WO2005048164A1

WO2005048164A1 - Gaming machine

Info

Publication number: WO2005048164A1
Application number: PCT/AU2004/001561
Authority: WO
Inventors: Jason Meyer
Original assignee: Ainsworth Game Technology Limited
Priority date: 2003-11-13
Filing date: 2004-11-11
Publication date: 2005-05-26

Abstract

This invention relates to gaining machines, and more particularly to a method for determining the winnings paid to the player of a gaming machine upon the occurrence of a predetermined event. A first aspect of the present invention provides a method of awarding a payout to a player of a gaming machine upon the occurrence of a pre-defined winning combinations or event, wherein multiplying a non-integer pay value for a winning combination or event by any offered bet amount per game results in an integer payout value. A second aspect of the present invention provides a gaming machine configured to award a payout to a player of the gaming machine upon the occurrence of pre-defined winning combinations or events, wherein multiplying a non-integer pay value for a winning combination or event by any offered bet amount per game results in an integer payout value.

Description

"GAMING MACHINE"

FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to gaming machines, and more particularly to a method for determining the winnings paid to the player of a gaming machine upon the occurrence of a predetermined event. The invention has been developed primarily for computerized gaming machines and will be described herein with reference to this application. However, the invention is not limited to that particular field of use and may be suitable in many other gaming applications, such as gaming facilitated by the internet.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Any discussion of the prior art throughout the specification should in no way be considered as an admission that such prior art is widely known or forms part of common general knowledge in the field.

Gaming machines have long been known and are now one of the most common forms of gambling. Usually gaming machines will simulate a well known game of chance. One of the oldest and best known forms of gaming machine is the rotating reel type "poker machine".

Traditional poker machines use a series of three, four or five reels, each reel having symbols on its peripheral edge. The reels are rotated upon placing a bet and then stopped to produce an arrangement of randomly selected reels. Winnings are paid if the random arrangement of symbols matches one of the predetermined winning combinations.

Gaming machines can "pay winnings" in a variety of ways. These include dispensing money, dispensing tokens that can be redeemed for money, and adding credits to a credit meter that can be used for placing bets or redeemed for money. The winnings may even entail awarding the player one or more "free games" whereby the machine operates without the player needing to place a bet. Therefore, throughout the specification, the use of terminology such as "winnings are paid", "pay winnings" and so on will be a reference to awarding the player some type of benefit or desirable outcome. More recently, these gaming machines have been computerised with a video screen replacing the physically rotating reels. Typically, the display screen presents an array of symbols in five columns and three rows equating to the symbols that would normally be seen on the five reels of an old style mechanical machine.

Computerised machines have allowed players to bet on the combinations appearing in one or more rows, or other lines of symbols that extend through the array. In the old style mechanical machines, the middle row was traditionally the only row available for betting on. Today, it is commonplace for these machines to offer the opportunity to simultaneously bet on the combinations in all three rows, and various angled or 'zig zag' lines. It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of determining the winnings paid to the player of a gaming machine upon the occurrence of a predetermined event which overcomes or ameliorates at least one of the disadvantages of the prior art, or at least provides a useful alternative.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION To this end, a first aspect of the present invention provides a method of awarding a payout to a player of a gaming machine upon the occurrence of a pre-defined winning combinations or event, wherein multiplying a non-integer pay value for a winning combination or event by any offered bet amount per game results in an integer payout value. Preferably the gaming machine has a "dynamic" game pay table.

Preferably the actual payout values for predefined winning combinations or events are displayed on a screen and the displayed payout values vary depending upon the amount bet per game.

Preferably the payout values for the predefined winning combinations or events are displayed on the game pay table in the form: PAYOUTVALUE=PAYVALUE * BETVALUE Preferably a pay value for a winning combination or event is expressible as a quotient in the form p/q, where: (a) "p" and "q" are integers, (b) "q" is greater than 1 and (c) p/q is in simplest form (i.e. an irreducible fraction). where "q" is a value which is a divisor of every pre-defined bet per game amount.

