WO2001051142A1

WO2001051142A1 - Roulette system

Info

Publication number: WO2001051142A1
Application number: PCT/SE2001/000065
Authority: WO
Inventors: Bert Harju
Original assignee: Harju Motor Ab
Priority date: 2000-01-14
Filing date: 2001-01-15
Publication date: 2001-07-19
Also published as: SE0000107L; AU2896901A; SE0000107D0

Abstract

A roulette system comprising roulette table, chips (19), and units for reading the identity of chips, where the chips (19) are provided with means for automatic identification (13), and the unit (4) for reading the identity of chips is able to associate a chip (19) with its gambler. The roulette table comprises an acceptor device (1) at each position on the roulette table, where chips (19) may be placed to make a bet, a turnout unit (15) or an input unit (17) from which the turnout of the rotation of the roulette ball may be fetched by a computer (9), a collector device for transportation of chips (19) to a storage unit (8), and a computer (9) and a display device (11). The computer (9) registers bet chips (19), controls the acceptor devices (1), collector device and the display device (11), and receives information on purchased chips (19).

Description

Roulette system

Field of the invention

The present invention relates to a roulette system and a method for roulette games according to the introductory portion of the appended independent claims. Further the invention relates to a roulette table, roulette gaming chips and a unit for reading the identity of chips.

Background of the invention

Roulette is a game, which in its most common embodiment is controlled by a croupier, whom supervises that the rules of the game are adhered. The tasks of the croupier is to supervise the stakes of the gamblers, stop further stakes when the ball starts to roll, collect the chips that did not win, and disperse winnings on bet chips to winning gamblers. The character of the game is such that to a mistake by the croupier or the gamblers may lead to incorrect winnings being dispersed, or that a conflict occurs between gamblers, or gamblers disagreeing with the croupier regarding which gambler has made a particular bet. Further gamblers or the croupier may be tempted to break the rules of the game by rearranging the chips or betting further chips when the no more bets are allowed, or using non valid chips. For minimising the casinos losses as a result of such mistakes or intentional breaks of the rules of the game and to make sure that the gamers receive the winnings they are entitled to, the game is often super- vised by a further supervisor. In spite of this the casinos suffer large profit losses as a result of such mistakes and intentional cheating. Roulette is often played with differently coloured chips, in order to more easily identify the owner of a chip that has been bet, but even when differently coloured chips are available, two different gamblers may play with chips of the same colour. This may lead to difficulties in identifying the owner of a chip that has been bet, since neither the gamblers nor the croupier always remembers the placement and owner of each individual chip .

Furthermore chips of the same denomination and colour are often identical for two or several casinos, which makes it possible to copy chips or use chips bought elsewhere or during some other game. It is not possible for the croupier to control the validity and place of purchase of each chip.

In order to store each individual gamblers results at each individual game, the results have to be noted manually at each table, for each individual gambler and for each game. This is very impractical and labour intensive, and is normally not done. Without access to such information, the supervision reacts slower to improbable results of gambling sequences, than would have been the case with access to complete information on the gambling results.

The collection of chips demands some work and in connection with this further mistakes may occur, if they croupier is not very skilled in only collecting the chips that did not give any winnings, without displacing the chips that should remain on the table .

US patent No. 5,743,798 discloses a roulette game with a progressive jackpot, provided with chip acceptors, in which the gamblers may place chips on the jackpot. The acceptor devices are provided with units which read the colour of the bet chips, which in order to fulfil its purpose assumes all gamers play with differently coloured chips, which not generally can be assumed to be the case. Under the acceptor slots there is further a conveyor belt, which conveys the chips to a collecting slot, and a turnout device, which optically detects at which number the ball stops when the wheel has stopped rotating. The information from the turnout device and from the acceptor slots are available to a computer, which presents the results of the jackpot on a display.

Disclosure of the invention

It is a purpose of the invention to provide a system and a method for roulette games, with which the disadvantages of known systems and methods for roulette games are avoided. It is further a purpose of the invention to provide a roulette table, gaming chips and a unit for reading the identity of such chips for use in games with such a roulette system.

