Patent ID: 8083592

Claim:
A retrofit candle device comprising: a housing including a translucent portion and an opaque portion; an attachment interface for mounting the retrofit candle device to an exterior surface of a gaming machine cabinet, said attachment interface compatible with an attachment interface of a legacy candle device that is being replaced; a plurality of peripheral devices including a plurality of lighting elements wherein the lighting elements are disposed within the translucent portion of the housing and wherein light from the plurality of lighting elements is visible through the translucent portion when said plurality of lighting elements are activated; a first legacy communication interface for coupling the retrofit candle device to a first wired communication connection within the gaming machine cabinet, the first wired communication connection for sending legacy candle control commands from a game controller within the gaming machine cabinet to the legacy candle device; a second legacy communication interface for coupling the retrofit candle device to a second wired communication connection within the gaming machine cabinet, said second wired communication connection configured to transmit communications from the game controller to a first remote device via a first legacy network wherein the communications to the first remote device are routed through the retrofit candle device via the second legacy communication interface; a wiring harness wherein a portion of the wiring harness, including the first legacy communication interface and the second legacy communication interface, extends from a bottom of the housing; a first wireless communication interface for wirelessly communicating with a remote server wherein the communications to the first remote device are sent wirelessly to the remote server bypassing a portion of the first legacy network; a candle controller, including a processor and a memory, coupled to the wiring harness, configured to: 1) receive legacy candle control commands from the game controller and in response control the plurality of lighting elements in accordance with the legacy candle control commands and 2) receive the communications from the game controller to the first remote device via the second legacy communication interface, encrypt the communications and send the encrypted communications via the first wireless communication interface to the remote server and 3) control the plurality of peripheral devices; and a secure portion of the housing including one or more anti-tampering mechanism, said candle controller disposed within the secure portion of the housing.