AU621599B2 - Apparatus and method for progressive jackpot gaming - Google Patents

Description

Our Ref: 269502 AUSTA~t 2 1 FORM

V

i COMPLETE SPECIFICATION

(ORIGINAL)

Application Number: Lodged: Complete Specification Lodged: Accepted; Published: Priority: Related Art: 0 Applicant(s): 0 4 Caribbean Stud Enterprises. Inc.

4606 Wynn Road Suites 3 4 Las Vegas Nevada 89103 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ARTHUR S. CAVE CO.

Patent Trade Mark Attornerys Level 10, 10 Barrack Street SYDNEY NSW 2000 Address for Service: Complete spexification for the invention entitled "APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR ,PROGRESSIVE JACKPOT GAMING".

The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me:- C006. .5-4 I -1I- 5020 AMD/1048M AMD/0471a la BACKGROUND C? THE INVENTION The present invention generally relates to casino or cardroom gaming involving a progressive jackpot. More particularly, it relates to a progressive jackpot that is available to be played by participants in various casino or cardroom table games.

It has become common practice in gaming establishments to provide a progressive jackpot component in connection with electronic or mechanical gaming devices, such as slot machines, video poker machines or keno machines. Typically a plurality or "bank" of machines are electronically interconnected to a common progressive jackpot meter. As gaming tokens are fed into each machine, the amount shown on the jackpot meter progresses incrementally until some lucky player lines up the winning combination, such as three or four 7's on the same row of a slot machine. In video poker, r a Royal Flush normally wins the jackpot, although in some variations, a player must achieve a Royal Flush in an exact order, such as A-K-Q-J-10 from left to right, or in a particular suit, such as Spades. In video keno, a player typically must match 15 out of 15 numbers to win the progressive jackpot.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a progressive jackpot component to typical casino or cardroom table games such as poker or Twenty-one.

C00 c o CO p o c c 0 -cv~- 1 It is a feature of the present invention to have each 2 participant in the progressive jackpot component win all or part 3 of the amount shown on the progressive jackpot meter if the par- 4 ticipant achieves a particular predetermined playing hand.

It is an advantage of the present invention that when 6 the progressive jackpot component is added to typical table games 17 such as poker or Twenty-One that the players will enjoy these 8 games more and that the amount of play will increase.

9 It is a further object of the present invention to provide apparatus useful in providing the progrca.sive jackpot com- I ponent to casino or cardroom table games such as poker or Twenty- 12 One.

too 13", It is a further feature of the present invention to have 14' a progressive jackpot meter electronically interconnected to one %9*to: l~es or more gaming tables to allow each player at his playing location to participate in the progressive jackpot component by wagering a 17 gamning token which automatically activates an indicator showing 19:,the player's participation and also automatically increments the 19.,,progressive jackpot meter.

4tIt is an advantage of the present invention that the 21' apparatus makes it easy for each player to participate 4n the 22 progressive jackpot component of the game.

2 r BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 24V The method of the present invention generally involves a typical casino or cardroom game modified to include a progressive 26 jackpot component. During the play of a Twenty-One game, for 27 example, in addition to his normal wager, a player will have the -2- 1 4 52 6 8 9 11 12 17 11- 217 option of. making an additional wager that becomes part of, and makes the player eligible to win, the progressive jackpot. If the player's Twenty-One hand comprises a particular, predetermined arrangement of cards, the player will win all, or part of, the amount showing on the progressive jackpot. This progressive jackpot feature is also adaptable to any other casino or cardroom game such as Draw Poker, Stud Poker, Lo-Ball Poker or Caribbean Stud" Poker.

The apparatus used to practice the present invention comprises a gaming table, such as those used for Twenty-One or poker, modified with the addition of a coin acceptor that is electronically connected to a progressive jackpot meter. When a player drops a coin into the coin acceptor, a light is activated at the player's location indicating that he is participating in the progressive jackpot component of the game during that hand.

At the same time, a signal from the coin acceptor is sent to the progressive meter to increment the amount shown on the progressive meter. At the conclusion of the play of each hand, the coin acceptor is reset for the next hand. When a player wins all or part of the progressive jackpot, the amount showing on the progressive jackpot meter is reduced by the amount won by the player.

