Abstract:
Methods and systems that enable cashless gaming dispense with the need to set up and operate a complex centrally controlled system or dispense with the need to distribute expensive smart cards. The patrons&#39; gaming session meters (including, for example, a measure of winning and/or available credit) are distributed amongst an estate of peer networked gaming terminals.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]     1. Field of the Invention  
         [0002]     This invention relates generally to the field of pay computer-controlled games, either games of skills or games of chance, and more particularly to the field of cashless gaming systems and methods.  
         [0003]     2. Description of the Related Art  
         [0004]     Conventional cashless methods and systems typically rely on centralized accounts (player accounts, anonymous game session accounts, voucher verification accounts, smartcard reconciliation accounts) that are managed by a complex central system (i.e., controlled or coupled to a central server). Such systems require the services of highly trained professionals and the maintenance of stringent security procedures. This leads to high operational costs that are not acceptable for small to medium sized gaming operators. Centralized systems of the prior art are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,280,328, U.S. Pat. No. 5,265,874 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,048,269.  
         [0005]     What are needed, therefore, are cashless gaming methods and systems that overcome the complexity, cost and manpower of conventional gaming methods and systems.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0006]     It is, therefore, an object of this invention to offer gaming terminals and network architectures, systems and methods that overcome the complexity, cost and manpower inherent in conventional gaming terminals, network architectures, methodologies and systems.  
         [0007]     According to embodiments of the present invention, each networked gaming terminal comprises a highly secure enclosure because of the strict regulations that are imposed in gaming jurisdictions. The compute modules thereof are carefully partitioned with multiple locking mechanisms and alarm systems. Strict procedures must be followed to access various parts and functions. Furthermore, the computer architecture and components of motherboards used in gaming machines are becoming enormously powerful and extremely reliable due to the technology advancements; they are identical to those used in computer servers that constitute complex central systems. Therefore, networked gaming terminals may offer an exceptionally secure and exceedingly powerfill computing environment.  
         [0008]     In the present invention, the gaming terminals are advantageously configured to support functions traditionally implemented by centralized systems. Gaming terminal software is adapted to support, in addition to the local terminal game session metering (including, for example, tracking of winning and available credits), the game session metering of one or a plurality of peer gaming terminals. A patron may deposit funds in cash or using any other financial instrument (including, for example, any form of electronic money) to a cashier or an automated network cashier, or alternatively a gaming terminal equipped with cash acceptors or other financial instrument acceptors. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the amount of money deposited by the patron is credited by the cashier, or gaming terminal or using a basic stateless (i.e. not managing the session context) entry terminal, into a peer gaming terminal or alternatively, the equivalent operation may be automatically performed by the automated network cashier. In the case of a gaming terminal equipped with financial instrument acceptors, the credit is entered directly into the local meters (i.e., not stored in memory prior to being transferred to the local meters of the gaming terminal). The patron may be issued an identification (ID) instrument that may be accepted by any gaming terminal in the network. Each time the patron submits his ID instrument (or is otherwise authenticated) to a new gaming terminal on the network, the new gaming terminal may broadcast a network message to request the previously used gaming terminal to transfer to the new terminal the game session meters corresponding to the ID instrument. That is, the request may be broadcast to all gaming terminals on the network and only the gaming terminal owning the requested game session meters will respond to the broadcast request. Consequently, the patron may play on any gaming terminal within the network and change gaming terminal at any time as long as his game session credit is not exhausted. The transfer of meters preferably occurs directly between the networked gaming terminals, without the intermediary of an intervening terminal or storage.  
         [0009]     The patron may redeem his winnings or remaining credits by submitting his ID instrument to an automated cashier, to a cashier equipped with a network entry terminal or to a gaming terminal equipped with a coin dispenser or a bank note dispenser. For the payment operation, payment authorization may be obtained via the network from the last gaming terminal on which the patron last played.  
         [0010]     For fault tolerance, each game session meter may be mirrored on one or a plurality of peer gaming terminals on the network.  
