WO2000024484A1

WO2000024484A1 - A network advertising system providing games

Info

Publication number: WO2000024484A1
Application number: PCT/US1999/025131
Authority: WO
Inventors: John Van Antwerp
Original assignee: Goldberg, Sheldon, Francis
Priority date: 1998-10-26
Filing date: 1999-10-26
Publication date: 2000-05-04
Also published as: AU1234500A

Abstract

The present invention is a method of playing a game and for providing information services together with advertising interactively on a communications network. Users may play the game via interactive network transmissions (714), while advertising information (722) is communicated between users and an advertizing network node (718). However, other informational services, such as are available on the internet (700), are accessible via the invention. Additionally, when the invention is used for game tournaments, users may play the games in tournaments that may: (a) vary the rules of a game during a tournament, and/or (b) partition the users into groups wherein for each group, users therein compete with users in a corresponding subset of the population of users. The invention also allows games to be played in a gaming establishment using low cost gaming stations (18).

Description

A NETWORK ADVERTISING SYSTEM PROVIDING GAMES

FIELD OF THE JNVENTION The present invention is related to a method and apparatus for providing network informational services (e.g., games) while also providing advertising. Games may be played in tournaments wherein users compete against particular subsets of the population of all tournament game playing users.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The cost effective automation of playing certain games, like hearts, and blackjack, has been difficult due to the fact that these games typically require a dealer and only a relatively small number of players may play the game with a single dealer. However, with the popularity of local and wide-area data communication networks, it is desirable to have an automated game system for games wherein large numbers of players may cost-effectively and efficiently play such games.

Furthermore, it has been difficult to cost-effectively provide mass availability of some games via a network game system on such networks as the Internet in that legal restrictions prohibit wagering and ante fees in most contexts except such situations as local area networks within a casino. However, since many players have an interest in playing casino-type games, it would be desirable to have a way to benefit from interests in such games. For example, it would be desirable to have a system that utilized a game or other user desired context as a vehicle for delivering product and/or service information to users of a network such as the Internet. In particular, it would be desirable to have a data processing system that provided a large number of users with the ability to substantially asynchronously play casino-style games on the Internet for prizes at a reduced risk or at substantially no risk, wherein the data processing system coordinated the presentation of products and/or services from sponsors of the games so that there is a coordinated, interactive exchange of information between players and sponsors regarding advertisements, samples, prizes and questionnaires related to sponsor products and/or services.

Additionally, in many situations where games are played, various types of prizes or other compensation may be provided to players depending on, for example, their skill in playing the game, or some other criteria, such as membership in a particular group, age, gender, or any other demographic criteria upon which the managers of a contest decide. In many cases, such prizes are only provided to those who demonstrate the greatest skill levels related to the game being played. This may be problematic, however, when there are repeated tournaments/contests where games are played for prizes, since it is not atypical for the same skilled players to consistently win the dominant portion of the contests/prizes and thereby cause less skilled players to become disinterested in playing in such contests/tournaments. This is particularly problematic in game contests/tournaments that occur quite often and where it is desirable to have a large number of players consistently playing in the contests/tournaments and remaining throughout the duration of such tournaments. For example, Internet game websites for playing various games, from combat oriented games to card games such as hearts, poker and blackjack, typically generate revenue through advertising. Accordingly, it is desirable that a large number of game players consistently play and remain at such a website for an extended period of time. Accordingly, it is desirable that the less skilled players or other identified groups of players maintain an interest in a contest/tournament throughout its duration. Similarly, this same type of reasoning applies for casinos and other live contest/tournament sites, wherein the casinos prefer that players remain at such a contest/tournament and maintain an interest therein for the duration of the contest/tournament. Further, casinos would also like to assure that large numbers of players maintain an interest in attending contest/tournaments substantially regardless of their gaming skill levels and regardless of the category of game that the participant chooses to play. Thus, it would be advantageous to have a method and system for distributing prizes that both rewards players who have demonstrated certain skill levels, and simultaneously distributes prizes throughout the population of tournament players in an appropriate manner so that players of various levels, and/or identified categories of designated players, retain an interest in a contest/tournament throughout its duration. Moreover, such designated player categories would allow the contest/tournament managers to mix various contests together into one major contest/tournament and thereby allow prize positions, standings, and rewards to also be consolidated. Further, it would be desirable to have a procedure for determining the prizes and awards provided to players so that players feel that the prizes and rewards have been distributed in a fair and consistent manner.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is a computerized interactive advertising system (i.e., method and apparatus) for exchanging information regarding goods and/or services between a first population of users (hereinafter also known as "players" or "users") and a second population of users (hereinafter also known as "sponsors" or "advertisers"). In particular, the sponsors or advertisers may present information related to goods and/or services to the users using the present invention and the users may interactively view this information while, for example, interacting with the present invention for playing a game such as hearts, bingo, solitaire, blackjack, craps, roulette, poker, pai gow, video combat and/or competitive games, .and educational oriented games. Moreover, a user may also interact with the advertising presentations provided by the present invention so that the user can respond to sponsor or advertiser presented questionnaires, as well as purchase or view sponsor goods and/or services. Thus, the present invention provides an information exchange service within a context of supplying the user with a desired informational service such as games, and information retrieval services (e.g., Internet search capabilities) for enticing users to view and/or interact with sponsor presentations such as interactive advertisements. Moreover, it is an aspect of the present invention that the interactive advertising system of the present invention utilizes one or more communication networks such as local area networks and the Internet as a vehicle for transmitting and receiving information from users. In particular, the present invention provides access to one or more networked informational services together with advertising related presentations, wherein both such an informational service and one ore more of the advertising related presentations are substantially independently interactive with the user, and furthermore, such interactivity is provided by communication on a communications network, such as the Internet, wherein the communications, for both the informational service and the advertising related presentations, correspond to and are responsive to user input during the time that the user accesses the informational service.

It is also an aspect of the present invention that each user is presented with advertisements for products and/or services, wherein it is believed the user will be receptive to the advertisement. That is, the present invention selectively presents .advertisements to each user, according to stored characteristics and preferences of the user that the present invention has determined from, for example, user supplied personal information, user responses to questions, and/or analysis of user interactions such as user requests for additional information related to an advertisement. Thus, such a selective presentation of advertisements allows a sponsor or advertiser to provide information related to relatively extensive and/or expensive promotionals (e.g., demonstrations, samples, discounts, trial subscriptions, prizes, bonuses) to users most likely to subsequently purchase the advertised product or service. Consequently, such selectivity can greatly increase the cost effectiveness of advertising, wherein the term, advertising (or advertising presentation), as used herein is understood to include not only product or service presentations that are merely informational, but also more interactive advertising presentations such as promotionals wherein discounts, free samples or a trial usage may be offered. Moreover in one embodiment of the present invention, users may be compensated for viewing and/or interacting with advertisement related presentations such as for example described in U.S. Patent No. 5,794,210 filed December 11. 1995, incorporated herein by reference as an example of one such advertising compensation system. Moreover, it is a novel aspect of the present invention that such compensation may be in the form of discounts or subsidies for products and/or services such as free Internet access, or a subsidizing of a user purchase of a communications device such as a personal computer.

