Patent ID: 8147334

Claim:
An online gaming system, comprising: at least two central servers, each of the at least two servers being coupled to a communication network, and at least one gaming machine coupled to the at least two central servers through the communication network in a client-server configuration in which each of the at least one gaming machine is a client to the at least two central servers, each of the at least one gaming machine being configured to play at least one game and to carry out a game transaction for each game played and to commit each game transaction to each of the at least two central servers by sending a separate instance of a single transaction packet from the at least one gaming machine to each of the at least two central servers, each separate instance of the single transaction packet sent to each of the at least two central servers including an identical inbound game payload wherein each of the at least two central servers, upon receipt of the inbound game payload from the gaming machine having sent the instance of the transaction packet, is configured to send a single outbound game payload to the gaming machine having sent the instance of the transaction packet, the outbound game payload enabling the gaming machine having sent the instance of the transaction packet to complete the game transaction and wherein the at least one gaming machine is configured such that a first arriving outbound payload received by the at least one gaming machine is effective to complete the game transaction, irrespective of when a second later arriving outbound payload is received by the at least one gaming machine.