AU687593B2

AU687593B2 - Lottery machine

Info

Publication number: AU687593B2
Application number: AU30446/95A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Nicholas Bennett
Original assignee: Aristocrat Leisure Industries Pty Ltd
Current assignee: Aristocrat Technologies Australia Pty Ltd
Priority date: 1994-09-15
Filing date: 1995-09-04
Publication date: 1998-02-26
Anticipated expiration: 2015-09-04
Also published as: AU3044695A

Description

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 ARISTOCRAT LEISURE INDUSTRIES PTY LTD 6 6 6 4666

U*

SG 6 6.66

ORIGINAL

COMPLETE SPECIFICATION STANDARD PATENT Invention Title.: Lottery Machine The following statement is a full. descriptioni of this inventioni includinig the best method of performing it kniown to us:- 2 LOTTERY MACHINE The present invention relates to gaming machines of the type arranged to play a game of poker and in particular the invention provides an improvement to a game played on such a machine.Players who regularly play gaming machines quickly tire of particular games and therefore it is necessary for manufacturers of these machines to come up with innovative game features that add interest to the games provided on such machines in order to keep the players amused and therefore willing to continue playing the game.

Description of the Prior Art Gaming or poker machines have been well known in the state of New South Wales for many years and have more recently gained considerable popularity throughout o .".Australia, with quite substantial amounts of money wagered on these machines. There is a growing tendency for State .governments to legalise the use of gaming machines by licensing operators, with resulting revenue gains through licence fees and taxation of monies invested.

The licensed operation of gaming machines is the subject of State legislation and regulation. This regulation almost always dictates a maximum percentage payout for a :i gaming machine. For example, a maximum of 85% of monies invested must be returned as winnings, and manufacturers of gaming machines therefore must design their machines around these regulatory controls.

With the growth that has occurred in the gaming machine market there is intense competition between manufacturers to supply the various existing and new venues. When selecting a supplier of gaming machines, the operator of a venue will often pay close attention to the popularity of various games with their patrons.

Therefore, gaming machine manufacturers are keen to devise games which are popular with players, as a mechanism for improving sales.

I Many various strategies have been tried in the past to make games more enticing to players, including the commonly known double-up feature, whereby, if a player wins a particular game, they can then risk the winnings of that game in a double-or-nothing mode in which they gamble on a subsequent, and often different, game such as whether a red or black card will be the next card drawn. Other techniques adopted in the past have been to provide complexity in the numbering and combinations of indicia which would result in a win, thereby hoping to convince the player that there is a greater chance of winning and to keep their interest in a particular game.

Summary of the Invention The present invention consists in a gaming machine oo 15 having display reans, and game control means arranged to S"control images displayed on the display means, the game control means being arranged to play a game wherein a number of indicia are randomly selected and displayed on the display means and, if a winning combination results, 20 the machine pays a prize, the game being characterised in that the player may select, prior to the commencement of a game, one of a plurality of prize schedules to which the game will comply, at least a first prize schedule having a distribution of prizes over a range of winning oo 25 combinations and at least one other prize schedule having a distribution of prizes of which a highest prize value is proportionately higher than that of the first schedule relative to the wager, with lesser combinations on the other schedule providing lower prizes relative to the first schedule or having some combinations which provide no prize.

In a preferred embodiment at least two of the prize schedules require a wager of the same value and each provides different highest value prizes and different prize distributions, relative to the other, over the range of possible winning results. The machine may either be of

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the type arranged to play a hand of draw poker or of the type having a plurality of spinning reels or a video simulation thereof.

In one form of the machine at least one selectable prize schedule will have only one prize value available this prize being payable on one or more resulting combinations having a low probability of occurrence and all other indicia combinations have no prize allocation, Brief Description of the Drawings An embodiment of the invention will now be described, by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:- Figure 1 illustrates a score card relating to a :i first gaming machine game design incorporating the present oo 15 invention; Figure 2 illustrates a score card relating to a second gaming machine game design incorporating the present invention; and Figure 3 illustrates a score card relating to a third gaming machine game design incorporation the present invention.

Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiments In the following detailed description the methodology of the embodiments will be described, and it 25 is to be understood that it is within the capabilities of the non-inventive worker in the art to introduce the methodology on any standard microprocessor-based gaming machine by means of appropriate programming.

Referring to Figure 1 a first game design, known as "DEUCES WILD DOUBLE is arranged to be played on a gaming machine to produce winning results giving prizes in accordance with the illustrated score card.

The machine incorporating this design might be a slot machine either of the type having spinning reels or a video simulation of spinning reels, or of the type which uses a video screen and plays a hand of draw poker.

However, preferably the embodiment of Figure 1 relates to the class of machine arranged to play a hand of draw poker.

The game played by a machine employing the first embodiment of the present invention is a standard draw poker game with extensions. The primary aspect of the invention, however is not an extension to the game itself, but manner in which and the form of the betting options provided to the player.