         [0011]     It is a further object of this invention supports all forms of cashless instruments such as:  
         [0012]     a player account whereby primary meters are the monetary credit balance associated to a patron ID;  
         [0013]     an anonymous game session account whereby primary meters are the monetary credit balance associated to a game session ID;  
         [0014]     a voucher verification account whereby the primary meters are the monetary value and the hash associated to the value amount and the encrypted signature printed or encoded on the voucher;  
         [0015]     a time gaming account whereby the primary meters are the time-to-play balance and the total of the winnings associated to a patron ID or to a game session ID;  
         [0016]     a smartcard reconciliation account whereby the primary meters are a mirrored copy of the meters managed in the secure electronic module of the smartcard. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0017]      FIG. 1  is an overview diagram of an exemplary server-less cashless gaming system, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0018]      FIG. 2  is a view depicting an exemplary cashless game terminal in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0019]      FIG. 3  is a view depicting an exemplary automated cashier in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0020]      FIG. 4  is a diagram depicting a server-less cashless game session in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0021]      FIG. 5  is a diagram depicting the cashless meters in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0022]      FIG. 6  is a view depicting an exemplary cashier network entry terminal in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0023]      FIG. 7  is a flowchart depicting the cashless meters in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0024]     Reference will now be made in detail to the construction and operation of preferred implementations of the present invention illustrated in the accompanying drawings. The following description of the preferred implementations of the present invention is only exemplary of the invention. Indeed, the present invention is not limited to these implementations, but may be realized by other implementations.  
         [0025]      FIG. 1  is an overview diagram of an exemplary server-less cashless gaming system, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. As shown therein, a server-less gaming system  100  according to an embodiment of the present invention may include a plurality of gaming terminals  104 , a cashier terminal  106  or an automated cashier  108 , all communicating via a wired and/or wireless network  102 . Wireless entry devices such as laptops  110  using 802.11 (for example), palmtops  112  using Bluetooth or 802.11 (for example), or Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) phones (for example) may advantageously be used in some premises for operators to consult and credit the game session meters. Advantageously, there is no central system (i.e., central server) controlling the gaming system  100 .  
         [0026]      FIG. 2  illustrates an exemplary cashless gaming machine  200  that does not accept or redeem cash. It is to be understood that the gaming machine  200  is but one possible implementation of such a cashless gaming machine and that the present invention is not limited thereto. For cashless operation, the gaming terminal is equipped with means of capturing the encoded information associated with a cashless instrument submitted. The cashless instrument may be a physical portable instrument such as: a paper voucher comprising printed codes; a strong paper ticket comprising printed codes and encoded magnetic codes; a rigid ID card comprising printed codes, magnetic codes or optical codes; a secure contact or contact-less electronic ID device comprising sophisticated electronic (a smart card or a smart dongle); or alternatively, a user ID and password to be typed or spoken, or alternatively again advanced biometric features (finger print, voice recognition, face recognition). The information captured from a cashless instrument is processed in order to derive a pointer to a location containing the necessary computer data to identify and validate the cashless instrument. The information captured from a cashless instrument may contain an encrypted signature (or hash) to ensure that the information has not been maliciously modified. In fine, the cashless instrument allows to derive a valid “identifier code” that is used by the software to execute the appropriate transactions to emulate the use of real cash for the cashless instrument submitted. The cashless instrument is thus denoted “ID instrument” hereafter. The ID instrument may be capable of storing additional information when accessed by a device, or alternatively be replaced by a new one (i.e. a newly printed ticket). The gaming machine ID device(s) accepting the ID instrument submitted may include a magnetic card reader  204 , a SmartCard reader and writer  206 , a barcode reader  210 , a ticket printer  212 , a biometric reader (finger print, voice identification, head identification, etc.), a touch-screen  202 , keyboard or keypad to enable players to enter a PIN (Personal Identification Number). The gaming machine identification device(s) may further include an ID token reader to read other forms of advanced ID devices such as ID buttons, ID key-chains (such as disclosed, for example in commonly assigned US design patent entitled “Personal Communicator and Secure ID Device” Pat. No. D441,765 issued on May 8, 2001) as well as secure communication means for securely communicating with, for example, personal wallets, hand held computers or computer wrist-watch via infra red, magnetic field, capacitive charges or RF (Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11, etc.) for player identification purposes. A printer  212  may print bar-coded tickets  214  that can be read by a barcode reader  210 .  
