Patent ID: 8016679

Claim:
A method that provides concurrent communications of a wide area progressive system and a player tracking system and each of a plurality of casino electronic gaming machines using a respective universal game device coupled within a respective one of the plurality of casino electronic gaming machines, said method comprising: configuring communications with at least one processor in the respective universal game device to provide two-way message communication between the wide area progressive system and the player tracking system and each of the plurality of casino electronic gaming machines, wherein the respective universal game device of the respective one of the plurality of casino electronic gaming machines is configured to: identify a receipt of a plurality of messages received from the wide area progressive system and the player tracking system by the at least one processor; evaluate a message source of the plurality of messages by the at least one processor, the message source being at least one of the following: the wide area progressive system and the player tracking system; evaluate a message type of the plurality of messages by the at least one processor, the message type being a command received from at least one of the following: the wide area progressive system and the player tracking system; establish, by the at least one processor, a level of importance of each of the plurality of messages based on the source of each of the plurality of messages and the type of each of the plurality of messages; establish, by the at least one processor, a message sequence precedence based on the source of each of the plurality of messages and the type of each of the plurality of messages, the message sequence precedence giving a higher transmission priority to a message of the plurality of messages having a level of importance above a predefined importance level with respect to the level of importance of the other of the plurality of messages having a level of importance below the predefined importance level; use the at least one processor to prioritize the two-way message communication transmission from the wide area progressive system and the player tracking system to the respective one of the plurality of casino electronic gaming machines, and subsequently back to the wide area progressive system and the player tracking system based on the message sequence precedence; and enable an execution of two-way message communication transmission of the message having the higher transmission priority.