Patent ID: 8484696

Claim:
A method for operating a gaming machine comprising the steps of: running an operating system loaded in the gaming machine; providing and installing a trusted verification driver in the gaming machine, the trusted verification driver being independent of the operating system; disabling, using the trusted verification driver, all interrupts generated by the gaming machine; performing a verification of components of the operating system against a trusted reference using the trusted verification driver while all interrupts are disabled to prevent preemption by high level processes and preventing further operation of the gaming machine when the verification of the components of the operating system fails; downloading at least one software module into the gaming machine; checking a code signature of at least one downloaded software module using the trusted verification driver, and authorizing execution of the downloaded software module in the gaming machine only if the downloaded software module is successfully verified by the trusted verification driver; wherein during at least the step of performing a verification of components, the trusted verification driver takes control of the gaming machine.