Additionally, with the proliferation of wireless communications devices that, e.g., allow the user to connect and interact with networks such as the Internet, such advertising related presentations may be timely provided to a user by (e.g., remotely and automatically) wirelessly activating the user's mobile communication device for alerting the user to, e.g., time sensitive responses for, e.g., sales, auctions, promotionals, etc. Thus, in one embodiment, the present invention provides a user with the ability to be selectively notified (if need be by automatically activating the user^'s mobile communication device), and/or receive such selected advertising. For example, a user may desire to purchase a new car of a particular model for no more than a particular price. Accordingly in one embodiment of the present invention, such a request may be submitted by the user, and subsequently the present invention may monitor various network (e.g., Internet) informational services where advertisement or sale offers for automobiles are presented. Thus, when an advertisement is found for a car that is expected to be of interest to the user, the user's mobile communication device is provided with wireless activation signals and the advertisement (of indication thereof) is transmitted to the user's mobile communication device.

In a related embodiment of the present invention, electronic coupons may be transmitted to such mobile communication devices, and subsequently the mobile devices may be taken directly to a redemption center for redemption via visual inspection of the coupon of the devices display, or by electronically verifying the coupon resides in the user ' s mobile communication device using, for example, a coupon redemption processing station at the detail store. Thus, user convenience and cost effecting coupon processing are both enhanced since "paperless" coupon transmission and redemption is available.

Moreover, it is an aspect of the present invention that each user may interact with and access an available informational service at a time and pace (i.e., tempo) substantially of the user's choosing. In particular, for the playing of games, the user may not be bound by a required order or sequence of play involving other users, even though the user may be in competition with other users. In fact, a user may cease play (or interactions with the informational service) for an extended time while in the midst of an activation thereof, and subsequently continue the interactions at the point where the user ceased. Thus, users may interact with the present invention at their leisure.

Accordingly, in a related aspect of the present invention, it is intended that users are able to interact with the present invention remotely, as for example, via the Internet and/or an interactive cable television network. Thus, using an Internet embodiment as an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, a game web site may be provided wherein players may access the interactive game capabilities of the present invention and substantially simultaneously also are presented with sponsor or advertiser provided information related to goods and/or services of the sponsor or advertiser (those two terms being used substantially interchangeably to denote, e.g., those who provide advertising to users and/or subsidize an informational service such as game playing, and/or provide product promotionals or network access) . Moreover, the sponsor provided information may include, for example, hypertext links (more generally, hyperlinks) that allow players to activate, for example, network transfers for obtaining additional information regarding a sponsor's goods and/or services regardless of the status of any game (more generally, information service) in which a user may be currently involved.

It is a further aspect in one embodiment of the present invention that a user is able to commence play of a game at substantially any time the user accesses the game playing embodiment of the present invention. That is, it is not necessary for any previous game being played by other users to be completed for the user to commence play. In other words, games provided by the present invention may be continuously and asynchronously commenced or entered by users.

It is a further aspect in at least some embodiments of the present invention to require each user to use a distinct identification provided when the user registers with the present invention before accessing any informational services (e.g., games) so that a network site for the invention may be able to identify each user, e.g., in subsequent user contacts. Accordingly, it is an aspect of the present invention during registration, that each user provides personal information about him/herself both for identification and for use as selection criteria by sponsors or advertisers for presenting particular presentations. For example, in the case of an Internet embodiment of the present invention, such registering can be performed via the Internet prior to access of any informational service at an advertising web site for the present invention. Thus, users may be requiredtoprovidemepresentmventionwithinformationaboutthemselves suchasname, address, E-mail address, age, sex, mobile communications device contact number, and/or other player characteristics deemed pertinent to one or more sponsors or advertisers. Accordingly, the present invention provides a sponsor or advertiser with the capability to target its presentations substantially only to users having selected characteristics as, for example, determined from user information provided when registering with a network site for the present invention.

It is a further aspect of the present invention to have users compete against one another for prizes in one or more gaming tournaments. Using an Internet network embodiment of the present invention as illustrative, a game/advertising web site for the present invention may partition the population of players into competitive groups wherein each group includes the players for a distinct tournament. Moreover, the present invention may determine a competitive group according to criteria such as: (a) the game(s) to be played in the tournament; (b) a skill level for the players (e.g., as determined by play in a previous tournament(s)); (c) particular player characteristics such as age, area of residence, home ownership, etc.; (d) particular player lifestyle traits such as traits exhibited by exercise enthusiasts or cruise ship enthusiasts; and (e) particular player preferences such as preferences related to jewelry, personal care products or particular sports.

It is also an aspect of the present invention to provide prizes, compensation or other benefits to players of games, wherein the prizes are distributed among the players in a manner so that players in different categories and groupings may win prizes even though their overall proficiency in playing a game(s) may be less than that of other players . In particular, the present invention is useful for single games as well as game tournaments wherein a game or plurality of games are played by each player in the tournament, and the players are ranked according to their overall proficiency in playing games in the tournament. In this aspect of the present invention, players of a contest/tournament are partitioned into groups, and players P within each group are capable of winning a prize if, in the portion of the overall population of players against which the players P are compared, the players P are ranked sufficiently high. For example, by linearly ordering the groups themselves, e.g., groups G,, G₂, G₃, . . . G_N, a "population of players" PP_; may be determined for each group G_;, wherein the players of group G; may be compared or compete with players from the collection PP_; of all players in the combined collection of groups G_j, j ≤ i. Thus, if the players of group G_; are more skilled at the game(s) tlian those of G_j, j<i, then a player of lesser overall skill in playing the tournament game(s) (e.g., a player in one of the groups G_j, j<i) may compete with and win tournament prizes because he/she is in a group that is compared against a smaller, and likely, less skilled population of players (e.g., PP_j) than he/she would be playing against if this player were compared against the entire population of tournament players. However, skill is only one possible factor that may be used by contest organizers in determining player groups. Other factors which may be used for grouping players are: skill in a related game, age, gender, organizational affiliation and/or other demographic, personal or financial attributes.

In another, related but more general embodiment, the present aspect of the invention is directed to specifying different populations of players with which different groups of players compete for attaining a distinguished position (e.g., a winning position). Accordingly, for a given group G of players there may be a list of one or more players and/or one or more groups of players that, even though the players play the game(s), these players are excluded in the population of players that compete with the players of the group G. Thus, the game scores of the excluded players are not used in ranking the players of G. Instead of, or in addition to, the list of excluded players, the present invention may also identify a list of one or more additional players and/or one or more groups of additional players that are not in the group G, but wherein these additional players are included in the population with which the players of G compete. Accordingly, the scores of the additional players are used when ranking the players of G. Thus, for a group G of players, and a given distinguished position, there may be no player from the group G that is identified for the position since the position may be occupied by a player from the population with which the group members compete, and wherein this player is not a member of the group G.