Any number of gaming tables can be connected to a single progressive jackpot meter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 shows the apparatus of the present invention using a casino gaming table with coin acceptors at each playing location electronically connected to a progressive jackpot meter.

-3- 1 .Figure 2 shows an alternate embodiment of the present 2 invention using a cardroom gaming table with coin acceptors at 3 each playing location electronically connected to a progressive 4 jackpot meter.

Figure 3 shows a block diagram of the operation of the 6 present invention.

-7 Figure 4 shows a schematic diagram of the electronic 8 circuitry of the present invention.

9 DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS As shown in Figure 1, a casino gaming table 10 is pro- 11 vided having a plurality of playing locations 12 for players par- 12 ticipating in the game being conducted, Twenty-One. A i dealer is positioned at the dealer's location 14 adjacent a chip I e 14' rack 16. Adjacent to each player location 12 is a coin acceptor I, l, 20. Each coin acceptor 20 is electronically connected to a main H 4 la *6 control board 40 to which is connected a number of odometer-type I 9 17 counters 42 corresponding to the number of playing locations 12 18,t provided on the gaming table 10. As shown in Figure 1, seven 1,9,'i playing locations 12 are preferably provided, although the number of playing locations can be more or less than seven. A reset 21' 2 switch 50 is located adjacent the dealer's location 14 and is 22 electronically connected to the main control board 40 and provides S234' a means whereby the dealer can reset the coin acceptors 20 prior 24 to the beginning of the play of each hand. A lockout switch is also provided adjacent to the dealer's location 14 which is 26 activated by the dealer to prevent later wagering as will be more 27 fully explained herein.

1 A main contr )oard 40 is electronically connected to a 2 progressive jackpot control box 60 which Leceives the signals from 3 each coin acceptor 20 and in response to those signals increments 4 the progressive jackpot meter 70, as will be more fully explained herein. Also electronically connected to thp progressive control 6 box GO is the jackpot reset control 80 which provides means for -7 resetting the amount shown on the progressive jackpot meter when- 8 ever a player wins all, or part of, the amount shown on the pro- 9 gressive jackpot meter In operation, the present invention operates as follows.

11 A conventional Twenty-One game is conducted on gaming table 12 At the beginning of each hand, each player, in addition to making Shis usual wager for the play of the Twenty-One hand, may also make 14" an additional wager to be eligible to participate in the progres- S° sive jackpot component of the game during that hand. To do so, a 46. player places a gaming token into the coin acceptor 20 associated 17 with that player's particular playing location 12. As will be more fully explained herein, the coin acceptor 20 "recognizes" 19 .o that a gaming token has been placed therein and an indicator o o signal 22, preferably a light, adjacent to the coin acceptor 20 is Reo 23" activated showing that that particular player is participating in 22 the progressive jackpot component of the game during the play of 23*°c that hand.

241 Besides activating the indicator signal 22, the coin acceptor 20 also sends an electronic signal to the main control 26 board 40. This signal is sent by the main control board 40 to the 27 odometer-type counter 42 corresponding to the particular playing 1 loca.tion .12 to keep a sequential count of the number of gaming 2 tokens that are placed in the particular coin acceptor 3 The main control board 40 also activates the progressive 4 jackpot control box 60 which in turn controls the progressive jackpot meter 70. Each gaming token placed in a coin acceptor 6 results in the amount shown on the progressive jackpot meter being -7 increased by a predetermined amount. If, for example, each gaming 8 token has a value of one dollar, then the amount shown on the 9 progressive jackpot meter would be increased by any amount up to one dollar for each gaming token placed into a coin acceptor 11 In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the progres- 12 sive jackpot would be increased' between 93% to 97% of the amount S3: of each gaming token being wagered, the balance representing the i14 house's share of the amount wagered for providing the progressive jackpot component of the game.

