JP4268401B2 - Prepaid card system for gaming facilities - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a prepaid card system for gaming facilities using a prepaid card having valuable information.
[0002]
[Prior art]
2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a gaming facility that uses a prepaid card on which electronic information or magnetic information is written as a medium of valuable information in a game store, and can play a game on a gaming machine based on the valuable information of the prepaid card. Is installed.
[0003]
In the prepaid card system for gaming facilities that enables the use of such a prepaid card, a magnetic card type prepaid card is generally used from the viewpoint of cost problems of the prepaid card, From the viewpoint of preventing unauthorized use due to tampering, most of the prepaid card can be used only at the amusement store that issued the prepaid card, so-called house card method, and can be used at multiple stores. There are many types of membership card types, but even in this case, stores that can use prepaid cards are limited to the store group to which the stores belong, and prepaid cards issued at a store can be used nationwide. I can't do it.
[0004]
On the other hand, from the customer's side, each store must have a prepaid card, and points as a privilege obtained at one store cannot be used at another store.
[0005]
Also at the store side, when a membership-type prepaid card is issued, the customer information obtained from the prepaid card is only the usage information at the store, and how the customer is using at other stores I can not know.
[0006]
[Patent Document 1]
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 64-22274
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
By the way, from the point of security improvement, when using an IC card type prepaid card in which an IC chip is embedded instead of a magnetic card type, the cost of the card increases, so the house card method has a problem. is there. In addition, the house card method has the above-mentioned problems on both the customer side and the store side, so that the IC card type can be used in common throughout the country. Things are desired.
[0008]
However, there is currently no settlement system between stores nationwide. For this reason, a prepaid card (IC card) in which valuable information is written by paying a price at one store is used at another store. Making it available is unlikely.
[0009]
The present invention has been made in view of these points, and an object of the present invention is to provide a prepaid card system for a gaming facility that can be easily used in common throughout the country.
[0010]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
Accordingly, the prepaid card system for gaming facilities according to the present invention is written with gaming machines composed of gaming machines and platform machines attached to gaming machines, and information such as unique identification information, valuable information, and issuing store information. A prepaid card system for a gaming facility comprising a prepaid card and a management device that manages the prepaid card information in association with the unique identification information, wherein the inter-machine can freely insert and remove the prepaid card and has a Do function, and information read and writable reading and writing apparatus of information to the prepaid card where the prepaid card is held, the game corresponding to the value information prepaid card holds and controls the reading and writing apparatus wherein prepaid card holds according to the usage possibilities and to and the gaming machine in the gaming machine And control means for rewriting the value information, said control means includes first determining means inserted prepaid card to the reading and writing apparatus determines whether it is possible to use the first determination Dedan The second judging means for judging whether or not the prepaid card belongs to the own store by referring to the information of the management apparatus, and the second judgment means And a third judging means for judging whether or not the balance of the prepaid card is zero when it is judged not to belong to the own store with reference to the information, and the third judging means has a balance of the prepaid card. Is determined to be zero, on the condition that a predetermined currency has been inserted into the bill insertion slot of the intermediary machine, unique identification information or valuable information is newly added to the prepaid card inserted into the read / write device. And issuing store information And when the third determination means determines that the balance of the prepaid card is not zero, the player sets the balance to zero. Is inserted into the read / write device on the condition that a predetermined currency has been inserted into the bill insertion slot of the intermediary machine when the player's consent is received. Information such as unique identification information, valuable information, and issued store information is written again to the prepaid card, and the information is transmitted to the management device. On the other hand, the balance of the prepaid card is not zero. The player is inquired about whether or not to execute the process of setting the balance to zero, and if the player does not consent, the prepaid inserted in the read / write device It is characterized in that the card is returned to the player . Even if there is no checkout system between stores nationwide, no problem arises. The “own store” here includes a chain store (group store) in which a settlement system exists between them, or a chain store managed in a lump. In addition, “when the store information recorded on the prepaid card is not that of the own store” includes the case where the store information is blank.
[0012]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail based on an example of the embodiment. The prepaid card C here is basically a house card type IC that can be used only in issued stores or only in designated group stores. It is a card (may be a magnetic card, etc.), but it can be used as a house card at other stores if certain conditions are met, allowing it to be used at stores nationwide. As shown in FIG. 2, the gaming facilities that can use the prepaid card C include a large number of gaming machines 2, a machine 1 attached to each gaming machine 2, a card settlement machine 3, The system includes a gift exchange terminal device 4, a card checker 5, a counter 6, a hall center device 7, and the like, and various information is exchanged between these devices.
