Patent ID: 8622838

Claim:
A player tracking unit comprising: a multimedia interface comprising: a video display on said unit; an audio interface on said unit operable to connect to one or more sound projection devices; one or more of the following player tracking interface devices mounted on or within said unit: a card reader, a key pad, a bonus button, a function button, a microphone, sound projection devices, a camera, a wireless interface device, a proximity sensor, selection buttons, an enter button, a bar-code reader, an RFID reader and a finger print reader; a player tracking controller within said unit designed or configured to: 1) communicate with the multimedia interface, the one or more player tracking interface devices, a master gaming controller that controls a game played on a gaming machine and one or more remote servers, 2) output a program comprising one of audio content, video content and combinations thereof, to the multimedia interface; 3) in response to a request initiated at the player tracking unit, receive a download of digitally formatted video content, 4) determine whether one or more conditions for when to display the digitally formatted video content is met; 5) in response to at least a first condition of the one or more conditions being met, display the digitally formatted video content, 6) collect gaming data from the gaming machine, 7) send the gaming data to one of the remote servers and 8) communicate peer-to-peer with one or more other player tracking units, including messages with either or both video and audio content that can be in a streaming format; a multimedia board for processing digitally formatted program files including the digitally formatted video content for output on the multimedia interface; a memory device for storing the downloaded digitally formatted video content coupled to the multimedia board.