A second aspect of the present invention provides a gaming machine configured to award a payout to a player of the gaming machine upon the occurrence of pre-defined winning combinations or events, wherein multiplying a non-integer pay value for a winning combination or event by any offered bet amount per game results in an integer payout value.

Preferably the gaming machine has a "dynamic" game pay table.

Preferably the payout values for the predefined winning combinations or events are displayed on the game pay table in the form: PAYOUTVALUE=PAYVALUE * BETVALUE

Preferably a pay value for a winning combination or event is expressible as a quotient in the form p/q, where: (a) "p" and "q" are integers, (b) "q" is greater than 1 and (c) p/q is in simplest form (i.e. an irreducible fraction). where "q" is a value which is a divisor of every pre-defined bet per game amount.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

Preferred embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a stand-alone gaming machine of the type suitable for the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring to Figure 1, the gaming machine 1 has a video display screen 2 and control console 3. The control console 3 includes coin slot 5 for inserting coins or tokens, a bank note slot 6, and a coin collection tray 7 for redeeming any winnings or unused coins or tokens. The console 3 also includes control buttons 4 for the player to select the number of paylines on which to bet, and, the number of credits they wish to bet on each payline. The invention has particular application to gaming machines which have a

"dynamic" game pay table; that is, the actual payout values for predefined winning combinations or events are displayed on a screen, such as the video display screen 2, and the displayed payout values vary depending upon the amount bet per game (i.e. the BET VALUE). In a preferred embodiment of the invention the payout values for the predefined winning combinations or events are displayed on the game pay table in the form: PAYOUTVALUE=PAYVALUE * BETVALUE

This information is provided to the game player by means of an on-screen display of every actual winnable prize value. In accordance with the present invention, a pay value for a winning combination or event must be expressible as a quotient in the form p/q, where: (a) "p" and "q" are integers, (b) "q" is greater than 1 and (c) p/q is in simplest form. where "q" is defined herein as the "Proportional Game Number" and this value must be a divisor of every pre-defined bet per game amount. An integer x is a divisor of the integer z if there exists another integer y such that x multiplied by y equals z. The total number of credits bet per game multiplies all pay values to give the payout values for the various winning combinations. Example: The present invention will be further illustrated by way of the following example.

As part of the game pay table the pay out values for winning "King" combinations are as follows: 5x Kings = 10.2 x Bet Value 4x Kings = 5.8 x Bet Value 3x Kings = 2.25 x Bet Value 2x Kings = 0.5 x Bet Value In this case the pay values for the winning Kings combinations are 10.2, 5.8, 2.25 and 0.5 respectively. The pre-defined bet values offered to the player are as follows: Bet Button 1: Bet 20 credits per game. Bet Button 2: Bet 40 credits per game. Bet Button 3: Bet 100 credits per game. Bet Button 4: Bet 200 credits per game. Bet Button 5: Bet 500 credits per game.

For the winning combination of 5 Kings the pay value (i.e. 10.2) can be expressed as: p/q = 102/10 = 51/5. Therefore in this case the Game Proportion Number = "q" = 5, and 5 is a divisor of all possible bet values including 20, 40, 100, 200 and 500 as required.

If the player selects to play the 20 credits per game option then the payout value displayed on-screen for the 5 Kings winning combination would be 20 x 10.2 = 204.

If on the next game the player changes the bet and selects to play the 40 credits per game option then the prize value displayed on-screen for the 5 Kings combination would be 40 x 10.2 = 408.

For the winning combination of 4 Kings the pay value (i.e. 5.8) can be expressed as: p/q = 58/10 = 29/5.

Therefore in this case the Game Proportion Number = "q" = 5, and 5 is a divisor of all possible bet values including 20, 40, 100, 200 and 500 as required. For the winning combination of 3 Kings the pay value (i.e. 2.25) can be expressed as: p/q = 225/100 = 9/4.