It is a further aspect of the present invention to allow players to play games offered by the present invention without incurring financial risk or charges beyond those that are typical for the network being used in accessing the present invention.

It is also an aspect of the present invention to provide video games, educational games, blackjack, and other casino-style games(e.g., craps, roulette, poker, pai gow, or variations thereof), wherein such games may be played by a plurahty of players continuously and asynchronously, and wherein each game is likely to be unique from all other games being played concurrently. Furthermore, in a related aspect of the present invention, such games may be automated so as to not require a manual dealer or arbitrating third party.

Also, the present invention may be utilized, in one embodiment, in a gaming establishment (e.g., casino) using low cost gaming stations at which players may play such games entirely electronically. Alternatively, in another embodiment, the present invention may be used to play such casino style games as blackjack on the Internet. Using this later embodiment as illustrative of some of the game playing aspects of the present invention, a blackjack game controller for the present invention communicates with blackjack players at Internet client nodes via a web site from which the blackjack game controller is accessed. Thus, blackjack players may play blackjack in the privacy of their own homes and at their leisure since there is no requirement that a particular tempo of a blackjack game be maintained.

Additionally, the present invention utilizes novel varieties of such games, as blackjack, that make the games more enjoyable for users. For example, using variations of blackjack as illustrative, in one novel embodiment wherein the dealer functions are automated by a dealer module, this module can play blackjack with a plurahty of players concurrently such that each player appears to be playing exclusively with the dealer module (e.g., "head-to-head"). Moreover, in one blackjack embodiment, each blackjack game is played asynchronously from other concurrent blackjack games with the dealer module. Furthermore, the dealer module may play a different dealer card hand with each player. In particular, the initial one (or two) cards (or card representations) dealt to the dealer module for each game are unlikely to be the same for any two blackjack games being player with the dealer module; i.e., the probability of any two concurrently played blackjack games being identical is substantially equal to chance. Accordingly, this variation is particularly worthwhile when players are playing remotely through a network such as the Internet. Alternatively, in a different blackjack variation, the dealer module and each player concurrently playing blackjack with the dealer module may be provided with cards (or card representations) from the beginning of an identical sequence of card representations. Thus, each concurrently playing player receives an identical initial card hand and the dealer is also dealt an identical initial card hand. Subsequently, the card hands within each concurrent game will vary only if players request further cards differently. Accordingly, this variation of blackjack is particularly useful in tournament blackjack played within the confines of a casino, wherein the play of each player in the tournament is synchronized to start and stop within a predetermined interval. Note that this variation of blackjack is enjoyed by tournament players in that the tournament players may consider it a better or fairer way for demonstrating blackjack playing skill. Further note that a similar card dealing scheme can be used with other electronic automated versions of card games . Additionally, a similar scheme can also be used with games in general that have game token values distributed to players.

Other features and benefits of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description with the accompanying figures contained hereinafter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Fig. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention wherein this embodiment may be used within a blackjack gaming establishment such as a casino;

Fig. 2 provides a representation of the gaming stations 18 of Fig. 1 wherein these gaming stations are used in gaming establishments for playing blackjack; Fig. 3 is a block diagram of an alternative embodiment of the present invention wherein the present invention is used to play blackjack on the Internet;

Figs. 4A-4E represent a flowchart for the processing performed by the blackjack game controller 14 when processing blackjack requests from players in either of the embodiments of Fig. 1 or Fig. 3; Fig. 5 provides a simple example of the operation of the present invention for playing a novel variation of blackjack wherein four blackjack games are shown being played asynchronously with the blackjack game controller;

Figs. 6A and 6B are a block diagram of an Internet embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 7 is a diagram illustrating how a user navigates through web pages of the World Wide Web for accessing the game/advertisement web site 308 (Fig. 6) functionality; and

Figs. 8A and 8B are an alternative embodiment of the game/advertisement web site 308; and Fig. 9 is a flowchart showing the steps performed by a tournament prize distribution embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In Fig. 1, a block diagram is presented of a first embodiment of an electronic system 10 for the present invention for playing blackjack, wherein data flows are represented by sohd arrows and control flows are represented by dashed arrows. In particular, the embodiment of Fig. 1 presents an architecture for the present invention for use on, for example, a local network within a casino, wherein low cost gaming stations may be utilized. Accordingly, the blackjack gaming system 10 includes a blackjack game controller 14 electronically connected to one or more potentially remote gaming stations 18 so that for each gaming station a player may play blackjack. In the blackjack gaming system 10, the blackjack game controller 14 functions substantially as a dealer would in a manually operated blackjack game and each gaming station 18 provides a blackjack player with an electronic representation of a blackjack game wherein it may appear that the player (i.e., user) at the gaming station 18 is the only player playing against the dealer (i.e., "head-to-head" against the blackjack game controller 14). Accordingly, each gaming station 18, as will be discussed with reference to Fig. 2 below, includes a display for displaying both the dealer's cards and the player's cards. Each gaming station 18 also includes player interaction capabilities for requesting additional cards, activating various blackjack player options at appropriate times, and potentially increasing various wagers at predetermined phases of a blackjack game. Further note that each gaming station 18, when in operation, may request a security code be provided by a player for identifying himself/herself or, alternatively, the gaming station may request the player to insert an electronic card (not shown) into the gaming station 18 so that information electronically encoded upon the card is read at the gaming station and transferred to the blackjack controller 14. Referring now to the internal structure of the blackjack game controller 14, a gaming station interface 22 is provided for interfacing with each of the gaming station^ 18. In particular, the gaming station interface 22 buffers data signals between the other componi. nts included within the blackjack game controller 14 and the gaming stations 18. For example, the gaming station interface 22 may have speed matching buffers in order to adjust for differences in speed between the blackjack game controller 14 and the gaming stations 18. A blackjack driver 26 exchanges data with the gaming station interface 22. The blackjack driver 26 substantially coordinates the operation of the blackjack game controller 14. In particular, the following capabilities are substantially provided by the blackjack driver 26: (1.1) identifies each player requesting to play blackjack at one of the gaming stations 18;

(1.2) creates internal data structures for communication with other modules of the blackjack game controller 14 regarding each blackjack game being played; in particular, blackjack gaming data objects or records are (re)instantiated with each player request, such data objects providing sufficient information for the blackjack game controller 14 to properly respond to each received player request;

(1.3) determines the output of the blackjack game controller 14 to each of the active gaming stations 18;

(1.4) distributes blackjack gaming data between other modules of the blackjack game controller 14; and (1.5) provides card representations to gaming stations 18.