         [0027]      FIG. 6  illustrates an example of a networked cashier terminal  600 , according to an embodiment of the present invention. The terminal may include a computer  602  connected via wired or wireless link  603  to the network  102  with the gaming machines  104  and a ticket printer  604 . The ticket printer  604  may include an integrated printer for printing tickets or receipts  606  that include a human and/or machine readable code imprinted thereon and code reader  608  for reading the code(s) imprinted on the ticket  606 . The cashier terminal may also include, for example, a magnetic card reader  610 , a SmartCard reader  612 , a biometric reader  614  (such as a fingerprint reader, for example), a display  620  and input devices such as a keyboard  618  and/or a mouse  616 . The cashier terminal may be controlled by an operating system capable of secure network communication such as Microsoft Windows, embedded XP or Linux, for example.  
         [0028]      FIG. 3  illustrates an embodiment of an automated cashier  300 , which dispenses with the need for a human cashier. The automated cashier  300  may include an internal computer connected to the network  102  with the gaming terminals  104 , a coin acceptor  322 , a note acceptor  320 , a coin dispenser/hopper  318 , a SmartCard or magnetic card dispenser  304 , a note dispenser  314 , a ticket printer  310  for printing a ticket  312 , a magnetic card reader  302 , a SmartCard reader/writer  306 , a barcode reader  308 , display with touch-screen  326 , a keypad  324 , a video camera  328  and/or a UL  291  certified cash safe  316 , for example. The UL  291  certified cash safe  316  prevents or deters robbery of the cash stored inside the automated cashier  300 . The automated cashier  300  may further include biometric ID readers, ID token readers to read other forms of advanced ID devices such as ID buttons, ID key-chains, etc., as well as secure communications means for communicating with personal wallets, hand held PCs or computer wristwatch via infrared, magnetic field, capacitive charges or RF (Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11, etc.) for identification purposes.  
         [0029]     According to one embodiment of the present invention, the gaming terminals (GT)  104  are advantageously configured to support functions traditionally implemented by central systems.  FIG. 4  illustrates an embodiment of a server-less cashless gaming session according to the present invention. A patron  401  initially interacts with a cashier  402  to establish a cashless session  407  through to  412 . The patron  401  initializes a cashless session  408  by handing over an amount of money  407  (in whatever form) to the cashier  402 . The cashier  402  initializes the cashless meters  410  located on a predetermined gaming terminal  404  by issuing a credit meters transaction  409  using a cashier terminal  600 . The gaming terminal  404  executes a process  410  to initialize in persistent storage the cashless meters associated with this cashless session. The gaming terminal  404  may then return a session ID  411  for later access and retrieval. The cashier  402  may complete the cashless session  408  by providing the patron  401  with an ID instrument  412  corresponding to session ID  411 . The ID instrument  412  may be or include a printed ticket with text and/or encoded barcode, a printed ticket with text and/or embedded encoded magnetic strip (such as a metro ticket, for example), a magnetic ID card, a smart ID card, fingerprint recognition, voice recognition, face recognition, palm recognition (or any biometric recognition), ID buttons, ID key-chains, a personal electronic wallet, a secure handheld Computer, a secure mobile phone a secure computer wrist watch, a bar-coded ticket, a bar-coded voucher or any imaginable way to associate identification means with a physical or electronic media. A PIN number may also be given for challenging the ID instrument. The identification of the cashless session may be entirely anonymous or alternatively, may be associated with the patron&#39;s identity or membership in some group. In the later case, necessary personal identification data may be captured by the cashier when money is deposited  407  and are submitted together with the credit meters  409  for persistent storage in the gaming terminal  404  during the process  410 .  
         [0030]     The exact same cashless session  407  through  412  may be performed by making use of the automated cashier  300  instead of the cashier terminal  600  wherein the role of the cashier  402  is replaced by an automated program executed in the automated cashier. Suitable peripherals may be attached to the automated cashier  300  to allow for the deposit of funds, capture of information and dispensing of ID instruments.  
         [0031]     The start  413  of a cashless game session  414  may be identified by the patron  401  receiving the ID instrument  412 . The end  436  of the cashless game session  414  may be identified by the patron  401  redeeming the credit balance of money  435  associated with his ID instrument  412 , or when the credit associated with his ID is exhausted (null).  