The game played on the embodiment of "DEUCES WILD" pays prizes on the following hands: ROYAL FLUSH (10, J, Q, K, A of the same suit) 4 DEUCES ROYAL FLUSH (As for Royal Flush with Deuces as 'o 15 WITH DEUCES Wild Cards) 5 OF A KIND (Four of a kind and Wild card either deuces or Joker) STRAIGHT FLUSH (Any straight in the same suit) 4 OF A KIND (Any four of a kind) FULL HOUSE (Any pair Any 3 of a kind) FLUSH (Any 5 cards of the same suit) STRAIGHT (Any straight mixed suits) 3 OF A KIND (Any 3 of a kind) It will be recognised that this game has several 0ooe 25 extension hands that are treated differently than they would be in a standard draw poker game. The first extension in this game is the special treatment of four Deuces to provide a higher payout than for any other four of a kind. The second extension is the use of Deuces as wild cards in a Royal Flush and to produce a 5 of a kind hand.

Turning to the score card of Figure 1, it will be seen that if the player chooses to bet two or three credits, the prizes paid for the various winning combinations are respectively 2 times or 3 times the prize for a bet of one credit. On the other hand, if the player decided to iDet 5 credits, he then has the choice of two different payout scLedules from which to select prior to commencement of the game, a first one of which provides prizes which are 5 times the prizes for a bet of one credit, and the second of which redistributes the prizes paid to give bigger prizes at the high end of the schedule and smaller prizes at the low end of the schedule. In particular, it will be noted that the last winning hand on the score card (3 of a kind) does not have a prize paid if the second schedule for five credits is adopted, whereas the top prize for that schedule is increased from 1250 credits to 3000 credits.Turning to the embodiment of Figure 2, this embodiment also relates to a draw poker machine and employs the same game as the embodiment of 15 Figure 1 (ie Deuces Wild), however in this case the score card makes no provision for a bet of 3 credits and instead includes three prize schedules for a bet of 5 credits.

*The first schedule for a 5 credit bet once again has prizes which are 5 times the prizes paid for a single credit wager. The second 5 credit schedule in the Figure 2 embodiment is similar, but not identical, to the second 5 credit schedule of the Figure 1 embodiment the differences being that in the second embodiment the highest prizes are slightly lower and the middle order 25 prizes are slightly higher. The third 5 credit schedule of the second embodiment is even more heavily biased to the higher end of the prize table with the top prize being 5000 credits and four of the lowest prizes being deleted.

This option is provided for the player who wants to play for a "big win" and is not interested in receiving smaller pays. Turning to Figure 3, a score card for a slot machine of the type having spinning reels, or video simulations thereof, is shown. In this embodiment, it will be seen that the second and third columns of prizes are again multiples of the first, these being for 2 and credit games. Further, as with the previous embodiment the fourth and fifth columns provide alternate 5 credit prize schedules which provide larger prizes toward the top of the table with reduced prizes or prizes deleted towards the bottom of the table. In particular, in the fifth column schedule, prizes are only paid for games displaying rabbits, 5 carrots, a mixture of 5 rabbits and carrots, or 5 diamonds, 5 rubies, 5 sapphires, 5 emeralds or amethysts. In this prize table no other combination pays a prize, but the combinations listed above, which do pay a prize, give a $10,000 payout. The machine with the score card of Figure 3 therefore plays like a lottery if the fifth pay schedule is selected, with very few prizes being :..paid, but each prize having a high value. Therefore, it :o.will be recognised that the present invention provides an 15 additional player enhancing feature, when compared with known games, which would result in economic benefit to the manufacturer of the gaming machine as it would become popular with players.

It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that numerous variations and/or modifications may be made to the invention as shown in the specific embodiments "without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as broadly described. The present embodiments are, therefore, to be considered in all respects as 25 illustrative and not restrictive.o coo 25 illustrative and not restrictive.

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Claims

3. The gaming machine of claims 1 or 2 arranged to play ooeo 25 a hand of draw poker.
4. The gaming machine of claim 1 or 2 wherein the display means has a plurality of spinning reels or provides a video simulation thereof. The gaming machine according to any one of claims 1- 4 wherein at least one selectable prize schedule includes only one prize value, this prize being payable on one or more resulting combinations having a low probability of occurrence and all other indicia combinations having no prize allocation.
6. A gaming machine substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings. DATED this 4th day of September 1995 ARISTOCRAT LEISURE INDUSTRIES PTY LTD Patent Attorneys for the Applicant: F.B. RICE CO. etee c I c Abstract A gaming machine is provided in which a number of different player selectable score cards cefine the prize list of a game to be played such that the player may choose between a prize list having a small number of high value prizes and a prize list having a large number of prizes of generally lesser value. wo S**S e* e 6