[0013]
As shown in FIG. 2 , the inter-machine 1 attached to the gaming machine 2 has a built-in read / write device that is a card reader / writer capable of reading and writing information recorded in the prepaid card C and is prepaid. The card C is also issued. If the player inserts the prepaid card C into the card insertion / extraction port 16 of the intermediary machine 1, the player will only have the valuable information (amount information) equivalent to the prepaid card C, A game can be enjoyed on the gaming machine 2. In the figure, reference numeral 10 denotes a bill insertion slot in the bill discriminator. By inserting a bill into the bill insertion slot 10, a prepaid card C equivalent to the bill amount is issued or a value equivalent to the bill amount is inserted into the inserted prepaid card C. Information can be written. For this purpose, the inter-bed machine 1 incorporates control means for performing these controls and communication with the gaming machine 2 and the like in addition to the read / write device and the bill validator.
[0014]
When the prepaid card C is issued, information such as the type of general card or member card, store number, ticket issue date, unique identification information, ticket issue amount, remaining amount, and member registered store number in the case of a membership card The remaining amount is recorded according to the usage amount of the gaming machine 2.
[0015]
Here, when a new prepaid card C is issued (ticketing), a prepaid card C in which a ticket issuance amount and a remaining amount are written according to the amount of bills (money) inserted is issued, and the prepaid card C When history information is created at the same time and the history information is only transmitted to the hall center device 7 that supervises the gaming facilities of each store, the user inserts the prepaid card C on hand into the intermediary machine 1 As shown in FIG. 1, the control means of the intermediary machine 1 determines whether the prepaid card C is usable and determines whether it is issued by the own store or a chain store. If it is issued by the own store or chain store, the processing proceeds to the next banknote (money) deposit processing step.
[0016]
If the card is not issued by the store or chain store, it is determined whether it is an initialization card. If it is an initialization card, the process proceeds to the banknote (money) deposit processing step. If not, the prepaid card C is returned. Here, whether or not the card is an initialization card is determined based on whether or not the remaining amount recorded on the prepaid card C is zero. I try to move. If the remaining amount is zero, it is not necessary to carry out a settlement process with the issuing store of the prepaid card C, so that it can be used at its own store.
[0017]
If it is determined that the card is not an initialization card because the remaining amount is not zero, instead of immediately returning the prepaid card C, the user is inquired whether or not the remaining amount can be processed to zero. If the approval is obtained, the prepaid card C may be written with a remaining amount of zero, and thereafter, the process may be shifted to a deposit process. In addition, there is a gaming facility in which the prepaid card C for temporary use is built in the intermediary machine 2, but in this case, the payment processing using the built-in prepaid card C instead of the prepaid card C inserted by the user. You may make it transfer to a step. At this time, since the built-in prepaid card C is used, there is no need for the user to insert his / her own prepaid card C. However, the user possesses a privilege by providing a point service or the like to be described later. If the insertion of the prepaid card C is prompted, the member information recorded on the prepaid card C can be extracted.
[0018]
Note that the remaining amount (valuable information) is zero, in addition to the fact that zero-equivalent data is actually written, as well as invalid numeric values that are considered zero (for example, negative value data) Including the case where it is written.
[0019]
Further, in addition to the store information recorded as the store number, information included in other information such as unique identification information may be used.
[0020]
Further, the valuable information is a prepaid card C in which a plurality of sets can be written in combination with the store information, and the control means of the intermediary machine 1 stores the store information of the own store (or chain store) from the plurality of sets of information. If the item is used preferentially, the set of store information and valuable information that has already been written will be initialized unless multiple areas for writing the set of store information and valuable information are all used. It does not have to be. This is because an area where new store information and valuable information sets can be written exists in an initialized state (value information is zero). By using this area, settlement with other stores is possible. Can be processed without causing problems.
[0021]
By the way, if the host computer H shown in FIG. 2 is an initialized prepaid card C, it becomes a member between stores (halls) that can be used regardless of the store where the prepaid card C is issued. In addition to sharing the history information of the users who are using the system, points are given to the users for each use, and points are managed when preferential treatment is given to the users according to the total number of points. This is performed based on the unique identification information recorded on the prepaid card C.
[0022]
Although the ticket machine 1 has issued the prepaid card C, the ticket issuing process is not limited to the machine 1, but may be performed by a card-dedicated device. However, by performing the processing shown in FIG. 1, the initial purpose can be achieved. In particular, a ticketing machine dedicated to the prepaid card C issued by another store may be prepared, and only this ticketing machine may be configured to determine whether or not the card is an initialization card.
[0023]
In addition, as a condition for initialization, the case where the remaining amount is equivalent to zero is shown here, but some other information may be initialized, and the prepaid card C is uniquely identified. What cleared all other information except information may be handled as initialized.
[0024]
Next, a reference example will be described. Here, the system configuration similar to that shown in FIG. 2 can be used. However, the information recorded in the prepaid card C does not contain valuable information as the remaining amount, and management for each store In the hall center device 7 as a device, the valuable information of each prepaid card C is managed based on the unique identification information of the prepaid card C. In this case, the prepaid card C may be one in which only the unique identification information is written, and the read / write device such as the intermediary machine 1 may be capable of only reading. The one that issues the prepaid card C only needs to have a writing function.