         [0032]     The patron  401  (who forms no part of the present invention and whose actions are only described herein to illustrate aspects of the present invention), subsequent to receiving an ID instrument  412 , may execute a certain number of cashless operations associated with his ID instrument. The patron may choose any gaming terminal  403 ,  404 ,  405  or  406  to play on. In the illustration of  FIG. 4 , the patron first chooses the gaming terminal  403  and submits his ID instrument  415  to the gaming terminal  403 . If the gaming terminal  403  does not have ownership of the cashless meters associated with the ID instrument submitted, it may immediately broadcast on the network  102  a request to acquire the cashless meters associated with the patron&#39;s ID instrument. All the gaming terminals on the network  102  intercept the broadcast. The gaming terminal  404  having ownership of the cashless meters initiates at  418  a transfer procedure  419  to transfer ownership and full content of the cashless meters associated with the ID  420  to the gaming terminal  403 . Upon receiving ownership and content of the cashless meters, gaming terminal  403  initializes its local game meters with the value of the cashless meters received and enters a gaming session  421  wherein the patron may play continuously until credit is exhausted or until the cash-out signal  422  is activated. Any winning is added to the patron&#39;s credit balance.  
         [0033]     When the cash-out signal  422  is activated by the patron, the player may use the remaining of his or her credit to play on another gaming terminal or redeem the credit for cash. A ticket showing the credit remaining may be printed if a printing device is available on gaming terminal  403 . In the illustration of  FIG. 4 , patron  401  chooses to play on gaming terminal  406  and submits his ID instrument  423  to the gaming terminal  406 . Gaming terminal  406  does not have ownership of the cashless meters associated with the ID instrument submitted. Therefore, it may immediately broadcast on the network a request to acquire the cashless meters associated with the ID instrument. All the gaming terminals on the network intercept the broadcast. The gaming terminal  403  having ownership of the cashless meters initiates a transfer procedure  426  to transfer ownership and full content of the cashless meters associated with the ID  427  to the gaming terminal  406 . The gaming terminal  403  may deny the transfer of the meters if credit is exhausted or already paid, thus preventing the patron from playing on gaming terminal  406 . Upon receiving ownership and content of the cashless meters, gaming terminal  406  initializes its local game meters with the value of the cashless meters received and enters a gaming session  428  wherein the patron may play continuously until credit is exhausted or until the cash-out signal  429  is activated. Any winning is added to the credit balance.  
         [0034]     When the cash-out signal  429  is activated, the player may use any remaining credit to play on another gaming terminal or may redeem the credit for cash (or for credit on another payment instrument or account). A ticket showing the credit remaining may be printed if a printing device is available on gaming terminal  406 . In the illustration of  FIG. 4 , patron  401  chooses to redeem his credit for cash. The patron submits his ID instrument at  430  to the cashier  402  who initiates a redeem process  431  that may immediately broadcast on the network a request to acquire the cashless meters associated with the ID instrument submitted  430 . All the gaming terminals on the network intercept the broadcast. The gaming terminal  406  having ownership of the cashless meters authorizes payment by initiating a closure process  433  to terminate ownership of the cashless meters and forward the credit balance amount to pay at  434  to the cashier terminal  402 . The gaming terminal  406  may deny payment if credit is exhausted. Upon receiving the authorization from gaming terminal  406 , the cashier  402  then hands over the associated money  435  to the patron  401 . The cashless game session associated with the ID instrument  414  terminates  436  when the patron receives his money  435 . It is understood that the actions of the cashier described herein may be readily automated.  
         [0035]     In another embodiment of the present invention, the patron may request partial payment of the credit available. In that case, the gaming terminal  406  having ownership of the cashless meters associated with the patron or the patron&#39;s ID instrument authorizes payment and initiates an update process instead of a closure process  433  in order to reflect the amount of payment made,. Subsequently, the patron may continue to play on any gaming terminal or later redeem his credits at a cashier using his ID instrument.  