In performing the above tasks, the blackjack driver 26 communicates with a blackjack player registration and playing status database 28. The database system 28 maintains in persistent storage information regarding each blackjack player. In particular, the database system 28 maintains: (2.1) information identifying each player; e.g., a unique player identification code;

(2.2) information regarding, for example, each blackjack player's financial status; in particular, a credit limit and a current amount of funds (either to be paid or received from the player);

(2.3) for each person registered to play blackjack, information regarding the status or context of any game the player is presently playing; that is, sufficient information is stored so that the blackjack game controller 14 can retrieve this information and continue a blackjack game in response to receiving a player's request;

(2.4) for each person registered to play blackjack, information regarding any blackjack tournament that the player is playing; in particular, since such a tournament typically requires a tournament player to complete a specified number of blackjack games in a predetermined amount of time and/or to complete a specified number of blackjack games out of a total number of blackjack games, the following types of information maybe stored: (a) information relatingto the number of blackjack games completed by the player; (b) information related to the time and/or the number of games remaining in the tournament; and (c) information related to the amount of funds or points in the player's account for the tournament.

The blackjack driver 26 communicates with a wager accounting module 30 wherein the wager accounting module provides the following capabilities: (3.1) determines various wagering limit parameters for the next one or more blackjack games to be played (e.g., the wagering limit per game and the total wagering limit per player); and (3.2) performs wagering accounting for each player's wins and losses. Thus, the wager accounting module 30 is instrumental in initializing a new blackjack game in that this module receives and maintains financial information related to each currently active player at a gaming station 18. Thus, the wager accounting module 30 has a communication data channel with the blackjack player registration and playing status database 28 so that the wager accounting module 30 may retrieve information for determining whether the player has, for example, sufficient financial resources to cover potential wagering losses. Of course, to provide waging evaluation information to other controller 14 modules, the wager accounting module 30 receives identifying information from each such module requesting an evaluation.

The blackjack driver 26 also communicates with a blackjack player evaluator 34. The blackjack player evaluator 34 receives, from each player (via instantiations of blackjack gaming data objects from the blackjack driver 26), all blackjack player requests except the data from each player indicating an amount to be wagered. Thus, the blackjack player evaluator 34:

(4.1) determines each player's options during blackjack games; and

(4.2) responds to player requests for hits or to, for example, split pairs.

Thus, the blackjack player evaluator 34 enforces the gaming establishment rules related to player options during a blackjack game. Note, however, that in responding to certain player requests, the blackjack player evaluator 34 communicates with the wager accounting module 30 to confirm mat a proper wager accompanies the requested option and that the wager is acceptable to the wager accounting module 30.

The blackjack player evaluator 34 is supplied with data corresponding to blackjack card representations from a card generator module 38. The card generator module 38 generates , for example, an ordered collection or sequence of substantially random card representations and each such card representation is provided to the blackjack player evaluator 34, wherein the blackjack player evaluator responds to each player's valid hit request by outputting the most recent card representation received from the card generator module 38. That is, each player at a gaming station 18 receives a card representation according to when the player's request is received by the blackjack player evaluator 34.

Further, note that the card generator module 38 also supplies the same card representations as supplied to the blackjack player evaluator 34 to a house blackjack playing module 42, wherein this latter module plays the dealer's hand in each blackjack game. Thus, the house blackjack playing module 42 enforces the blackjack gaming rules on behalf of the gaming establishment. In particular, this module determines when and how insurance bets can be made related to the dealer's cards. Note, as with the blackjack player evaluator 34, the house blackjack playing module 42 outputs, when required to provide the dealer's hand with another card representation at a gaming station 18, the most recent card representation received from the card generator module 38. Further note that the house blackjack playing module 42 provides control information to the blackjack driver 26, particularly regarding activation of the blackjack insurance option. This information, in turn, is conveyed to the blackjack player evaluator 34 so that this latter evaluator may activate the insurance option for each player at an active gaming station 18. A blackjack hand evaluator 46 is also in communication with the blackjack driver 26. The blackjackhand evaluator 46 evaluates each player's hand(s) in comparison to the dealer's blackjack hand for determining the win/loss/tie for each player's hand. Thus, the dealer's hand and the one or more hands played by each player at a gaming station 18 is supplied to the blackjack hand evaluator 46. Subsequently, this evaluator outputs win/loss/tie results to the gaming stations 18 via the blackjack driver 26 and the gaming station interface 22. Further, the blackjack hand evaluator 46 also outputs win/loss/tie results along with the identity of the player playing each hand to the wager accounting module 30 so that wager credits and debits for each player's account may be updated according to the last or most recent blackjack game results.

In Fig. 2, an embodiment of a gaming station 18 is illustrated. The gaming station 18 includes a player input area 204 wherein a player may press touch-sensitive portions of a thin film laminated with blackjack player operations and requests. Immediately above the player input area is a player output display area 208 for displaying blackjack gaming information related to the player. Optionally, each gaming station 18 may include a player identification card reader 216 so that a blackjack player may identify him/herself at a gaming station 18 by swiping a magnetic identification portion of a player identification card (not shown) through the card slot 221 thereby allowing the card reader 216 to transmit the player's encoded identification upon his/her card to the blackjack game controller 14. However, it should be noted that other configurations of the gaming station 18 are also contemplated by the present invention. In particular, gaming station 18 may not have a card reader 216. Instead, a blackjack player may be required to register either manually or automatically at a site remote from the gaming station 18, or, alternatively personal identification numbers may be provided to players for identifying themselves via the player input area 204 wherein, for example, a numeric digit provided in the lower bottom portion of some of the touch-sensitive areas may be used by the player to input a personal identification number. Further, the arrangement of the touch-sensitive portions of the player input area 204 and the format of the display area 208 (both being discussed in detail below) may have other arrangements and still be within the scope of the present invention.

Describing in detail now the touch-sensitive portions of the player input area 204, an activate/enter next game button 220 is provided. This button is used to initially activate the gaming station 18 so that a "request to play" signal is transmittedto the blackjack driver 26. That is, assuming a player activates this button at a gaming station 18, the blackjack driver 26 responds by requesting that the player input his/her identification via, for example, placing an identification card in the card reader 216 and/or a personal identification number via the player input area 204. Additionally, note that the button 220 may be pressed at the end of a blackjack game for indicating that the player wishes to play another blackjack game. Note that in one embodiment of the present invention when consecutive games are played by a player, the player need only press the button 220 to commence a new game. That is, the player's identification need not be entered for each consecutive game played (assuming the button 220 is activated within a predetermined time after the last game has terminated). The player input area 204 also includes a quit button 224 that a player may press to explicitly indicate the player's desire to terminate any further gaming at the gaming station 18.

Additionally, buttons 228 through 248 provide the player with the capabilities to request the following blackjack gaming requests: (5.1) The "HIT" button 228 allows the player to request another card to be dealt to him/her. (5.2) The "STND" button 232 allows the player to stand on a current blackjack hand.

