Method and apparatus for expiration of prepaid slot machine plays
US6227972A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jul 1, 1997 |
| Grant date | May 8, 2001 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jul 1, 2017 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC A)Human Necessities
- CPC primaryA63F9/24
- WIPO fieldIT methods for management
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
An expiring prepaid casino card is disclosed which may be utilized to provide payment for slot machine play or other gambling activities. The disclosed expiring prepaid casino card is preferably a pointer to a monetary amount stored in a casino prepaid card database, that expires in predefined expiration amounts over each of a plurality of predefined expiration periods. If a player does not utilize the entire predefined expiration amount, for a given predefined expiration period, the remaining balance on the expiring prepaid casino card allocated for the expiration period automatically expires and does not roll over into any subsequent expiration periods. The expiring prepaid casino card may alternatively be embodied as a smart card or a general-purpose debit card programmed with the predefined expiration amounts for each predefined expiration period, or a cardless electronic key or personal identification number (PIN) which may be utilized to access data records which have been programmed with the predefined expiration amounts for each predefined expiration period. The expiring prepaid casino card can preferably be (i) purchased by the player at face value, or at a discount; (ii) …
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.