According to the invention a roulette table is provided, which has acceptor devices in each position on the table, provided with identification devices, which can identify each bet chip with its owner. In this way the roulette system may get com- plete control over which gamers have bet which chip on each gambling position, and this information may be used to calculate the winnings of the gamers and the results may be stored in a central unit for supervision of the games. With the acceptor devices the advantage is achieved that their are no doubts regarding which bets had been made, and no bet chips may be moved after they have been bet. Further the identification devices made detect chips which are invalid, such as chips bought at another casino, at another occasion or which are fake. In addition the information from the identification devices may be used for storing information regarding that an individual chip has been bet, either in a database for chips that are being used or by programming this information on to the chip. In this way the advantage is achieved that a bet chip cannot be used again, until it has been purchased again or won by a gambler.

The acceptor devices may further be provided with a device for blocking or opening the upper opening to these, such that the advantage is achieved that when no further bets are allowed, this is effectively prevented by blocking the opening.

According to the invention a conveyor device is further pro- vided in or under the roulette table, which collects bet chips and conveys chips to a collector device. In this way the croupier do not have to collect to the chips manually and in addition the conveyor device may, in a particularly advantageous embodiment, convey non valid chips to a separate storage unit, such that these cannot be used again in the game.

The invention further comprises chips for games with a roulette system according to the invention. The chips are provided with means for automatic identification of the chip. This means may comprise a passive means for identification or a reprogrammable means for identification. Since the chip with such means is identifiable, the advantage is achieved that only chips that are identified as a valid may be used in the game and non valid chips may rapidly be identified and sepa- rated.

The invention further comprises a unit for reading the identity of chips, which in case the chip comprises a passive means for identification may identify the chip and give information on which chip has been bought by which gambler. In case the means for identification is reprogrammable, the unit for reading the identity of chips may in addition, or in a different to embodiment only, programme the means for identifying the chip with information on the gambler that has bought it. Through this unit the advantage is achieved that chips may rapidly and automatically be counted and associated with a specific gambler by purchase of chips.

Short description of the drawings

Figure 1 shows an overview of the system.

Figure 2 shows the upper side of the roulette table.

Figure 3 shows the conveyor device on the lower side of the table.

Figure 4 shows how a computer is connected to acceptor devices, input unit, display and control device for stopping bets.

Figure 5 shows a cross section through an acceptor device and a conveyor device situated below it.

Description of embodiments

Figure 1 shows an overview of an embodiment of the total sys- tern, comprising a roulette table 20 according to the invention, an external system 10 for supervision and storage of information on the games and a unit 4 for reading the identity of a chip. The external system 10, the units 4 and a computer 9 on each roulette table 20 are interconnected with a device for exchange of information, illustrated by a line which connects these with each other 4, 10, 20. This connection may be embodied in a plurality of ways, one possible embodiment is using an Ethernet cable or some other kind of local area network (LAN) . The flow of information in the connection may take place in different ways and some parts of the connection may be completely eliminated in some embodiments. In an embodiment where the chips are programmable, the unit 4 for reading the identity of chips, may at a purchase program each bought chip with complete information on at least the owner of the chip, the period of validity and the place all validity. This information is readable by the identification devices 18 in the acceptor devices and no separate connection is necessary between the unit 4 for reading the identity of chips and the computer 9 on the roulette table 20. The external units 10 are in this embodiment not necessary for the function of the system, but may be desirable for the purpose of supervision and in order to store information on games.

