Patent ID: 7841941

Claim:
A method for authenticating data for playing a game of chance on a state-based gaming machine, the method comprising: providing a state-based gaming machine adapted to receive a wager from a player for play of a game of chance and output an award responsive to play of the game of chance, the state-based gaming machine adapted to maintain gaming machine state information in a non-volatile memory, the gaming machine state information capable of including award information related to outputting the award responsive to play of the game of chance; providing a motherboard in the gaming machine, the motherboard including a BIOS adapted to control a boot-up operation of the gaming machine, the boot-up operation including restoration of a state of the gaming machine prior to a power on or reset of the gaming machine in accordance with the gaming machine state information stored in the non-volatile memory; providing a peripheral component in communication with the motherboard over a bus, the peripheral component having access to authentication code in a memory, the peripheral component being removably coupled with the bus; receiving, at the peripheral component, an authentication instruction message over the bus, the authentication instruction message provided as a part of the boot-up operation, the authentication instruction message including an indication to initiate execution of the authentication code; executing, responsive to receiving the authentication instruction message, the authentication code on a processor to perform an authentication process to verify the authenticity of the data, the data being stored in a storage medium located external to the peripheral component, the storage medium being accessible to the state-based gaming machine; and outputting a signal indicating whether the authentication process is successful in authenticating the data.