Patent ID: 7494414

Claim:
A gaming device comprising: a game operable upon a wager; a housing; a currency acceptor supported by the housing, the currency acceptor operable to receive currency; a data card acceptor supported by the housing; a plurality of data card holders supported by the housing; a data writer supported by the housing; a thermal energy supplier supported by the housing; a thermal energy director coupled to the thermal energy supplier, the thermal energy director operable to direct thermal energy toward a data card received through the data card acceptor; a processor operatively coupled to at least one of the thermal energy supplier and the thermal energy director; and at least one instruction executable by the processor to: (a) apply any received currency toward at least part of the wager; (b) enable the processor to access, over a network, player-specific information stored in a data storage device; (c) enable the processor to access fund data over the network or another network, the fund data being: (i) stored in the data storage device or another data storage device; and (ii) associated with a data card received through the data card acceptor; (d) cause the thermal energy director to cause a human-readable symbol to be produced and viewable on a data card received through the data card acceptor, the human-readable symbol indicating at least a portion of the player-specific information; (e) control movement of a data card from the data card acceptor to one of the data card holders, and (f) control movement of a data card from another one of the data card holders toward the data card acceptor.