In an alternative embodiments non reprogrammable, and as a result probably cheaper, chips may be used, which are provided with a suitable means for identification 13. This means 13 should contain information on at least the denomination of the chip, since that is fixed during the validity period of the chip, and a unique identification code. Instead of programming the means for identification 13 of the chip, information on which gambler has bought the chip is stored in a database. Further information should be available in this database re- garding time of purchase, place of purchase and information on the gambler, such as, for example, name, address and means of payment, alternatively something else which identifies the gambler. From this information all units which reads the iden- tification code in the chip and correlates this with information in the database, may decide if the chip is valid at a given occasion and at a specific place of gaming. The database may physically be stored in the unit for reading the identifi- cation code of the chip, in the computer 9 in the roulette table 28 or in an external unit 10. Each part in the roulette system, which has a reason to read or write posts in the database, must in this embodiment be connected to the physical unit in which the database is stored. For each chip that is sold, the unit for reading the identity of a chip which has identified the chip, stores the identity of the chip in the database. For each chip that is bet, a computer, for example the computer in the roulette table at which the chip is bet, may read information on the owner of the chip and store infor- mation regarding at which gambling position is has been bet. When the result of a game has been decided, a computer, for example the computer in the roulette table at which the chip has been bet, may with the aid of the information in the database further calculate which winnings different gamblers are entitled to. The information on the winnings of different gamblers may then be read on an external unit 10 for the purpose of supervision, or be presented on a display 11.

Figure 2 shows an embodiment of the roulette table 20 with ac- ceptor devices 1, display devices 11, storage units 8 for bet chips and input units 17 for inputting the result of the rotation of the ball on the roulette wheel. At each position on the gambling table where a chip may be bet an acceptor device 1 is provided for reception and identification of bet chips. The display devices 11 are in the figure arranged such that they show the information on gambling results for both gamblers and the croupier, but these may obviously be arranged in some other way. The input unit 17 for inputting the results of the rotation of the ball is here illustrated in magnification for the sake of clarity, and is here illustrated as a numeric keyboard, but may naturally be embodied in other ways. The input unit 17 may also be replaced by a turnout unit 15, which automatically reads the result of the rotation of the ball and transfers this information to the computer 9, or another computer in which the gambling results are calculated. A control device is also shown in the figure for stopping bets 16, which is also shown in magnification. The control device 16 controls blocking/opening of the acceptor devices 1 and is intended to be used to prevent further chips from being bet after the croupier has stated that no more bets may be made. He control device 16 is not necessary for the function of the system, but is advantageous for the reliability of the gaming system.

In figure 3 an embodiment of the conveyor device 12 is shown, which preferably is placed under or inside the roulette table, and how this is connected to the storage unit 8. The conveyor device 12 has the purpose of conveying bet chips from the ac- ceptor devices 1, once the chips have been identified, in order to make possible for further chips to be bet in the acceptor devices 1. A further purpose of the conveyor device 12 is to eliminate the necessity for the croupier to take away bet chips when a game is finished. Its function is finally to con- vey chips to a collector device, where they may be taken care of by their croupier. The collector device may comprise two or several storage units 8, and in the embodiment shown in figure 2, the two storage units 8 may be intended for valid and invalid chips, respectively. Alternatively several storage units a may be present for automatic sorting of chips according to colour. The conveyor device 12 is controlled by a computer, preferably by a computer 9 mounted in near the roulette table, but the control may also be performed from an external unit 10.

Figure 3 shows how all the acceptor devices 1, display devices 11, the input unit 17 and the control device for stopping bets 16 are connected to a computer 9. The computer presents the result of the games on the displays and receives information from the input unit 17 and the control device for stopping bets 16. The input unit 17 may in an alternative embodiment be replaced by a turnout unit 15 for automatic reading of the rotation of the roulette ball. The computer 9 also communicates with the acceptor devices 1 and receives information from these on bet chips, in case the chips are reprogrammable it transmits information to the identification devices 18 in the acceptor devices 1 for reprogramming the chips, and controls the devices 3 for blocking or opening the upper opening of the acceptor devices, when appropriate. The computer 9 does in addition control the conveyor device 12 (not shown) , and is, in the embodiments where this is necessary, connected to external units 10 and units for reading the identity of chips 4.

