SINGLE SIGN-ON FOR WAGER GAMING PLAYERS OVER A WIDE-AREA NETWORK

摘要

When the player identifies herself to a gaming machine at a casino, for example by inserting a player tracking card into the card reader, she is, at generally the same time, logging onto a game provider's backend system (the game provider being different from the casino operator). This concurrent sign-on to the game provider's system is done in a non-intrusive, transparent, and passive manner. The player is not distracted from the normal steps leading to game play on the machine until she is ready to redeem points with the game provider or for some reason additional authentication is needed from the player. By virtue of this single sign-on to the game provider network, in addition to continuing game play across different casinos, the player can publish events to the Internet, such as on social networking sites, take advantage of offers targeted specifically for her, or facilitate responsible gaming programs.

主权项

1. A gaming system comprising:
a housing; at least one display device supported by the housing; a plurality of input devices supported by the housing, said plurality of input devices including:
(i) an acceptor,(ii) a validator, and(iii) a cashout device; at least one processor; and at least one memory device which stores a plurality of instructions, which when executed by the at least one processor; cause the at least one processor to operate with the at least one display device and the plurality of input devices to:
(a) if a physical item is received via the acceptor:
(i) identify, via the validator, the received physical item, and(ii) establish a credit balance based, at least in part, on a monetary value associated with the received and identified physical item,(b) send to a service provider identification system a notification message including an enterprise player identifier, wherein the enterprise player identifier is a casino-specific identifier assigned by a casino to a player,(c) receive a federated player identifier, wherein the federated player identifier is resolved from the enterprise player identifier and wherein the federated player identifier is associated with a plurality of different enterprise player identifiers,(d) utilize the federated player identifier to retrieve game-specific status data, and(e) if a cashout input is received via the cashout device, cause an initiation of any payout associated with the credit balance.