Multi-player gaming machine with lever-actuated spinning wheel

摘要

A gaming machine of the present invention stores a bet area on which a bet is placed through a gaming terminal and a game value placed as the bet, determines a resulting symbol from a plurality of symbols, rotates the wheel based on an operation of the lever in one of the plurality of gaming terminals, whose lever has been activated, stops the rotation of the wheel so that the pointer points at a symbol arrangement area with the resulting symbol, and awards a payout based on the resulting symbol and the odds set for the bet area in which the bet is placed through the gaming terminal.

主权项

1. A gaming machine, comprising:
a wheel having a plurality of symbol arrangement areas in which a plurality of symbols are arranged in a circular arrangement around the wheel, the wheel being capable of rotating in such a manner that the symbols are visible; a pointer fixed separately from the rotatable wheel, which pointer points to one of the symbol arrangement areas; a plurality of gaming terminals each having a lever for remotely starting rotation of the wheel and a display for displaying a plurality of bet areas with each of the bet areas corresponding to one of the symbols on the wheel, each gaming terminal structured to receive a bet of a game value on one of the bet areas and to award a payout based on odds set for the bet area on which a game value has been bet; a lever activating unit which, for each single unit game, activates the lever of one of the gaming terminals based on a predetermined condition while the lever or levers of the other gaming terminal or terminals of the plurality of gaming terminals is/are inactive, the predetermined condition being related to the amount of any game value that has been bet at each of the gaming terminals in the plurality in connection with the single unit game; a lever operator notification area associated with each of the plurality of gaming terminals, which, for each said unit game, is activated in association with said one of the plurality of gaming terminals so as to notify a player at said one of the plurality of gaming terminals that that player is able to operate the lever device at said one of the plurality of gaming terminals; and a center controller, wherein for each single unit game, the center controller executes the processes of:
(a1) storing, for each gaming terminal, information about on which of the bet areas a game value has been bet and the amount of the game value that has been bet,(a2) determining a single resulting symbol from the plurality of symbols,(a3) rotating the wheel based on operation of the lever in said one of the plurality of gaming terminals, whose lever has been activated by the lever activating unit,(a4) stopping the wheel from being rotated so that the pointer points at one of the symbol arrangement areas with the resulting symbol, and(a5) awarding, for each gaming terminal, a payout based on the single resulting symbol and the odds set for the bet area on which the game value has been bet; wherein each of the gaming terminals has an operation period measurement device which is able to measure an operation period of the respective lever when the respective lever is operated; wherein the center controller rotates the wheel in connection with the single unit game at a rotation speed corresponding to the measured operation period of the lever of said one of the plurality of gaming terminals; and wherein for each single unit game the center controller 1) randomly determines an initial rotation speed based on a wheel rotation speed table in which speed levels, each of which corresponds to a measured lever operation time of one gaming terminal, are associated with initial rotation speeds; and 2) starts the rotation of the wheel at the randomly determined initial rotation speed.