(5.3) The "DBL" button 236 allows the player to double down under appropriate circiunstances as determined by the blackjack player evaluator 34.

(5.4) The "SPLIT" button 240 allows the player to split the player's first two cards into two separate blackjack hands when these first two cards are identical. (5.5) The "INS" button 244 allows the player to request insurance under the circumstances where the dealer's single face-up card is an ace. (5.6) The "BET" button 248 allows the player to request that a bet or wager be entered during a blackjack game. Note that subsequent to requesting a bet via the "BET" button 248, the buttons 252 through 264 are activated so that the player may input various betting amounts. In particular, buttons 252 through 264 provide the player with the option to bet $5.00 (button 252), $25.00 (button 256), $100.00 (button 260) and $500.00 (button 264). Moreover, a sequence of the buttons 252 through 264 may be pressed for obtaining a bet not provided by a single button. For example, to bet $130.00, the player presses consecutively each of the buttons 252, 256 and 260 (in any order) exactly once.

The player input area 204 also includes various confirm and cancel buttons 268 through 276. The accept button 268 allows the user to accept a last input. For example, it is an aspect in the present embodiment of the invention that after each user input, the input is accepted either by the player explicitly pressing the accept button 268 or by allowing a predetermined amount of time to expire after the last player input. The "CANCEL BET" button 272 allows the user to cancel an immediately preceding bet that was input. However, note that if a time limit is exceeded for placing a bet due to, for example, the player pressing the "CANCEL" button 272, then any minimum bet required will be automatically wagered on the player's behalf by the wager accounting module 30. Further, the "CANCEL LAST" button 276 may be used by the player to cancel the immediately preceding wager of one of the dollar amount buttons 252 through 264. Thus, if a player intended to bet $ 125.00 by pressing first the button 260 followed by the button 256 but instead pressed the button sequence 260 and 264, then the player may press the button 276 for cancelling the $500.00 bet associated with button 264 and subsequently the player presses the button 256 to obtain the desired bet of $ 125.00. Note further that pressing the "CANCEL LAST" button twice in succession also cancels the entire bet.

A "SPEED OF PLAY" button 280 may be optionally provided on the player input area 204. This button allows the player to specify to the blackjack driver 26, for example, the predetermined amount of time after a player input to wait before each subsequent input is automatically accepted. In one embodiment of the present invention, the "SPEED OF PLAY" button 280 includes active areas at each end of the button, wherein if the user presses the "slower" end of the button 280, then the predetermined time(s) for automatically accepting a player input is lengthened. Alternatively, if the player presses the "faster" end of the button 280, then the predetermined default acceptance time(s) becomes shorter. However, it is important to note that the tempo of the blackjack game is, using the present invention, no longer as important as in typical blackjack gaming situations. That is, since each blackjack player using the present invention is not playing in sequence with other players, there is less concern about speedily playing so as not to delay other players. Lastly, the player input area 204 includes a "HELP" button 284 for allowing the player to request assistance from, for example, the personnel of the gaming establishment providing the gaming station 18.

Referring now to display area 208, the screen display provided here is but one of a number of contemplated screen layouts for the present invention. In particular, the screen layout illustrated in display area 208 is a representative layout for use in playing tournament blackjack. Thus, when other modes of blackjack are played other than tournament blackjack, then it is within the scope of the present invention to modify the fields represented in the display area 208 according to the player needs for the type of blackjack being played. Further, it is important to note that in one embodiment, the display 208 is in color so that, for example, diamonds and hearts are in red and spades and clubs are in black, and various fields of the display area 208 may be highlighted for focusing a player's attention on the portion of the display providing information most relevant to the player's currently permissible options.

Describing now the fields currently presented in display 208, at the top of the display is the house hand area 288: (a) for providing a representation of the cards that have been dealt to the house; (b) for providing a status of the house hand (i.e. one of: "STND" for standing, "BUSTED", when the value of the house hand exceeds 21, and "CONTINUING" when the house may take additional hits . That is, this field provides an annotation "house hand" followed by a representation for at least one card that has been dealt to the house; i.e., an ace of hearts. In the player's hand area 292 of the display area 208, there are five columns providing information related to each blackjack hand the player is currently playing in the blackjack game. The columns provide the following information:

(6.1) The "PLAYER HAND(S)" column provides, in each row of this column, a different blackjack hand that is being played simultaneously by the player in the current blackjack game. Thus, two blackjack hands are presently represented as being played simultaneously by the player on the display area 208. That is, an upper or first hand having a three of spades, king of hearts, and a five of spades, and, a lower or second blackjack hand having a three of clubs and an eight of diamonds. (Note, when a player chooses to double down, card representations in common between two blackjack hands may be displayed in a row between the rernaining card representations for both hands.

Alternatively, card representations in common between blackjack hands may be duplicated in the blackjack hands to which the common cards representations apply.)

(6.2) A "STATUS" column for indicating the current status of each blackjack hand the player is playing. That is, for the first or upper hand that the player currently is playing the status is "STND" thereby indicating that the player has elected to stand on this hand. Alternatively, for the second or lower hand a status of "PICK OPTION" is provided thereby indicating that it is the player's turn to pick a blackjack playing option for this hand. Note that there are at least three possible values for the status field of each blackjack hand being played. That is, in addition to the two represented in Fig. 2, a

"BUSTED" status value is output for indicating that the value of the related blackjack hand has exceeded 21.

(6.3) The "OPTIONS" column provides, for each blackjack hand being played, an indication of the permissible blackjack plays that the player currently may select from for the related blackjack hand in the same row. Thus, for the first hand illustrated in area 292, there are no options remaining for the player to play related to this hand. However, on the second hand, four permissible player inputs are displayed as options to the player. That is, the player may stand on the related hand (STND) by pressing button 232, the player may request a hit (HIT) by pressing button 228, the player may double down (DBL) by pressing button 236 and the player may bet an additional wager by pressing button 248 and subsequently putting a bet amount using buttons 252 through 264.

(6.4) The "LAST BET" column displays to the player his/her last bet for each blackjack hand the player is currently playing. In particular, for both the upper and lower hands shown in area 292, the player's last bet was $50.00. (6.5) The "TOTAL BET" column displays to the player the total bet the player has wagered on the blackjack hand to which it relates. For example, in Fig.2, in both the upper and lower player's blackjack hands displayed, the player has bet a total of $200.00.

