Patent ID: 8449379

Claim:
A method for providing wide area bonusing at a loyalty server over a bonus network independent from a gaming establishment network, comprising: receiving, at the loyalty server situated at a gaming machine provider, via the independent bonus network, player identification information associated with a player directly from one or more gaming machines situated at a gaming establishment and connected with the gaming establishment network, wherein the independent bonus network is separate and apart from the gaming establishment network and is configured to enable direct communication between the gaming machine provider and the gaming machine separate and apart from communication between the gaming establishment and the player, wherein the gaming machine provider is situated at a different location than the gaming establishment, and wherein the gaming machine is configured to establish a first communications session with the independent bonus network at a beginning of a gaming session, establish a second communications session with the independent bonus network at an end of the gaming session, and disable communications with the independent bonus network between the first communications session and the second communications session; retrieving, at the loyalty server, gaming machine data over the independent bonus network, the gaming machine data associated with the player identification information, the gaming machine data including information particular to the one or more gaming machines; applying one or more criteria to the retrieved gaming machine data at the loyalty server, the criteria comprising a comparison of the retrieved gaming machine data to a threshold determined by the gaming machine provider; and determining a player bonus according to the application of the one or more criteria to the retrieved gaming machine data.