JP2006021000A - Monitoring system for pachinko game machine and pachinko-slot game machine - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable a parlor manager to pinpoint a place and a time and grasp the situation illegally operated by linking with the timing illegally operated in a Pachinko game machine and a Pachinko-slot game machine. <P>SOLUTION: This monitoring system suspects an operation illegally conducted in the case when the number of jackpots in a specified time in each game machine exceeds a value predetermined in probability and obtains images of the situations near the operational hands of a game player before and after the operation. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an illegal operation detection and monitoring technique in a pachinko or pachislot machine.

Unauthorized operations on pachinko or pachislot machines are performed by applying some mechanical or electromagnetic action to the internal mechanism of the gaming machine, or with the help of a machine that generates a rhythm by the player. There are methods that operate using the statistical or probabilistic characteristics. In order to detect these various types of unauthorized operation means, not only a combination of devices suitable for each operation must be prepared, but also a detection means suitable for each new unauthorized operation means must be prepared. There must be. Many of them do not identify and detect the location and time of the unauthorized operation.
Means for scanning and monitoring the game room with several movable viewpoint cameras is also used, but a large number of gaming machines are not always monitored and blind spots are likely to occur. It can be improved by increasing the number of cameras, but it is not a practical means to store a huge amount of data because the location and time of fraudulent acts are unknown. Image investigation for fraud detection is also difficult.

Capturing abnormalities in the number of jackpots that occur as a result of fraudulent operations and detecting fraudulent operations enables unified and effective fraud monitoring and detection means without directly dealing with individual fraudulent manipulation means To do. A means for identifying a gaming machine in which an unauthorized operation may be performed and a timing in which the unauthorized operation may be performed is enabled.
Furthermore, by recording and saving an image of the player's operation status in conjunction with the timing and location, it is possible to easily check the status of the illegal operation while preventing an increase in the amount of data processing.

Although the present invention does not directly detect various unauthorized operations, if an unauthorized operation is performed, the frequency of jackpots will exceed the frequency set statistically in each gaming machine. It was made with attention.
In the first invention, the number of jackpots per fixed time (T time) of each gaming machine is counted, and if the number is larger than a set value, an alarm is generated as the possibility of an unauthorized operation.
It is effective to monitor the actual operating state of each gaming machine to obtain data on the jackpot frequency during normal operation, and to use a value that significantly exceeds the central value of the occurrence frequency. As is well known, each gaming machine is probabilistically limited by a third party organization so that the frequency of jackpots does not become excessive, and this value may be referred to as a set value. The limit on the occurrence of jackpots by a third-party organization is limited to the number of lotteries and is not proportional to the game time, but when an illegal operation is being performed, if a considerable game speed is continued The method of the present invention that monitors the number of jackpots per unit time is the most substantial.

In the second invention, since the gaming machine that issued the fraud alarm and the timing thereof are identified by the above-described method, the images before and after the jackpot occurrence that is the site of the fraudulent operation are obtained by linking various monitoring cameras. The site where there is is able to be confirmed directly with images. It is possible to specify an unauthorized operation by examining the image.

The third aspect of the invention is to capture the front of the gaming machine and the player's operating situation most likely to be illegally operated on each gaming machine with an imaging camera. The camera is always in an imaging state, receives jackpot information from the gaming machine, takes a video of a certain period before and after that, and preferably temporarily stores it for T hours or more. If the number of subsequent jackpots is less than the set value within a certain time (T time), the temporarily stored data may be discarded as there is no sign of unauthorized operation. If the number of jackpots exceeds the set value, The image data is confirmed and stored as it may have been performed. The presence or absence of an unauthorized operation is determined by examining this image.
The imaging camera only needs to be able to take a target image, and a plurality of gaming machines may be provided in each gaming machine, or a plurality of gaming machines may be handled by one camera.

The fourth invention has been devised for the case where image data from a camera is compressed and applied. As is generally known, image data compression is performed by reducing the redundancy of continuous screens in the screen and in time, so a considerable amount of data can be selectively extracted from continuous image data. Requires processing. In the present invention, image data before and after the jackpot is extracted from continuously captured images, and finally the data before and after the jackpot when the number of jackpots exceeds a set value. In this case, a considerable amount of data processing is required for this editing and extracting means. The fourth aspect of the invention has been made paying attention to this point, and when capturing image data from the camera, the data is divided and compressed in advance for each short time suitable for extraction or editing, and compressed image data in a short time Capture image data as a sequence of files. By this means, when extracting and storing the image data before and after the jackpot, and finally the data before and after the jackpot when the number of jackpots exceeds the set value, the corresponding compressed image data file is moved. The editing operation such as cutting the image data can be omitted.

It is a uniform and effective fraud monitoring and detecting means regardless of various kinds of fraudulent operations, and is also a strong detecting means against unknown illegal means that occur every day. Furthermore, it is possible to directly identify each gaming machine that may have been tampered with and its timing. In conjunction with this timing and location, images are extracted and stored only when there is a possibility that fraud has been performed, so not only can the amount of data to be processed be reduced, but also the fraudulent operations can be scrutinized and identified. It becomes easy. With these features, the overall system cost can be greatly reduced, all units can be monitored, and management costs can be reduced.