Below the player hand area 292 is the player information area 296 wherein additional blackjack gaming information relating to the player is displayed. In particular, labeled line 300 displays the most recent bet amount that the player has requested along with a tag indicating the status (e.g., "ACCEPT/CANCEL") of the most recent bet. Note that the status may be: (a) "ACCEPTED" for explicitly or implicitly indicating the acceptance of a displayed wager (via the player pressing the accept button 268 or by default due to a time limit expiring); (b) "CANCELLED" for explicitly indicating the cancellation of the last entered wager (via the player pressing either of the cancel buttons 272 or 276); (c) "REJECTED", this status being displayed due to the wager accounting module 30 rejecting the player's most recent bet; and (d) "ACCEPT/CANCEL" for indicating that the present invention is waiting a predetermined amount of time for the player to explicitly accept or cancel the most recent bet. Thus, in the example of line 300 in Fig. 2, the player has indicated a most recent bet of $30.00 and the blackjack driver 26 has output a status of "ACCEPT/CANCEL" as in (d) above. Further note that the blackjack hand(s) to which this most recent bet applies may be designated in any of a number of ways such as, for example, highlighting the row(s) in the player hand area 292 of the blackjack hand(s) to which the most recent bet of line 300 applies. Alternately, an indicator such as arrows 302 may be used as in Fig. 2 to indicate to the player that the most recent bet is to be applied to both the upper and lower blackjack hand(s).

Additionally, note that line 304 displays the annotation "INSURANCE BET:" together with any insurance amount that has been bet by the player. Accordingly, the dollar amount on line 304 and the notation at the right end of the line pertain, respectively, to the amount that has been bet as insurance, and the status of this bet (i.e., one of "ACCEPTED", "CANCELLED", "REJECTED" or "ACCEPT/CANCEL" as in line 300).

In line 312 of the player information area 296, the total amount of funds available by the player for betting is displayed. For example, line 312 of Fig. 2 indicates that the player has a total amount for betting of $1,000.00. Note that the wager accounting module 30 maintains this total amount available for betting and updates it after each blackjack game.

The lower three lines 320, 324 and 328 of the player information area 296 provide blackjack player information that is particularly useful when playing in a blackjack tournament. Thus, the information in these three lines may not be displayed when the present invention is used by players not in a tournament. In line 320, two fields are provided for displaying playing time information. The leftmost field, annotated by the label "ELAPSED PLAYING TIME: ", displays the total amount of time the player has played blackjack (which in this case is 45 minutes). Alternatively, the rightmost field, annotated by the label "REMAINING PLAYING TIME:", displays the time remaining in the tournament.

In line 324 an identifier for any tournament associated with the present blackjack game is displayed.

In line 328, up to two additional fields are provided that are useful in tournament blackjack. The leftmost field having an annotation of "GAMES PLAYED: " displays to the player the number of blackjack games he/she has completed within a tournament. Note that in some blackjack tournaments each player is required to complete a certain predetermined number of games within a predetermined allotted time period. For example, a blackjack tournament may require each player to play 50 games within a predetermined interval (such as four days). Relatedly, but optionally, in blackjack gaming contexts where the total number of blackjack games in the tournament is meaningful, the rightmost field of line 328, having the annotation "GAME NUMBER:", displays to the player the total number of tournament games that have been completed thus far in the tournament. Accordingly, using at least the leftmost annotated field in line 328 and "REMAINING PLAYING TIME:" annotated field of line 320, the player is able to determine the number of remaining games in the tournament that he/she must play.

Further note that other blackjack game values are contemplated by the present invention. For example, a field providing the number of games remaining that a player must play in the tournament may be added (or substituted for) in addition to the current values in the player information area 296.

In a next display 208 lower area, denoted the rules area 336, blackjack house rules are displayed. In particular, the house rules displayed in area 336 allow variations upon the typical blackjack rules that a player is likely to assume if not presented with information to the contrary. Note that by providing these additional rules on the display of gaming stations 18, successive blackjack games may be provided with different house blackjack rules thereby creating an increased interest in each game by the players and requiring additional blackjack playing skills from the players. Note that three house rules are provided in the present display area 336. That is, (a) insurance for the present blackjack game pays 3 to 1 odds (instead of the typical 2 to 1 odds); (b) the player may double down after splitting only once; and (c) the minimum bet is $25.00 for the current game.

Lastly, the display 208 includes a player identification area 342 for identifying the player currently playing blackjack at the gaming station 18. The present player area 342, includes a field having the current player's name (e.g., B. SMITH). However, other fields identifying the player are also contemplated by the present invention including, for example, a player identification number such as the number that may be encoded upon a player identification card used in conjunction with the card reader 216 for identifying the player.

Fig. 3 presents a second embodiment of the blackjack gaming system of the present invention. In this embodiment, the blackjack game controller 14 is substantially the same as described hereinabove. However, this controller 14 is now accessible through an Internet web site 308 so that blackjack players at Internet client nodes 318 can play blackjack on the blackjack game controller 14 via the Internet 324 (or more particularly, via the World Wide Web).

Accordingly, describing the web site 308 in more detail, it includes an Internet interface 332 for receiving and supplying communications between the Internet 324 and the remainder of the web site 308. The Internet interface 332, in turn, communicates with World Wide Web server 340: (a) for validating and/or initiating registration of web site users (e.g., blackjack players) at web site 308; and (b) for interpreting Internet requests for routing and/or activating web site 308 modules that can fulfill such requests. Thus, the World Wide Web server 340 may access the database system 28 for determining the registration identity of, for example, a blackjack player. Additionally, upon receiving user registration confirmation regarding an Internet (e.g., Worldwide Web) request, the World Wide Web server 340 activates instantiations of modules known as common gateway interface (CGI) scripts, each CGI script 348 instantiation (or, for simplicity, each such instantiation also being referred to as a CGI script 348) being: (a) for interpreting and processing Internet requests according to the semantics of a web site 308 application associated with the CGI script; and (b) for constructing Internet responses from output from the associated application. Thus, there are one or more common gateway interface modules provided wherein each CGI script 348 (instantiation) invokes the blackjack game controller 14 to process a single Internet blackjack request from an Internet client node 318 where a player is playing blackjack, and subsequently the CGI script 348 constructs an appropriate Internet response from the output received from the blackjack game controller 14.

Since the embodiment of the blackjack game controller 14 of Fig. 3 is substantially identical to that of Fig. 1, a description of its internal structure is not repeated here. However, it is worthwhile to note that the embodiment of Fig. 3 is particularly appropriate when the blackjack game controller 14 executes on a different or remote processor from that of, for instance, the processor performing the CGI script(s) 348. Further, note that if the blackjack game controller 14 executes on the same processor as the other web site 308 modules of Fig. 3, then the communication interface 22 may be unnecessary, and additionally, much of the functionality of the other components of the blackjack game controller 14 may be incorporated into one or more CGI scripts 348. Thus, for example, the blackjack player evaluator 34 functionality may be incorporated into one CGI script 348 while house blackjack playing module 42 functionality may be incorporated into another CGI script.