[0025]
Then, when the prepaid card C is inserted into the intermediary machine 1, the control means inquires of the hall center apparatus 7 about valuable information possessed by the prepaid card C based on the unique identification information of the prepaid card C.
[0026]
Here, if the prepaid card C has already been used in the store, the hall center device 7 holds valuable information corresponding to the corresponding unique identification information. Send back to the side. If the valuable information is not zero, the control means shifts to a state in which a game is possible. If the valuable information is zero, the control means waits for a deposit process. Even if the valuable information is not zero, if a bill is inserted, the process proceeds to a deposit process. When this deposit is made, the control means requests the hall center device 7 to rewrite the valuable information.
[0027]
When the prepaid card C is used for the first time in the store, the hall center device 7 does not hold valuable information corresponding to the corresponding unique identification information, so a management record for the unique identification information is newly added. It is created and the control means is notified that the prepaid card IC is ready for use, and the control means receives this notification and proceeds to a deposit process, and notifies the hall center device 7 of the deposited amount information. . FIG. 3 shows this processing flow.
[0028]
When the valuable information held by the prepaid card C is reduced by playing a game, the control means requests the hall center device 7 to rewrite the valuable information each time. Note that the rewrite request for valuable information to the hall center device 7 by the control means may be made only when the inserted prepaid card C is returned.
[0029]
In this case, the valuable information of each prepaid card C is managed on the management device (hall center device 7) side, and the valuable information itself is not written in the prepaid card C. C can physically handle the prepaid card C and can always be used in stores nationwide where similar management is performed.
[0030]
In this example, similar to the example shown in the above example, the host computer H can share the history information of the prepaid card C (which is also customer information) and the point addition service.
[0031]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, in the present invention, even if the prepaid card is not owned by the own store, there is a settlement system between stores nationwide in order to validate the prepaid card if the balance is zero. Even if it is not, there is no need for settlement, so there is no problem in settlement between stores, and prepaid cards issued at specific stores can be used at stores nationwide. . In addition, since it is not necessary to construct a payment system, the prepaid card can be used in common throughout the country. In addition, when the player's consent is received, the player is inquired whether or not to execute the process of setting the balance to zero even if the balance is not zero and the balance is not zero. On the condition that a predetermined currency has been inserted into the bill insertion slot of the intermediary machine, information such as unique identification information, valuable information and issuing store information is newly written on the prepaid card inserted in the read / write device. At the same time, since the information is transmitted to the management device, an opportunity to enjoy a game with the prepaid card can be obtained even if the prepaid card has only a non-zero balance.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing the operation of an example of an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the above.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation of a reference example .
[Explanation of symbols]
C Prepaid card 1 Inter-machine 7 Hall center device

Claims (1)

Corresponding to a gaming machine composed of a gaming machine and a table machine attached to the gaming machine, a prepaid card in which information such as unique identification information, valuable information and issued store information is written, and the unique identification information A prepaid card system for a gaming facility comprising a management device that manages the prepaid card information,
The intermediary machine has a function of allowing the prepaid card to be inserted and removed, a read / write device capable of reading information stored in the prepaid card and writing information to the prepaid card, and controlling the read / write device and prepaid card. Control means for enabling a game corresponding to the valuable information held by the gaming machine and rewriting the valuable information held by the prepaid card in accordance with the use of the gaming machine ,
The control unit determines whether the prepaid card inserted in the read / write device is usable, and determines that the first judging unit is usable when the first judging unit is usable. A second judging means for judging whether or not the prepaid card belongs to the own shop by referring to the information, and the second judging means judges that the prepaid card is not for the own shop by referring to the information of the management device; A third judging means for judging whether or not the balance of the prepaid card is zero,
When the third determining means determines that the balance of the prepaid card is zero, it is inserted into the read / write device on the condition that a predetermined currency has been inserted into the bill insertion slot of the intermediary machine. In the prepaid card, information such as unique identification information, valuable information and issuing store information is written again and the information is transmitted to the management device.
On the other hand, when the third determining means determines that the balance of the prepaid card is not zero, the player is inquired whether or not the processing for setting the balance to zero may be executed, and the player's consent On the prepaid card inserted into the read / write device, on the condition that a predetermined currency has been inserted into the bill insertion slot of the intermediary machine, And writing such information to the management device,
On the other hand, when the third determination means determines that the balance of the prepaid card is not zero, the player is inquired whether or not the process of setting the balance to zero may be executed, and the player's consent is When not , a prepaid card system for a gaming facility , wherein the prepaid card inserted into the read / write device is returned to the player.

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