulette games are made more amusing.

Description: This invention relates to a roulette playing device. Japanese Patent Publication No. 18072/1984 discloses a roulette playing device comprising a rotary roulette wheel having a plurality of ball pockets with betting marks, said wheel being rotatable about a rotational axis; an inclined, circular runway surrounding the roulette wheel; a circular wall provided around the outer edge of the circular runway continuously thereto; and at least one release opening for releasing a ball to the runway formed in said wall at a position higher than a portion of the wall on which the ball runs on the outermost circumference of said runway. DE-C-157465 discloses another roulette playing device, but here the roulette wheel is not rotatable. A further roulette playing device is disclosed in EP-A-0101522, but here there is no release opening formed in the wall for releasing a ball to the runway. The present invention aims to improve upon prior art roulette playing devices and the invention is characterised in that the device further comprises at least two ball sensors disposed at a certain interval on the wall adjacent the junction between the runway and the wall for detecting the passing of a ball running on the outer circumference of the runway, detecting means for detecting a time or an average speed of the ball between adjacent sensors from outputs thereof, and control means for outputting a NO BETTING instruction when a detected value by said detecting means reaches a preset value. Whilst EP-A-0101522 discloses disposing ball sensors along the runway of a roulette device, these sensors are for accelerating the ball with magnetic force and not for timing a NO BETTING operation. The circular wall may be tilted from the vertical plane thereof toward said rotational axis of said roulette wheel as it extends upwardly from said runway to have larger diameter portions nearer said runway than portions further from said runway. There may be provided a plurality of release openings comprising two of said release openings formed in said circular wall opening in opposite directions to each other. The device may further comprise a projecting edge on an upper portion of said wall extending toward said rotational axis. In order that the invention may be well understood, an embodiment thereof, which is given by way of example only, will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a roulette playing device according to this invention; FIG. 2 is a side section view of a major portion of the roulette playing device; FIG. 3 is an enlarged view of the portion neighboring the circular wall in FIG. 2; FIG. 4 is a plan view of the major portion of the roulette playing device; FIG. 5 is a view of the interior construction of the roulette playing device; fig. 6 is a block diagram of a control unit of the roulette playing device; and FIG. 7 is a flow chart explaining operations of the control system of FIG. 6. The roulette playing device shown in FIG. 1 has a rotatable roulette wheel 2 disposed at the center thereof. The roulette wheel 2 is surrounded by a circular runway 4 which is declined radially inward. Along the outer boundary of the circular runway 4 a circular wall 6 is provided continuously thereto. In the circular wall 6 there is formed a release opening 8 for letting out a ball 20 onto the circular runway 4. Ten, for example, terminal roulette playing devices 10 are provided around the roulette playing device. Players use the terminal roulette playing devices 10. The major portion of the roulette playing device shown in FIG. 1 is shown in FIG. 2. The circular runway 4 and the circular wall 6 are made continuous. The circular wall 6 is tilted inward from the vertical plane by an angle ϑ towards the rotational axis of the roulette wheel as it extends upwardly from the runway 4 and has a larger diameter at portions nearer the runway than portions farther therefrom. The joint between the circular runway 4 and the circular wall 6 has a curvature radius slightly smaller than the radius of the ball 20. This arrangement brings the ball 20 running along the outermost circumference of the circular runway 4 into contact with the circular runway 4 and the circular wall 6 at the points A and B in FIG. 3. The release opening 8 is located on a level higher than that where the ball 20 running along the outermost circumference of the circular runway 4, i. e., at a position where the lower end of the release opening 8 is higher than the contact point of the ball 20 to the circular wall 6 (point B in FIG. 3). The release opening is in communication with an outlet 22. The roulette wheel 2 having betting marks (e.g., numbers) is whirled by a motor 24 in the direction indicated by the arrow in FIG. 2. FIG. 4 is a plan view showing an arrangement of the major portion of the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3. FIG. 5 shows a sectional view of FIG. 4. A funnel-shaped recovery member 30 for receiving the ball 20 falling down is provided below the roulette wheel 2. The recovered ball is sent to a release device 32. The release device 32 sends out the ball 20 into a release passage 34. A hitting device 36 hits the ball 20 from the release passage into an outlet 22. The ball 20 may be blown out by air as described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 18072/1984 referred to above instead of being hit out. Instead, the bouncing force of a spring or the urging force of a solenoid may be used. A control unit of the roulette playing device according to an embodiment of this invention is arranged as shown in FIG. 6. A main CPU 60 which controls generally the