There are also noteworthy distinctions between the gaming stations 18 of Figs. 1 and 2 and the Internet client nodes 318 of Fig. 3 as well as distinctions in blackjack play interactions. For example, the following distinctions may be provided:

(7.1) Due to the potentially lengthy delays that occur on the Internet, the embodiment of Fig. 3 does not provide for automatic acceptance of a blackjack play (e.g., acceptance of an input bet or a default to a minimum ante) due to a time period expiring. Thus, the speed of play is determined by the responsiveness of each player and the responsiveness of the

Internet.

(7.2) Players may play blackjack in tournaments against one another on the Internet wherein, for each tournament entered by a player, he/she receives, without cost, a predetermined number of points to use for playing in the tournament. Note that prizes may be awarded to tournament winners as incentive to play in such blackjack tournaments. Further note that the time period to complete a tournament may be substantially more lengthy than the time periods for typical blackjack tournament play. For example, a tournament may extend for 90 days since players can play at their leisure. (7.3) The input keys of gaming station 18 of Fig. 1 may be also presented on the display screens of Internet client nodes 318 wherein the input buttons of gaming station 18 now become active buttons on a blackjack web page generated by the web site 308 and presented to a player at an Internet client node 318. However, note that at least the speed of play key 280 is not necessary, as mentioned in reference to the embodiment of Figs. 1 and 2 since the speed of play is of diminished importance.

(7.4) There may be other types of information output to an Internet client node 318 in addition to the information displayed in Fig. 3. In particular, advertising information may be provided with each web site 308 response to a player regarding, for example, blackjack tournament sponsors and prizes. In Figs .4A-4E, a flowchart is presented of the high level steps performed by the blackjack game controller 14 when processing player requests in either of the embodiments of Figs. 1 or 3 for playing a novel blackjack variation wherein new eligible card representations are generated periodically regardless of whether they are dealt in a blackjack game or not and wherein the blackjack players may play the game asynchronously from one another. In step 408, the blackjack game controller 14 is initialized so that it may process blackjack player requests and output appropriate responses to each player's request. Subsequently, in step 416, the card generator module 38 commences to output at regular intervals (e.g., less than two seconds such as every 0.5 seconds) random card representations to both the blackjack player evaluator 34 and the house blackjack playing module 42. Thus, for as long as the blackjack game controller 14 is properly responding to blackjack player requests, the card generator module 38 continuously and regularly outputs card representations. Concomitantly with the actions in step 416, the remaining steps of

Figs.4A-4E are performed. Thus, in step 424, the controller 14 waits for a (next) blackjack player input, such inputs being, for example, requests to enter a new blackjack tournament, requests to commence a new blackjack game within a tournament, requests to process a blackjack game play request, a request for information regarding the players account, and a request for help information

(such as how to play blackjack).

Upon receiving a blackjack player request, in step 430 the communication interface 22 queues the request and subsequently transmits the request to the blackjack dri\ or 26. In step 436, a determination is made as to whether the players request is related to a current blackjack game and/or current blackjack tournament. If not, then step 448 is encountered wherein .an additional determination is made as to whether the player's request is to enter a new blackjack tournament. If so, then in step 454 the blackjack driver 26 determines a blackjack tournament and enters the player into the tournament. Note that in providing this function, the blackjack player 26 communicates with the wager accounting module 30 to confirm that the player is eligible to enter a new tournament. Thus, the blackjack driver 26 supplies the wager accounting module 30 with at least the player's identification and a specification of the tournament in which the player may be entered. Note that the tournament selection may be provided by the player in some embodiments of the present invention. Alternatively, the blackjack driver 26 may select a tournament for the player using tournament information stored in the database system 28. Assuming that the wager accounting module 30 responds with a confirmation that the player may be entered into the selected tournament, in step 458, the blackjack driver 26 creates a confirmation record identifying the blackjack tournament in which the player is entered. Subsequently, in step 462 the blackjack driver 26 outputs information in the confirmation record to the player at his/her Internet client node 318 (gaming station 18). Thus, in the embodiment of Fig. 3 of the present invention, the output of step 462 (and all subsequent such outputs to a blackjack player) are output from the blackjack driver 26 to the communication interface 22 for queuing until the output can be transmitted to the CGI script 348 that initiated the player request to which this output is a response. Subsequently, the output is transmitted to the World Wide Web server 340 and to the Internet interface 332 for transmitting on the Internet 324 and thereby being routed to the Internet client node 318 where the player is playing blackjack.

Following step 462, in step 466, the blackjack driver 26 enters, into the database system 28, information indicating the blackjack tournament in which the player has been entered. Note that the information entered here into the database system 28 is subsequently accessible both by the blackjack driver 26 and the wager accounting module 30 for determining the tournament(s) in which the player has been entered. Following this step, since the player's request has been processed, the flow of control loops back to step 424 to wait for the next player input from a player at an Internet client node 318 or alternatively a gaming station 18.

Returning now to step 448, if the player has not requested to enter a blackjack tournament then step 470 is encountered to process any miscellaneous blackjack player requests not related to a current blackjack game and/or blackjack tournament. For example, a player may request accounting information related to his/her blackjack gaming account. Assuming such requests are processed and responded to in this step, the flow of control again returns to step 424 to wait for a next player input. Returning now to step 436, if the player request is related to a current blackjack and/or blackjack tournament, then step 476 is encountered wherein the blackjack driver 426 uses the player's identification (ID) provided with the request for retrieving any status information from the database system 28 regarding any current blackjack game and/or blackjack tournament in which the player may be currently involved. Subsequently, in step 480, a determination is made as to whether the player request is to commence a new blackjack game in a current tournament. If so, then in step 484 the blackjack driver 26 requests confirmation from the wager accounting module 30 tliat the player can commence with a new blackjack game in the current tournament. That is, the wager accounting module 30 determines whether the player has sufficient tournament credits to continue in the tournament. Following this, in step 488, the blackjack driver 26 deteπnines whether a confirmation has been received from the wager accounting module 30. If no such confirmation is provided, then in step 492, the blackjack driver 26 outputs a message to the player at his/her Internet client node 318 (gaming station 18) indicating that no further blackjack games in the current tournament may be played by the player. Alternatively, if in step 488 the blackjack driver 26 receives confirmation from the wager accounting module 30, then in step 494 the blackjack driver 26 creates a blackjack game record for fulfilling the player's request. Note that in creating the new blackjack game data record, the blackjack driver 26 communicates with the wager accounting module 30 to both debit the player's account for any initial ante corresponding to commencing the new blackjack game and also to output to the blackjack driver 26 data of this transaction for subsequently outputting to the player. Following this step, in step 496, the blackjack driver 26 requests the blackjack player evaluator 34 to provide an initial blackjack game configuration for the new blackjack game. Subsequently, in step 500, the blackjack player evaluator 34 responds with an initial blackjack game configuration, wherein this configuration includes the initial card representation for the player's hand (as shown, for example, in area 292 of Fig. 2). Note that this initial card representation is the most recent card representation provided to the blackjack player evaluator 34 by the card generator module 38. Thus, note that if two player requests to commence a new blackjack game were transmitted to the blackjack driver 26 in rapid succession, then step 500 may be performed for each of the requests before the dealer module 38 outputs a new random card representation to the blackjack player evaluator 34. Consequently, in such a case both players will be presented with an identical initial card representation for the player's hand. Subsequently, in step 504, the blackjack driver 26 stores information regarding the identity and initial configuration of the new blackjack game for the player in the database system 28. In particular, a blackjack game identifier for the new game is stored and associated with the identity of the blackjack player and the tournament to which the game is associated. Following step 500, in step 504, the blackjack driver 26 stores information regarding the new blackjack game for the player in the database system 28. In particular, the following information is stored regarding the initial configuration of the new blackjack game: the player's identity, the identity of the tournament for which the new game corresponds, and identifier identifying the new game, and an initial configuration for the new blackjack game including card representations and any initial required bets. Further, note that throughout the course of each blackjack game played by a player, the blackjack driver 26 and the wager accounting module 30 update information in the database system 28 as the game configuration changes due to interactions between the player and the blackjack game controller 14. Thus, for a blackjack game underway, each request from a player for continuing the game with a next play, need not provide the entire game configuration to the blackjack game controller 14. Instead, only sufficient information is required in the request for the blackjack driver 26 and/or the wager accounting module 30 to retrieve information related to the blackjack game configuration corresponding to the player's request. Following step 504, in step 508, the blackjack driver 26 outputs an initial blackjack game configuration for the new game to the player at his/her Internet client node 318 (gaming station 18). Subsequently, the flow of control once again returns to step 424 to await a next player input to the controller 14.