When each player has had a reasonable opportunity to 17 make a progressive jackpot wager, the dealer activates lockout 18 switch 55 which deactivates each coin acceptor 20. Any tokens 19, placed in a coin acceptor 20 after lockout switch 55 is activated will not register. This prevents late wagering after the cards 2i'- are dealt.

22 The amount shown on the progressive jackpot meter will 23.o continue to increase for each gaming token wagered until a player S 29"° achieves a winning hand. Preselected winning hands earn a player all or part of the amount shown on the progressive jackpot meter.

26 In a preferred embodiment, the preselected wining hands and 27 payoff amounts in Twenty-One game are as follows: -6- .1 Winning Hand Amount of Jackpot Four 5's and an Ace 100% 2 Ace, two, three, four, five and six 4% 3 Six, seven and eight of same suit 100 tokens 4 Three 7's 50 tokens The invention is not limited to these particular combinations of 6 winning hands or payoffs; other winning hand combinations or pay- 7 off amounts can be utilized.

8 When a player achieves a winning hand, the jackpot reset 9 control 80 is manually activated by pushing a button that corresponds to the type of hand that the player achieved. The amount 11 won by the player is thus electronically deducted from the amount 14 -t showing on the progressive jackpot meter.

t When a particular hand is completed at gaming table 101, 14e, the dealer presses the reset switch 50, which deactivates the in- 1~Si dicator signal 22. Lockout switch 55 is also manually deactivated 126 by the dealer. The coin acceptor 20 is thus readied to receive 17 another gaming token for the next hand.

The progressive jackpot component of the present invenf19'* 0 tion can also be used in connection with other types of casino e t' games, Caribbean Stud'" Poker, which is the subject matter of 21 U. S. Patent Application Serial No. 182,374 filed April 18, 1988, 22 which is incorporated herein by reference thereto. Caribbean 23 Stud" Poker is a modification of conventional five-card stud 24 poker. Each player makes an ante and a dealer deals five cards to each player and to himself. The player's cards are dealt face 26 down and the dealer's cards are dealt four cards face down and one 27 card face up. Each player views his hand and then decides whether -7- 1 to continue to play by making an additional bet or to fold or 2 drop, in which case he loses his ante. The dealer then reveals 3 his entire hand; if the dealer's hand does not have a poker value 4 of at least Ace-King, then the dealer is not permitted to continue to play. In that case, the dealer pays even money on the re- 6 maining players' antes, and returns their bets to them. If the 7 dealer's hand has a poker value of Ace-King or better, the dealer 8 compares his hand to each player's hand, paying or collecting the 9 as appropriate. The dealer also pays odds Of more than even money on each winning player's hand of two pair or better accord- [1 ing to a bonus payment schedule. This game can be played using 12 the gaming table shown in Figure 1. Each player makes a progres- 13,° sive jackpot wager by placing a gaming token in the coin acceptor 14 20 which makes that player eligible to participate in the proltt t. gressive jackpot amount shown on the meter 70. The winning hands I l and amounts for Caribbean Stud Poker are preferably as follows: i t 17 Hand Amount c"o Royal Flush 100% 18- c Straight Flush c c Four of a Kind 1% Full House 50 tokens Flush 25 tokens r Again the invention is not limited to these particular combina- 21 tions of hands or payoff amounts; other hand combinations or pay- 23 t off amounts can be utilized.

The invention can also be adapted to other casino or 24 cardroom poker games such as Stud Poker, Draw Power or Lo-Ball Poker. The gaming table 100 used to play each of these games is 26 modified as shown in Figure 2 by the addition of coin acceptors 27 120 and indicator signals 122 at each player's location 112. The I 1.

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19 C *4 2 4 electronics is the same as that shown in Figure 1 and includes a main control board 140, an odometer-type counter 142, a progressive jackpot control box 160, a progressive jackpot meter 170 and a jackpot reset control 180. A reset switch 150 and a lockout switch 155 are located adjacent the dealer's location 114 next to the chip rack 116.

The progressive jackpot meter 170 is incrementally increased in the same manner as that described in connection with Figure 1 by each player placing a gaming token in the coin acceptor 120.