roulette playing device is connected by a bass to a program memory 62, a win memory 64 and a common memory 68. The program memory 62 stores roulette game programs. The win memory 64 stores winning betting marks and their winning times, etc. The common memory 68 stores various data. The main CPU 60 is connected also to an I/O device 70 and an input unit 72. The I/O device 70 passes data between a drive unit 78 and the main CPU 60. The drive section 78 provides a motor or the like which whirls the roulette wheel 2. In the input unit 72 is inputted a game starting instruction, etc. by e.g. an operator. The main device 3 comprising the above-described elements is connected to terminal roulette playing devices 10 through the I/O device 74, 92. Each terminal roulette playing device 10 has a slave CPU 90 which controls generally the device 10. The CPU 90 is connected by a base to a coin receiving unit 94, a coin paying unit 96, a memory 97, and a display control unit 98. The coin receiving unit 94 receives the betting coins put in and counts the number of the betting coins. The coin paying unit 96 pays out a certain number coins to the players who have won a game. The memory 97 stores programs for the slave CPU 90, a number of the betted coins, etc. The display control unit 98 controls the display in a display 99 in accordance with an instruction of the slave CPU 90. The roulette playing device contains in the main device 3 a prescription unit 76, a speed detector 80, and four ball sensors 82a - 82d. The prescription unit 76 sets a given value corresponding to a timing of NO BETTING. The ball sensors 82a - 82d sense the ball 20 running on the circular runway 4 past the ball sensors. The ball sensors are disposed on the boundary between the circular runway 4 and the circular wall 6 as indicated by 82a, 82b in FIG. 2. The speed detector 80 detects a running speed of the ball 20 based on a time difference between the times when the ball 20 passes two adjacent ones of the ball sensors 82a - 82d, and on a preset distance between the two ball sensors 82a - 82d. Next, the operation of the roulette playing device according to the embodiment will be explained. For explanation, the roulette playing device is started with a ball 20 mounting on the roulette wheel 2. First, the roulette wheel 2 lowers together with the drive motor 24 in the direction indicated by the arrow A. Then the ball 20 on the roulette wheel 2 falls down the recovery member 30 in the direction indicated by the arrow B and into the release device 32. The ball 20 in the release device 32 is hit out at a preset timing in the direction indicated by the arrow C and runs through the release passage 34 to the hitting device 36 and is received in the hitting device 36. The ball 20 in the hitting device 36 is hit out synchronously with the start of a game, i.e., when players have put betting coins in terminal roulette playing devices 10 shown in FIG. 1 or are ready to do so, and besides the roulette wheel 2 is being whirled by the drive motor 24. Then, the ball 20 hit out passes through the outlet 22 in the direction indicated by the arrow D and is released onto the circular wall 6 as indicated by the arrow E. Immediately after the ball 20 is hit out, it follows the path indicated by the arrow E in FIG. 2. At this time, a gravity acts on the ball 20 downward, but since the circular wall 6 is tilted inward by an angle ϑ in the embodiment, a centrifugal force acts on the ball 20 outward, accordingly a component acting downward. Then the ball 20 rolls down the circular wall 6 gradually downward to reach the lower end of the circular wall 6 by the time the ball 20 makes at least one round run along the circular wall 6. When the ball 20 comes round back to the position where the release opening is located, the ball 20 is in the running path indicated by the arrow F in FIG. 2. It does not happen that the ball 20 falls into the release opening, and accordingly the running path of the ball 2 is not disturbed. As seen from the above explanation, the inclination angle ϑ of the circular wall 6 is determined by a centrifugal force and a gravity. That is, since a downward component is larger as a larger centrifugal acts on the ball 20, the inclination angle ϑ may be small. Besides, as a larger gravity acts on the ball 20, the inclination angle may be smaller. Next, with reference to the flow chart of FIG. 7, the operation up to the NO BETTING will be explained. First, the preparation for letting out the ball 20 is made (S10). When the preparation is completed (S11), the ball is hit out by the hitting device 36 to be released from the release opening 8 (S12). The ball 20 released onto the circular wall 6 passes firstly the ball sensor 82a. The ball sensor 82a firstly detects the ball 20 to input the time T₀ when the ball 20 passed the sensor 82a to the speed detector 80 (S13). An ordinal number of the detection n = 0, is inputted (S14). The ordinal numbers are set in, e.g., a RAM incorporated in the device. In order to detect the ball 20 accurately it is preferable to dispose the ball sensors 82a - 82b on the boundary between the circular runway 4 and the circular wall 6. By locating the ball sensors 82a - 82b especially at the points A and B in FIG. 3, the possibility of the ball detection error can be much lowered. Next, 1 is added to the ordinal number n (S15), when all is set for a next detection of the ball 20. The time when the next ball sensor 82b detects the ball 20 is inputted as T=t n (S16). Then the difference between the time of the former ball detection and that of the latter is given as follows. ΔT = t n - t n-1 = t₁ - t₀ Then, the difference