  In general, a big hit signal is generated in gaming machines, and this signal is used. Here, as an example of a pachinko game, an embodiment will be described on the assumption that there is a possibility of fraud when four or more jackpots occur in one hour.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of the system. As shown in the imaging direction (18) from a fixed distance, the camera (11) reliably displays images near the handle, upper plate, and lower plate with images of the front of the game table (12) and the player's operation hand (13). To capture. The video (14) from each camera is sent to the image processing device (16), and is divided into arbitrary short time, which is convenient for divided editing, here every 5 minutes, and is generated as a file compressed by MPEG. Then, temporarily store. The temporarily stored image data may be an amount of data necessary for fraud detection, and is set arbitrarily by the practitioner. Here, since it takes one hour to verify the frequency of the big hits, at least the image data file up to one hour has elapsed from the time of imaging as a base point. On the other hand, the image server (17) counts the data (15) of the jackpot number, and if the jackpot is detected four times or more by the time one hour elapses, the alarm is issued and the image processing apparatus (16) is accessed and temporarily stored. Import the image data file in the state.

FIG. 2 shows the flow of data processing in this system. (21) indicates a stream of captured images of the camera, which is input to the image processing device (16) to generate an MPEG compressed file sequence (22) every 5 minutes. The latest one-hour data (222) of this data string is temporarily stored, and the previous data string (221) is deleted. That is, as soon as new image data is fetched, the old data is sequentially discarded. On the other hand, the server (23) receives the jackpot signal (23x,...) And counts the number of jackpots per hour (24). In this example, during the period indicated by (231), the number of jackpots is three or less per hour, and no unauthorized operation is performed. The period indicated by (232) has four jackpots within one hour (24), and an abnormality is detected at the time indicated by “X”. With this abnormal signal, the server (17) accesses the image processing device (16) and takes in the necessary part (25) of the file generated in (22).

Effects of the embodiment

Since the image is extracted and stored only when there is a possibility of fraud, the amount of data to be processed can be reduced, the overall system cost can be greatly reduced, and the entire system can be monitored . In addition, since the location and time where there is a possibility of an unauthorized operation is identified, it becomes easy to examine and identify the unauthorized operation. From these advantages, it is obvious that fewer security personnel are required.
As this method can be easily understood, real-time monitoring is possible, and the monitoring method can be greatly improved.

Other embodiments

In the above embodiment, the monitoring and detection of the illegal operation of the pachinko was described, but the same can be applied to the pachislot. In this case as well, a jackpot signal is generally output from the gaming machine, and this is used to image the operation buttons including the lever, the coin insertion slot, and the vicinity of the coin tray when monitoring the camera.

It is also possible to use various known fraud detection devices in combination with this technique. That is, by using a fraud detection signal of a known fraud detection device, the operation hand images before and after the signal generation are stored in conjunction with the signal generation. Not only when the frequency of jackpots is abnormal, it is possible to cope with the risk of other unauthorized operations.

Example 1 of the present invention, pachinko fraud detection / monitoring overall configuration diagram Example 1 of the present invention, an example of data processing

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 Camera 12 Play table front 13 Play table operator hand part 14 Camera video signal 15 Big hit number data signal 16 Image processing device 17 Image server 18 Camera imaging direction 19 Image display device 21 Image data stream 22 MPEG compressed data file sequence 221 Temporary Data file sequence to be stored 222 Data file sequence to be discarded 23 Time arrangement of jackpot signal 23x Jackpot signal sequence 231 When the number of jackpot signals within a certain time is within a set value 232 The number of jackpot signals within a certain time is a set value When exceeded 24 Fixed time interval for counting the number of jackpots 25 Data file sequence finally determined and saved

Claims (4)

  In pachinko or pachislot machines, a mechanism for measuring the number of jackpot occurrences per arbitrary unit time (T time) and a fraud warning signal when the number of jackpot occurrences per T time exceeds a set number of times set arbitrarily A fraud detection monitoring system characterized by having a mechanism.   The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a mechanism for linking the fraud warning signal with an imaging device such as various monitoring cameras, and extracting and recording and displaying images around the target gaming machine before and after the occurrence of the fraud signal. A fraud detection monitoring system.   3. The surveillance camera according to claim 2, wherein the surveillance camera includes a front face of each gaming machine and a handle or lever of the gaming machine so as to obtain a video of a player's operation, and a video for a certain period before and after the jackpot is extracted and temporarily recorded for at least T time. A fraud detection and monitoring system comprising: an image recording device configured to extract, and in conjunction with the occurrence of the fraud warning signal, image data before and after the jackpot temporarily recorded before and after the image data are extracted and stored.   4. A mechanism according to claim 2 and 3, wherein a mechanism for generating video from a camera as a compressed image data file sequence delimited by a set short period, and an image recording apparatus for temporarily recording the compressed image data file sequence for at least T time. In addition, a fraud detection and monitoring system characterized in that, in conjunction with the occurrence of the fraud warning signal, a group of compressed image data files for a predetermined period before and after the fraud warning signal is extracted from the temporary recording data and fixedly stored.

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