         [0036]     For clarity of illustration, the server-less gaming session  400  of  FIG. 4  shows only four game terminals and one cashier operating over a peer-to-peer platform. This is an ideal scenario for small game operators. It should be apparent to those acquainted with modem network architectures that the peer-to-peer architecture disclosed herein is highly scalable and robust and that the scenario  400  can be extended to a large gaming estate comprising tens of thousands of gaming terminals and hundreds of cashier terminals or automated cashiers. Moreover, peer-to-peer mechanisms may be provided by modem operating systems such as Microsoft .NET and secure network protocols may be automatically activated by setting the appropriate security policy such as Internet Protocol Security (IPSec) or Secure Socket Layer (SSL), for example. Furthermore, cashier terminals  600  and automated cashier  300  only require simple “stateless” .NET client applications or web browser sessions for interacting with the gaming terminals  104 . The term “stateless” denotes that the software that executes in the cashier terminal  600  and in the automated cashier  300  is not responsible for managing and recording the game session implicit state or context. The context of a software session is the ordered sequence of properties of the software objects that defines it at a particular instant in time. The context (or implicit state) of a cashless gaming session is controlled and recorded by the gaming terminal that owns the associated cashless session meters. The context of a cashless gaming session includes the meters. The gaming terminal may advantageously store the game session context that includes the meters in a non-volatile memory for fault-tolerance.  
         [0037]     The method and a server-less gaming session  400  of the present invention and illustrated on  FIG. 4  is further illustrated in a flowchart  700  of  FIG. 7 . As shown, a patron remits funds to any of the cashiers at  702 , whereupon the cashier initializes meters on a predetermined gaming terminal at  704  and the cashier dispenses and ID instrument to the patron at  706 . At  708 , the patron may choose to play on a gaming terminal at  710  or go to the cashier  734  to redeem his credit, such as shown at  732 .  
         [0038]     The patron submits his ID instrument at  712  to the selected gaming terminal that requests transfer of meters associated with the ID instrument from a previous gaming terminal  714  (the gaming terminal on which the patron last played), or alternatively in the case whereby the patron has just remitted finds to a cashier, from the gaming terminal on which the cashier has initialized the meters on. The previous gaming terminal may deny transfer of meters if the credit is exhausted or already paid, thus preventing the patron from playing a game.  
         [0039]     Once the transfer of meters from a previous gaming terminal is successfully completed, the patron may repetitively play a game at  716  as long as his credit is not exhausted as shown at  718  or the cash-out signal has not been activated  722 ,  726 . In case credit is exhausted  728 , the patron can no longer play and the cashless game session terminates at  730 .  
         [0040]     After activating the cash-out signal  722 ,  724 , the patron may choose another gaming terminal  708  and proceed as described above. If the patron no longer wishes to play  732 , he may go to a cashier  734  to redeem his credit by submitting his ID instrument  736 . The cashier may use his network entry terminal to obtain payment authorization from the previous gaming terminal  738 . If authorization is given, the credit amount available in the meters of the previous gaming machine may be paid by the cashier  740 , and the meters at the previous gaming terminal may be updated to reflect the payment.  
         [0041]     Traditionally and in compliance with gaming jurisdictions, gaming terminals may contain a set of highly secure persistent meters comprising essentially the patron&#39;s credit balance, the meters associated with a variety of events such as coins inserted and coins given out for a particular game, and an audit log of events for later examination if required. The operation for updating the meters in accordance with the game session activity is commonly referred as metering. Metering also infers that the necessary storage and access means to the meters are available. Applying modern object oriented programming and persistent data storage techniques such as structured access to non-volatile memory, the meters may be defined as a class that is dynamically instantiated at run time. It may be clear to those acquainted with object programming that a multitude of instantiations of the meters class may be obtained, the only limitation being the memory available. Memory being plentiful on a typical computer unit controlling a gaming terminal, a substantial number of instantiations of the meters class may be obtained.  
         [0042]      FIG. 5  illustrates the instantiation of a number of cashless meters  500  that may be obtained on a gaming terminal  502 . The gaming terminal  502  has taken ownership of the cashless meters associated with each of the patrons&#39; submitted ID instrument for ID(x), ID(y) through ID(z) and the gaming activity in process on gaming terminal  502  is reflected in the current session cashless meters  504 . The credit balance displayed to the patron currently playing corresponds to the credit balance meter  506 ; the other meters  508  and the audit log  510  may be reserved for use by the game operator. The cashless meters may be frozen when the patron activates the cash-out signal.  
