Patent ID: 7309280

Claim:
A gaming machine comprising: a display part for displaying a state of a game; and a game control means for controlling the state of the game in accordance with information input by a plurality of players; wherein the plurality of players include at least one real player and at least one virtual player who is not a real player and the players play the game against each other, the gaming machine comprising: an image taking means for taking an image of the real player, said image taking means being installed in the gaming machine; an image data storage means for storing a plurality of image data that are displayed on said display part as images of the virtual player and the real player; a response image data storage means for storing response image data of each virtual player in relation to the state of the game, the image data being displayed as an image in said display part at a predetermined state of the game played with the gaming machine; a detection means for detecting player insufficiency in playing the game with the gaming machine; and a virtual player selection means for selecting the virtual player according to a detection result by said detection means; wherein said game control means has the virtual player participate in the game being played with the gaming machine, the virtual player being selected by said virtual player selection means according to the detection result by said detection means; and wherein said game control means causes said display part to show an image of the real player being taken at a predetermined timing by said image taking means, and the response image data being stored by said response image data storage means according to the state of the game being played with the gaming machine.