In this case the Game Proportion Number = "q" = 4, and 4 is a divisor of all possible bet values including 20, 40, 100, 200 and 500 as required. However, for example, it is not possible to have allocated a bet option of 50 with a pay value of 2.25, since 4 is not a divisor of 50.

For the winning combination of 2 Kings the pay value (i.e. 0.5) can be expressed as: p/q = 1/2 . Hence the Game Proportion Number = "q" = 2, and 2 is a divisor of all possible bet values including 20, 40, 100, 200 and 500 as required.

Advantageously, the methodology of the present invention enables the game designer to configure the frequency of wins awarded to a player to a level that the market finds acceptable. Additionally, any symbol that forms part of a winning combination can occur anywhere on a given reel and is not dependent upon lines. At the same time winning combinations of symbols on reels can be limited to alignments such as left to right, right to left, any, adjacent, a combinations of these or decided in any other systematic way that a game designer decides.

Whilst the invention has been described with reference to a number of specific examples, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the invention may be embodied in many other forms.

Claims

THE CLAIMS DEFINING THE INVENTION ARE AS FOLLOWS:-

1. A method of awarding a payout to a player of a gaming machine upon the occurrence of a pre-defined winning combinations or event, wherein multiplying a non- integer pay value for a winning combination or event by any offered bet amount per game results in an integer payout value.

2. A method of awarding a payout to a player of a gaming machine as claimed in claim 1 wherein said gaming machine has a "dynamic" game pay table.

3. A method of awarding a payout to a player of a gaming machine as claimed in claim 1 wherein the actual payout values for predefined winning combinations or events are displayed on a screen and the displayed payout values vary depending upon the amount bet per game.

4. A method of awarding a payout to a player of a gaming machine as claimed in claim 1 wherein the payout values for the predefined winning combinations or events are displayed on the game pay table in the form: PAYOUTVALUE =PAYVALUE* BETVALUE

5. A method of awarding a payout to a player of a gaming machine as claimed in claim 1 wherein a pay value for a winning combination or event is expressible as a quotient in the form p/q, where: (a) "p" and "q" are integers, (b) "q" is greater than 1 and (c) p/q is in an irreducible fraction, where "q" is a value which is a divisor of every pre-defined bet per game amount.

6. A gaming machine configured to award a payout to a player of the gaming machine upon the occurrence of pre-defined winning combinations or events, wherein multiplying a non-integer pay value for a winning combination or event by any offered bet amount per game results in an integer payout value.

7. A gaming machine configured to award a payout to a player of the gaming machine upon the occurrence of pre-defined winning combinations or events as claimed in claim 6 wherein said gaming machine has a "dynamic" game pay table.

8. A gaming machine configured to award a payout to a player of the gaming machine upon the occurrence of pre-defined winning combinations or events as claimed in claim 6 wherein the actual payout values for predefined winning combinations or events are displayed on a screen and the displayed payout values vary depending upon the amount bet per game.

9. A gaming machine configured to award a payout to a player of the gaming machine upon the occurrence of pre-defined winning combinations or events as claimed in claim 6 wherein the payout values for the predefined winning combinations or events are displayed on the game pay table in the form: PAYOUT VALUE = PAY VALUE * BET VALUE

10. A gaming machine configured to award a payout to a player of the gaming machine upon the occurrence of pre-defined winning combinations or events as claimed in claim 6 wherein a pay value for a winning combination or event is expressible as a quotient in the form p/q, where: (a) "p" and "q" are integers, (b) "q" is greater than 1 and (c) p/q is in an irreducible fraction. where "q" is a value which is a divisor of every pre-defined bet per game amount.

11. A method of awarding a payout to a player of a gaming machine substantially as herein described with reference to any one of the embodiments of the invention illustrated in the accompanying drawings and/or examples.

12. A gaming machine configured to award a payout to a player of the gaming machine substantially as herein described with reference to any one of the embodiments of the invention illustrated in the accompanying drawings and/or examples.