         [0043]     The other meters  512 ,  514  and  516  are associated with gaming sessions played previously on the gaming terminal  502  and are frozen. Alternatively, any of the meters  512 ,  514  or  516  may be associated with a new cashless session initiated by the cashier when the patron deposit funds as explained relative to steps  407  to  412 . Gaming terminal  502  retain ownership of the frozen meters until ownership is requested by another gaming terminal. If the credit remaining on these meters is exhausted, transfer of ownership to another gaming terminal is denied. If a redeem operation is requested by the cashier terminal or the automated cashier while some credit is available, the gaming terminal  502  authorizes payment, closes the meters and retains ownership of the closed meters. The closed meters may be erased at a later time in order to recover storage space in accordance with the gaming operator&#39;s rules for flushing old data.  
         [0044]     The peer-to-peer metering method object of the present invention is suitable for supporting all forms of cashless instruments such as:  
         [0045]     a player account;  
         [0046]     an anonymous game session account;  
         [0047]     a voucher verification account;  
         [0048]     a time gaming account;  
         [0049]     a smartcard reconciliation account.  
         [0050]     A cashless player account is identified by a unique identifier key assigned to a patron that points to a set of records stored in computer memory containing the patron&#39;s personal details and the state of the cashless session. The records may be queried and updated by authorized software using the key that may be derived from the ID instrument submitted. The state of the cashless session comprises essentially the balance of monetary credit available to the patron (the primary meters) and some auxiliary attributes (secondary meters) reflecting the games played, the time stamping of various operations, a flag indicating if the meters are owned by the gaming terminal hosting the meters and a flag indicating if available credits have already been paid.  
         [0051]     An anonymous game session account is identified by a unique identifier key assigned to a game session that points to a set of records stored in computer memory containing the state of the cashless session. The records may be queried and updated by authorized software using the key that may be derived from the ID instrument submitted. The state of the cashless session comprises essentially (the primary meters) the balance of monetary credit available to the anonymous older of the ID instrument and some auxiliary attributes (secondary meters) reflecting the games played, the time stamping of various operations, a flag indicating if the meters are owned by the gaming terminal hosting the meters and a flag indicating if available credits have already been paid.  
         [0052]     A voucher verification account is identified by a unique identifier key assigned to a voucher that points to a set of records stored in computer memory containing the state of the cashless session. The records may be queried and updated by authorized software using the key that may be derived from the voucher submitted. The state of the cashless session comprises essentially (the primary meters) the balance of monetary credit available to the holder of the voucher and verification data, and some auxiliary attributes (secondary meters) reflecting the games played, the time stamping of various operations, a flag indicating if the meters are owned by the gaming terminal hosting the meters, and a flag indicating if available credits have already been paid. In the case of a cash-out at the gaming terminal or alternatively when funds are remitted to a human cashier or an automated cashier, a voucher comprising clear text and machine-readable code representing the monetary value of the credit available and some verification data is dispensed. The clear text may indicate the value of the credit available, or simply said for the holder, “the value of voucher”. In the case of a cash-in at the gaming terminal or alternatively when requesting the redeem of credits to a human cashier or an automated cashier, a voucher comprising clear text and machine-readable code representing the monetary value of the credit available and some verification data is read. The unique identifier key is derived from the verification data upon reading the clear text and/or the machine-readable code. The associated records are then queried in order to authenticate the value of the voucher by comparing the verification data contained in the records with the verification data read from the voucher. It should be apparent to those acquainted with secure transactional techniques that the unique identifier key, or alternatively the verification data, may be a hash or an encrypted signature of all or portion of the clear text and/or the machine-readable code.  
         [0053]     A time gaming account may be associated to a patron or be anonymous.  
         [0054]     A time gaming player account is identified by a unique identifier key assigned to a patron that points to a set of records stored in computer memory containing the patron&#39;s personal details and the state of the cashless session. The records may be queried and updated by authorized software using the key that may be derived from the ID instrument submitted. The state of the cashless session comprises essentially (the primary meters) the balance of time-to-play and the total of winnings available to the patron, and some auxiliary attributes (secondary meters) reflecting the games played, the time stamping of various operations, a flag indicating if the meters are owned by the gaming terminal hosting the meters and a flag indicating if available credits have already been redeeming.  