The physical placement of the computer 9 does not necessarily have to be in the immediate vicinity of the roulette table, but may be placed somewhere else, as long as it is operatively connected to the units on the roulette table that it has to be able to communicate with. In a particular embodiment several different tables may be controlled by a central computer 9, and it may in addition perform the supervisory tasks that the external unit 10 performs in other embodiments. It is in such a case not natural to separate the computer 9 and the external units 10 by definition, since these functionally may perform the same tasks and physically may be one and the same unit. In practice it is probably simpler to let the simpler control tasks associated with each separate table be performed by a simple control computer 9 mounted under or by the roulette table and let database functions and supervision be performed by a separate external unit 10 placed elsewhere.

Figure 5 shows an embodiment of an acceptor device 1 with a chip 19 and a part of the conveyor device 12. The acceptor device is dimensioned to let one chip through at a time and an identification device 18 does, as a chip passes through it, read the identity of the chip from the means for automatic identification 13 of the chip. In case the means 13 is reprogrammable, the identification device 18 may program new information into the means 13, for example information on that the chip has been bet. The identification device 18 transmits in- formation on the identity of the chip to the computer 9. In the figure devices 3, 6 for blocking or opening the upper 2 or lower 5 openings on the acceptor devices are also shown. The device 3 for the upper opening may be used for preventing that further chips are bet after the croupier has stated that no further bets may be made, using the control device for stopping further bets 16, and the device for the lower opening may be used for preventing chips which cannot or have not yet been identified, to erroneously be let through. None of the devices are necessary for the function of the roulette table, but made the advantageous. Finally part of the conveyor device 12 is shown, here realised as a conveyor belt.

Even if the invention is described in connection with a preferred embodiment, it should be understood that a plurality of modifications may be done without departing from the scope of the invention.

Claims

1. Roulette system comprising a roulette table, gambling chips (19) , and units for reading the identity of chips, characterised in that

- the gambling chips (19) are provided with means for automatic identification (13) , and that

- the unit for reading the identity of chips (4) is able to at least associate a chip (19) with its gambler, and that

- the roulette table comprises

- an acceptor device (1) at each position on the roulette table where chips (19) may be placed for making a bet, - a turnout unit (15) or an input unit (17) from which the turnout of the rotation of the roulette ball may be read by a computer (9) ,

- a collector device for chips (19) , comprising a conveyor device (12) and at least one storage unit (8) , for reception of chips (19) and conveying these to a storage unit (8) , and

- a computer (9) for registering bets with chips (19) , for controlling acceptor devices (1) , the collector device and a display device (11) , and for a reception of information on purchased chips (19) ,

- at least one display device (11) for presenting the gambling results.

2. Roulette system according to claim 1, characterised in that the roulette table comprises

- an acceptor device (1) at each position on the roulette table where chips (19) may be placed for bet- ting, said acceptor device (1) comprises:

- an upper opening (2) for reception of chips (19) on the side that faces the upper surface of the roulette table,

- and identification device (18) for identifying the received chip (19) , said unit being connected to the computer (9) ,

- a lower opening (5) for emitting chips (19) to a collector device,

- a turnout unit (15) for reading the turnout of the rotation of the roulette ball or a input unit (17) at which the croupier may input the turnout, said unit (15, 17) being connected to a computer (9) ,

- a collector device, comprising a conveyor device (12) and at least one storage unit (8) for recep- tion of chips (19) emitted from the acceptor devices (1) and for conveying these to the storage unit (8) , and

- a computer (9) for registering bet chips (19) in said acceptor devices (1) , for controlling acceptor devices (1) , collector device and a display device

(11) , and for reception of information on purchased chips (19) received from a unit for reading the identity of chips (4) and information on the turnout of the rotation of the roulette ball from the turnout unit (15) or the input unit (17) ,

- at least one display device (11) for presenting at least the gambling results.

3. Roulette system according to claim 2, characterised in that identification device (18) in the acceptor device (1) for identification of the received chip (19) is arranged to re- program the information on the chip (19) .

4. Roulette system according to claim 2 or 3 , characterised in that the acceptor device (1) of the roulette table is provided, at its lower opening (5) , with a device (6) for blocking/opening the opening.