The winning hands and payoff amounts are preselected as appropriate for the type of game being played. In the preferred embodiment, the winning hands and payoff amounts are as follows: I. Five Card Draw Poker Hand Royal Flush Straight Flush Four of a Kind Full House II. Five Card Stud Poker Hand Royal Flush Straight Flush Four of a Kind Full House III. Seven Card Stud Poker Hand Royal Flush Straight Flush Four of a Kind Full House IV. Lo-Ball Poker [land 5-4-3-2-Ace 6-4-3-2 Ace 6-5-3-2-Ace 7-4-3-2-Ace Amount 100% 100 tokens 25 tokens Amount 100% 100 tokens 25 tokens Amount 100% 100 tokens 25 tokens Amount 100% 100 tokens 25 tokens -9-

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-i 1 -2 3 4 6 7 8 9 11 12 1 6 0 L a^O 6 17 18 22 0 f94 26 27 7 These winning hands and payoff amounts are merely preferred embodiments and the invention may be practiced using any appropriate combination of winning hands and payoff amounts.

As an alternative embodiment, progressive jackpot component of the game may be utilized as a consolation payoff for a player who otherwise loses during the play of the regular game.

For example, assume the regular game being played is Five Card Stud. Players A and B are both eligible for the progressive jackpot amount because each has placed a gaming token in the coin acceptor prior to the beginning of the play of the hand. Player A holds a hand having Four of a Kind. Player B holds a Full House.

Because Player A's hand is higher according to the customary poker hand ranking priority, Player A wins the pot wagered on the Five Card Stud game. As -a consolation, however, Player B receives a payoff amount from the progressive jackpot for his Full House, 25 tokens. Player A does not receive a payoff from the progressive jackpot because he already has won the pot from the regular Five Card Stud game. Thus, under this alternative embodiment, a player only receives a payoff from the progressive jackpot if the player both has a hand of the preselected type and loses to a higher hand in the game being played.

Another modification would have the two players sharing in the progressive jackpot amount; the player with the preselected type of hand receiving a percentage of the progressive jackpot amount and the player with the higher poker hand receiving the rest of the progressive jackpot amount. With reference to the example above, Player B would receive 80% of the progressive 1 jackpot amount for a Full House and Player A would receive 20% of 2 the progressive jackpot amount for a Full House.

3 Figure 3 shows in block diagram form the operation of 4 the present invention. Each playing location has a coin a acceptor 210 into which a player places a gaming token in order to be 6 eligible for the progressive jackpot amount. When all players ,7 have had sufficient time to decide whether to participate in the 8 progressive jackpot for that hand the dealer activates the lock- 9 out switch 220 which prevents late wagers. Each gaming token placed in a coin acceptor 210 energizes the progressive output i: I11 control 230 which in turn activates three separate devices. An 12 integrated circuit timer is energized which causes an indicator A3* light 250 to be illuminated at the location on the coin acceptor 14 in front of the player. This gives a visual indication to the dealer that that player is participating in the progressive jackl 0 pot during the play of that hand.

17 The signal from the progressive jackpot control 230 also 1, activates an odometer-type counter 255 which increments by one 4 c, unit for each gaming token wagered through the coin acceptor.

This allows the gaming establishment to keep an accurate count of the number of wagers made on the progressive jackpot.

22 The third signal from the progressive jackpot control C «t 231,. 230 goes directly to the progressive jackpot meter 270. The progressive jackpot meter 270 shows the total amount available to be won by a player who obtains one of the preselected winning hands.

26 The amount of the progressive jackpot meter 270 automatically in- 27 creases a predetermined amount for each gaming token placed in a -11-

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a T t S 015 1 MC t T 16 17 ci c r c r 21 22 V Vf 26 27 coin acceptor. The progressive jackpot meter 270 is programmed to increase a specified percentage of the amount wagered in the coin acceptor 210. In the preferred embodiment, the progressive jackpot meter will be increased between about 93% to 97% of the amount wagered in the coin acceptor 210.

The dealer then deals the cards to each player and the hand is played 280. If a player has a preselected wining hand, the player is paid the amount corresponding to the type of winning hand that the player has. The jackpot reset control 290 is manually activated which results in the amount of the payoff being automatically deducted from the amount displayed on the progressive jackpot meter 270.