         [0055]     An anonymous time gaming account is identified by a unique identifier key assigned to a gaming session that points to a set of records stored in computer memory containing the state of the cashless session. The records may be queried and updated by authorized software using the key that may be derived from the ID instrument submitted. The state of the cashless session comprises essentially (the primary meters) the balance of time-to-play and the total of winnings available to the anonymous holder of the ID instrument, and some auxiliary attributes (secondary meters) reflecting the games played, the time stamping of various operations, a flag indicating if the meters are owned by the gaming terminal hosting the meters and a flag indicating if available credits have already been redeeming.  
         [0056]     A smartcard reconciliation account is identified by a unique identifier key assigned to a smartcard that points to a set of records stored in computer memory. The records therefor are a “slave” mirrored copy of same records containing the state of the cashless session that are maintained in the electronic circuits of the smartcard. The smartcard maintains the “master” copy of the records. The slaved mirrored records may be queried but not updated by authorized software using the key that may be derived from the smartcard submitted. The state of the cashless session comprises essentially the balance of credit available to the holder of the smartcard (the primary meters) and some auxiliary attributes (secondary meters) reflecting the games played, the time stamping of various operations, a flag indicating if the meters are owned by the gaming terminal hosting the meters and a flag indicating if available credits have already been paid. The slaved mirrored records are used to reconcile accounting when the smartcard is used in order to detect possible forgery. Alternatively, the slaved mirrored records are used as a backup repository to pay the holder of the smartcard in case of the failure of the smartcard. When used for backup, the “slave” records may be updated by authorized software using the key that may be derived from the smartcard submitted (embossed code for example).  
         [0057]     The ID instrument used to derive the unique identifier key may be submitted in a variety of ways such as typing a user ID and password, keying-in a code on a keypad, presenting a bar-coded voucher, an encoded card, a secure electronic ID device or recognizing biometric features.  
         [0058]     The unique identifier keys are commonly called GUI or global unique identifier.  
         [0059]     Fault tolerance may be achieved by replicating (mirroring) cashless meters owned by a given gaming terminal to a predetermined number of other peer gaming terminals. The gaming terminals holding replicated cashless meters are second-level owners that may be solicited in case the primary owner does not respond to the initial transfer request, whether the request is a direct one to an identified gaming terminal or broadcast to all gaming terminals on the network. For example, in case gaming terminal  403  does not obtain any reply subsequent to its transfer request broadcast  417  after a time-out, a new broadcast message explicitly soliciting secondary owners may be sent on the network. Gaming machine  403  would then accept the transfer of cashless meters from a responding secondary owner.  
         [0060]     In another embodiment of the present invention, the gaming terminal may be able to encode information on the ID instrument submitted by the patron. The identification of the gaming machine used by the patron may advantageously be encoded on the ID instrument such that the next used gaming terminal knows immediately upon reading the ID instrument the identity of the previously used gaming terminal. Consequently, the next used terminal may establish network communication with the previously used gaming terminal without having to rely on network broadcasting techniques to find out which of the connected gaming terminals is the last used gaming terminal, thus reducing the time to start transferring the meters and the overall network traffic. In case the last gaming terminal is not contactable, a network broadcast to find a secondary owner of the meters may be initiated.  
       CONCLUSIONS  
       [0061]     The invention offers a simple distributed peer-to-peer metering of cashless game sessions that is secure, robust, scalable and that requires no central system.  
         [0062]     All the sensitive operations are carried out by the secure software (preferably certified by a recognized test laboratory) that executes in each gaming machine. All the access points to any of the gaming terminals such as the cashier terminal or the automated cashier require only basic stateless client applications operating over a secure network protocol such as IPSec or SSL. Moreover, sophisticated relational databases are not required. Wireless laptops or palmtops may be advantageously used as entry or control terminals.  
         [0063]     The invention supports all forms of cashless instruments such as:  
         [0064]     a player account whereby primary meters are the monetary credit balance associated to a patron ID;  
         [0065]     an anonymous game session account whereby primary meters are the monetary credit balance associated to a game session ID;  
         [0066]     a voucher verification account whereby the primary meters are the monetary value and the hash associated to the value amount and the encrypted signature printed or encoded on the voucher;  
         [0067]     a time gaming account whereby the primary meters are the time-to-play balance and the total of the winnings associated to a patron ID or to a game session ID;  
         [0068]     a smartcard reconciliation account whereby the primary meters are a mirrored copy of the meters managed in the secure electronic module of the smartcard.  
         [0069]     The invention may be advantageously deployed for small to medium size game operators.