5. Roulette system according to any one of the claims 2-4, characterised in that the acceptor device (1) , at its upper opening (2) , is provided with a device (3) for blocking/opening the opening for preventing or allowing further bets, respectively.

6. Roulette system according to claim 5, characterised in that the roulette table is provided with a control device for stopping further bets (16) , which controls activation of the device (3) for blocking/opening the upper opening (2) in the acceptor device (1) .

7. Roulette system according to any one of the claims 2-6, characterised in that the collector device comprises two stor- age units (8) , to which chips (19) that are valid and non valid in this system are transported, respectively.

8. Roulette system according to any one of the claims 2-7, characterised in that the computer (9) is arranged to send in- formation to an external system (10) for bookkeeping of purchased and bet chips (19), and gambling results.

9. Chip (19) for use with a roulette system according to claim 1, characterised in that the chip (19) is provided with means for automatic identification (13) of the chip (19) identity and the chip (19) denomination.

10. Chip (19) according to claim 9, characterised in that the means for automatic identification (13) of the chip (19) is programmable with information on the present gambler identity of the chip (19) .

11. Chip (19) according to claim 10, characterised in that the means for automatic identification (13) of the chip (19) is programmable with at least one of place of validity, period of validity, and whether the chip (19) , since it was purchased by the gambler, has been bet.

12. Chip (19) according to any one of claims 9-11, characterised in that the means for automatic identification (13) of the chip (19) comprises a transponder (14) with a memory, moulded into or attached to the chip (19) .

13. Chip (19) according to claim 12, characterised in that the transponder (14) comprises a transmitter of one of radio signals or infrared signals.

14. Chip (19) according to claim 13, characterised in that the transponder (14) comprises a receptor of one of radio signals or infrared signals.

15. Unit for reading the identity of chips, characterised in that it is able to read the information on the means for automatic identification (13) of a chip (19) and associate the identified chip (19) with the gambler.

16. Unit for reading the identity of chips according to claim 15, characterised in that it is able to write information on the means for automatic identification (13) of a chip regard- ing the present gambler identity of the chip (19) .

17. Unit for reading the identity of chips according to claim 15, characterised in that it is able to write information on the means for automatic identification (13) of a chip regard- ing at least one of place of validity and period of validity.

18. Method for roulette gaming with a roulette system according to any one of the previous claims, comprising roulette table, chips (19) and unit for reading the identity of chips (4), comprising the steps of:

- when a gambler purchases a chip (19) , the unit for reading identity information reads the identity of the chip and associates the chip (19) with said gambler, - the information on the gambler of the chip (19) is transmitted to a computer (9) connected to the roulette table,

- the gambler makes a bet by placing the chip (19) in an acceptor device (1) on the roulette table, - the identity of the chip (19) is read by an identification device (18) in the acceptor device (1) ,

- the read identity is stored by the computer (9) ,

- a collector device under the roulette table transports the chip (19) to at least one storage unit (8),

- after a finished game the computer (9) fetches information on the result of the rotation of the ball from a turnout unit (15) , which has read the turn- out, or from an input device, at which the croupier has input the turnout, - the computer (9) presents at least the results of the game on a display device (11) by using received information on the owners of the chips (19) , in which acceptor device (1) the chips (19) have been bet, and the result of the rotation of the ball.

19. Method for roulette gaming according to claim 18, charac- terised in that when a gambler purchases at chip (19) , the unit for reading identity information writes information to a memory in the chip (19) on the gambler that has purchased the chip (19) .

20. Method for roulette gaming according to claim 19, characterised in that when a gambler purchases a chip (19) , the unit for reading identity information writes information to a memory in the chip (19) on at least one of place of validity and period of validity.

21. Method for roulette gaming according to any one of claims 18-20, characterised in that the collector device transports valid and non valid chips (19) , respectively, to different storage units (8) .

22. Method for roulette gaming according to any one of claims 18-21, characterised in that the acceptor devices (1) are blocked when a control device for stopping further bets (16) is activated.