After the winning players have been paid, the dealer activates the reset switch 295 which both turns off the integrated circuit timer 240 and turns off the indicator light 250 and the dealer deactivates the lockout switch 297 thereby activating the coin acceptor 210 for the next hand.

Figure 4 in schematic form depicts the electronic circuitry to operate the apparatus of the present invention. The coin acceptor circuitry 300 is activated when a gaming token is dropped into the slot on the gaming table where the coin acceptor is mounted. The gaming token passes between an ultraviolet transmitter DS1 and an optic receiver Ql (Model #MRD 300 transistor).

This causes a pulse to be passed from the collector of Ql to the base of receiver Q2. Q2 is a Model #2N3906 transistor and acts as an emitter follower and sends a pulse which is received by the integrated circuit 322,324 of the main control board 320. The -12- -i 1 integrated circuit 322, 324 is a Model #LM-556 Timer. The pulse 2 from Q2' is received at pin 325 of the lower portion 324 of the 3 integrated circuit and this pulse causes pin 326 of the lower 4 portion 324 to go high and turn on diode DS2 (a Model P367 diode).

This diode DS2 is the indicator light 22 shown in Figure 1 and 6 this indicator light 22 stays on until the play of the hand is 7 finished.

8 The pulse from Q2 also is received by pin 323 on the 9 upper portion 322 of the integrated circuit and this pulse creates a pulse at pin 327 of the upper portion 322 which causes transis- 11 tor Q3 (a Model #TlPl20 transistor) to turn on, then off for the 12 duration of the pulse created at pin 327. The turning on and off 13- of transistor Q3 causes the odometer-type counter 42 shown in '14" Figure 1 to increment one digit. The odometer-type counter 330 is S151 1 a six-digit non-resetable electronic 12VDC counter, WICO Model #31-443400.

17 The pulse created at pin 327 of the upper potion 322 of A~the integrated circuit ;:ilso goes to the opto isolator 340 (which rct C19, is a Model lfIH11A16E 0pto Isolator) The opto isolator 340 passes this pulse to the base of transistor Q4 (a Model #2N3906 trana- 21istor) thereby turning on transistor Q4 for the duration of the 22 pulse. When transistor Q4 is turned one the pulse is passed to .234, the progressive jackpot display meter 350 where the amount shown on the display meter 350 is increased by a predetermined percen..age of the value of the gaming token placed in the coin acceptor 26 300. The progressive jackpot display meter 350 can typically be 27 a Game Technology Model having 3" LED characters on a 44" length -13- 1 single progressive display.

"2 After all bets are made, the dealer manually presses a 3 lockout switch 360 which will clamp the output of transistor Q2 at 4 a low level which ensures that there can be no late wagers made through the coin acceptor 300, Once the output of transistor Q2 6 is clamped at a low level, a gaming token placed in the coin 7 acceptor 300 will not cause a pulse to flow through the rest of 8 the circuitry.

9 The game is then played and once the game is completed, the dealer will manually press the reset switch 370 which creates 11 a reset pulse that activates pin 328 which resets the lower por- 12 tion 324 of the integrated circuit. This resetting causes pin 326 SI.' to go low which will extinguish diode DS2 which turns off the a4.i: indicator light 22 on the gaming table.

The dealer also manually presses the lockout switch 360 16' to open the circuit and remove the clamp on the emitter of tran- 17 sistor Q2 which allows another hand to be played. The players c18 commence the next hand by placing gaming tokens in the coin ac- S19, ceptor 300 and the process is repeated.

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As will be apparent to those skilled in the art, various 21 resistors and capacitors are provided to complete the circuitry.

22 The specifications on the resistors and capacitors shown in Figure ,2 4 is as follows: 24 Resistors Capacitors R1 68 Ohm R2 3 Kohm R3 1 Kohm C2-.01ufd/35v 26 R4 200 Ohm 4.7 Kohm C3-.lufd/35v 27 R6 10 Kohm -14- :i r AMD/0471a R7 1 Mohm R8 240 Ohm R9 1 Kohm 4.7 Kohm R11 240 Ohm R12 1 Kohm While the invention has been illustrated with respect to several specific embodiments thereof, these embodiments should be considered as illustrative rather than limiting.

