Patent ID: 8597110

Claim:
A method of operating a gaming system having a central authority associated with a database and interconnected to a plurality of gaming machines, comprising: establishing a player account in said database associated with at least one player; defining a first game session between a first time and a second time; providing a primary indicator in an active state at said first time when a first player is identified; providing said primary indicator in an inactive state at said second time; defining a second game session between a third time and a fourth time; providing a secondary indicator in an active state at said third time; providing said secondary indicator in an inactive state at said fourth time; defining a third game session between a fifth time and a sixth time; providing said primary indicator in said active state at said fifth time when a second player is identified; providing said primary indicator in said inactive state at said sixth time; collecting third game session activity data from one of said gaming machines when said primary indicator is in an active state; collecting second game session activity data from said one gaming machine when said secondary indicator is in an active state and said primary indicator is in an inactive state; combining said third game session activity data and said second game session activity data in response to determining that said first player is the same player as the second player; and transmitting said combined third and second game session activity data to said central authority, whereby said second game session activity data is not separately transmitted to said central authority.