ΔT=t₁-t₀ is compared with a preset value which has been inputted to the prescription section 76 (S17). Since the distance between the ball sensors 82a and 82b are known, the speed is compared indirectly. When ΔT=t₁-t₀ is short of the preset value, 1 is added to the ordinal number n to make n=2 (S15), when all is set for a next ball detection. When the ball sensor 82c detects the ball 20, the difference between the time T=t₂ when the ball 20 passed the 82 c and the time T=t₁ is given as follows. ΔT = t n - t n-1 = t₂ - t₁ Then the difference ΔT=t₂-t₁ is compared with the preset value (S17). This processing is repeated, and when a difference T=t n -t n-1 between the times thus detected is larger than the preset value, it is judged that the speed of the ball has become lower than the preset value, and a NO BETTING operation is made (S18). The NO BETTING operation is carried out by the main CPU 60 in accordance with the procedures stored beforehand in, e.g., a program memory 62. When NO BETTING is operated, the ball 20 runs on the circular runway 4 gradually to the center thereof to finally to go into a pocket on the roulette wheel 2. An optical sensor (not shown) detects which pocket identified with a mark the ball has entered. The detection signal is sent to the slave CPU 90, and when the game is won, a given number of coins are paid out of the coin paying unit 96. The number of the coins thus paid is given to the main CPU 60 and stored in an addition memory 66. The displays 63, 65 shown in FIG. 1 indicate the winning terminal roulette playing device and the won amount. This invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment and can be variously modified without departing from the claimed scope of this invention. To give examples, as shown in Japanese Patent Publication No. 18072/1984, two release openings 8 may be formed, opening in opposite directions to each other. The path along which the ball 20 is released from the release opening 8 may be slightly declined downward. The path may be directed slightly inward with respect to the circumferential direction of the circular wall 6. The angle ϑ may be any degree which enables the ball 20 to come round back below the release opening 8 by the time the ball complets its round run along the circular wall 6. The circular wall 6 is not essentially plane vertically, and it may have vertically concave surface or others. The circular wall 6 does not have to be essentially tilted and may be plane when the ball 20 is made of heavy material. A gutter of concave cross-section for receiving the ball 20 may be formed in the direction indicated by the arrow F in FIG. 1. In the embodiment four ball sensors are provided, but the number of the ball sensor is not limited to four. Three or less than three, or five or more than five ball sensors may be provided. Most preferably the ball sensor uses an optical sensor in which light is applied to the ball from a light emitting element, and the reflected light from the ball is detected. But detection may be made by the reflection of ultrasonic wave, the interruption of incident light on the ball sensor by the ball, or others. The value set in the prescription section may be constant or variable. For example, in a first game an operator times the NO BETTING operation, and based on the timing (a running speed of the ball) determined in the first game a value is preset. In the following games the NO BETTING operation is made based on the preset value. In this case it is necessary to store the running speed of the ball (output of the speed detector) when an operator made a NO BETTING operation in, e.g. a RAM or others built in the prescription section and to use the stored value as a set value in the prescription section.

Claims: A roulette playing device comprising: a rotary roulette wheel (2) having a plurality of ball pockets with betting marks, said wheel being rotatable about a rotational axis; an inclined, circular runway (4) surrounding the roulette wheel; a circular wall (6) provided around the outer edge of the circular runway continuously thereto; and at least one release opening (8) for releasing a ball to the runway formed in said wall at a position higher than a portion of the wall (6) on which the ball runs on the outermost circumference of said runway, characterised in that said device further comprises: at least two ball sensors (82a) disposed at a certain interval on the wall (6) adjacent the junction between the runway (4) and the wall for detecting the passing of a ball running on the outer circumference of the runway, detecting means (80) for detecting a time or an average speed of the ball between adjacent sensors from outputs thereof, and control means (3) for outputting a NO BETTING instruction when a detected value by said detecting means reaches a preset value. A roulette playing device according to claim 1 wherein said wall (6) is tilted from the vertical plane thereof toward said rotational axis of said roulette wheel as it extends upwardly from said runway to have larger diameter portions nearer said runway than portions farther from said runway. A roulette playing device according to claim 1 or 2 wherein there is provided a plurality of release openings (8) comprising two of said release openings formed in said wall opening in opposite directions to each other. A roulette playing device according to claim 1, 2, or 3 further comprising a projecting edge on an upper portion of said wall extending toward said rotational axis.

Inventors: MANABE, KATSUKI
Applicants: SIGMA ENTERPRISES, INCORPORATED
Application year: 1987
Main classification: A63F5
IPC codes: A63F9, A63F5, A63F7