Various modifications and additions made be made and will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the invention should not be limited by the foregoing description, but rather should be defined only by the following claims.

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Claims (17)

1. An apparatus for including a jackpot component in a live casino table game comprising: a gaming table having a plurality of player locations; gaming token acceptance means associated with each player location for accepting a gaming token to participate in the jackpot component; indicating means for indicating on a jackpot meter the amount in the jackpot; increasing means for increasing the amount shown on the jackpot meter a preselected amount for each gaming token wagered; and ,decrementing means for decrementing the amount shown on the jackpot meter by the amount won by a player.

2. The apparatus as claimed in claim i, further comprising S an indicator signal means associated with each player S location for indicating that a gaming token has been wagered.

3. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1 further including .C lockout switch means for preventing late wagering.

4. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1 further including C" reset switch means for resetting the apparatus at the end of a hand. A method of including a jackpot component in a live casino table game, utilising the apparatus claimed in any one of claims 1 to 4, comprising the steps of: a player wagering said gaming token to participate in said jackpot component by providing said gaming token in said gaming token acceptance means; a dealer dealing a hand of playing cards to the player; and, if the player's hand comprises a predetermined arrangement of cards, the player wins a preselected amount of the jackpot.

6. The method as claimed in claim 5, wherein a plurality of players participate in the jackpot component of the game.

7. The method as claimed in claim 5, wherein said jackpot C component is progressive in that any amount of the jackpot a that is not won on the first hand carries over to the next /,;ITIA hand AMD/0471a -17

8. The method as claimed in claim 5 wherein said live casino game is five card stud poker.

9. The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the predetermined arrangement of cards and the preselected winning amounts are as follows: Royal Flush 100% Straight Flush Four of a Kind 100 tokens Full House 25 tokens The method as claimed in claim 5 wherein the live casino game is five card draw poker.

11. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein the predetermined arrangement of cards and the preselected winning amounts are as follows: Royal Flush 100% Straight Flush Four of a Kind 100 tokens S, Full House 25 tokens

12. The method as claimed in claim 5 wherein the live casino game is seven card stud poker.

13. The method as claimed in claim 12 wherein the predetermined arrangement of cards and the preselected winning amounts are as follows: Royal Flush 100% Straight Flush 4Four of a Kind 100 tokens IOtFull House 25 tokens

14. The method as claimed in claim 5 wherein the live casino game is lo-ball poker. The method as claimed in claim 14 wherein the predetermined arrangement of cards and the preselected winning amounts are as follows: 5-4-3-2-Ace 100% 6-4-3-2-Ace 6-5-3-2-Ace 100 tokens 7-4-3-2-Ace 25 tokens AMD/0471a 18

16. The method as claimed in claim 5 wherein said live casino table game is modified five card stud poker in which the player makes a first and second wager and in which the dealer must have a hand of at least Ace-King or better in order for the player to win on his second wager.

17. The method as claimed in claim 16 wherein the predetermined arrangement of cards and the preselected winning amounts are as follows: Royal Flush 100% .0 o SStraight Flush Four of a Kind 1% 0 Full House 50 tokens Flush 25 tokens

18. The method as claimed in claim 5 wherein the live casino game is Twenty-One.

19. The method as claimed in claim 18 wherein the predetermined arrangement of cards and the preselected winning amounts are as follows: Four 5's and an Ace 100% Ace, two, three, four S000 five and six 4% Six, seven, eight of same suit 100 tokens Three 7's 50 tokens

23. An apparatus for including a jackpot component in a live casino table game, substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings. 21. A method of including a jackpot component in a live casino table game, substantially as herein described in relation to the accompanying drawings. DATED this 7th day of January, 1992. CARIBBEAN STUD ENTERPRISES INC. By Its Patent Attorneys I IARTHUR S. CAVE CO.