Returning now to step 480, if it is determined here that the player request is not to commence a new blackjack game in a current tournament, then step 520 is encountered wherein a determination is made as to whether the player request is related to a play in a currently active blackjack game. If not, then in step 524 the blackjack game controller 14 processes miscellaneous requests such as, for example, a request for special blackjack rules relating to a current game and/or tournament, the number of players remaining in the current tournament, the player's ranking in the current tournament, and the prizes for winners of the current tournament. Subsequently, assuming such miscellaneous requests are responded to, in step 524, the flow of control for the present flowchart returns to 424 to await a next player input.

Alternatively, if in step 520 the player request is related to a play in a currently active blackjack game, then in step 528 a further determination is made as to whether the player request is for a new card representation. If so, then in step 532, a determination is made as to whether the card request is for the house or for the player. If the card request is from the house, then in step 536 the blackjack driver 26 communicates with the house blackjack playing module 42 for obtaining a new blackjack game configuration for the current blackjack game, wherein the new game configuration includes the most recently output card representation from the card generator module 38 as the next card representation in the house hand for the blackjack game from which the current player's request came. Subsequently, in step 542 the house blackjack playing module 42 outputs blackjack game configuration information indicating the new house hand card representation and any player response(s) that the player may exercise in responding to the new blackjack game configuration. Upon receiving the house blackjack playing module 42 output, in step 546, the blackjack driver 26 determines whether there is a further player response in the present game by invoking one or both of the blackjack player evaluator 34 and the blackjack hand evaluator 46. If there are additional possible player responses, then in step 550 the blackjack driver 26 outputs a blackjack game configuration to the player at his/her Internet client node 318 (gaming station 18) so that the player may exercise one of his her available game options. Subsequently, having processed the player's request the flow of control again loops back to step 424 to await a next player input. Alternatively, if in step 546 the blackjack driver 26 determines that there are no further possible player responses, then the current blackjack game is complete and the blackjack driver 26 in step 556 activates the blackjack hand evaluator 46 for evaluating the blackjack game hands so that the blackjack hand evaluator can activate the wager accounting module 30 to update the player's account (according to the results of the blackjack game) in the database system 28. Following this step, in step 560 the wager accounting module 30 outputs to the blackjack driver 26 updated accounting information to be provided to the player. In step 564, the blackjack driver 26 outputs the results of the blackjack game and the players updated account information to the player. Also, note that the blackjack driver 26 updates the database system 28 regarding the completion of the present blackjack game as well as any further status information related to the player and the tournament to which the present blackjack game is associated. Subsequently, having processed the player's request, the flow of control again loops back to step 424 to await a next player input.

Alternatively, if in step 532 it is determined that the player's request is for a new card representation for the player, then in step 568 the blackjack driver 26 activates the blackjack player evaluator 34 for obtaining a new blackjack game configuration for the current blackjack game, wherein the new game configuration includes the most recently output card representation from the card generator module 38 as the next card representation for the player's hand(s). Subsequently, in step 572 the blackjack player evaluator 34 determines the next blackjack play options the player may exercise for the present game and then outputs the new blackjack configuration with these options to the blackjack driver 26. Following this, the steps 546 and subsequent steps are performed as described above.

Returning now to step 528, if the player request is not for a new card representation then step 576 is encountered wherein the blackjack game controller 14 processes other blackjack player game requests such as requests for additional bets, cancellations of bets, a request to stand on a particular player hand, a request to split a pair of card representations, or a request for insurance. Assuming, that such requests as described above are processed, in step 580 the blackjack driver 26 subsequently outputs a new blackjack game configuration to the player according to the processing performed in step 576. Also, note that the blackjack driver 26 updates the database system 28 with information relating to the new blackjack game configuration so that it may be retrieved upon a subsequent player request relating to the present game. Following this step, the flow of control for the present flowchart loops back to step 424 to again wait for another player input. Fig. 5 presents a simple example of the operation of the present invention for playing blackjack wherein four blackjack games are shown being played asynchronously with the blackjack game controller 14. To describe Fig. 5 in detail, note first that the row of numbers 604 across the top of the figure represents a sequence of values of successive card representations output by the card generator module 38. That is, in a first time interval a card representation having a value of three is output, in a second time interval a card representation having a value of five is output, in a third time interval a card representation having a value of seven is output and so on across the row. Below row 604 are blackjack game rows 606, wherein each blackjack game row 606 represents a series of events that occur in each blackjack game 610 through 626 over the course of time corresponding to the series of card values 604. In particular, the numerical entries within each blackjack game row 606 correspond to the values of the player and house card hands as additional cards are added to the player and house hands of each blackjack game. For example, referring to blackjack game row 610, assuming this blackjack game commences with the player's hand obtaining the card representation for the leftmost card value of the sequence 604 (i.e. the value three), the player's hand has a corresponding value of three. Subsequently, if the house blackjack playing module 42 is activated for this game to output (i.e. deal) an initial card representation to the house during the second time interval (i.e. the card generator module 38 has output a card representation of five), then the house hand initially has a value of five. Subsequently, if in the third interval the player for blackjack game 610 provides a request for another card, then the card representation corresponding to the value of seven in sequence 604 is provided to the player and therefore the player's hand has a total value of ten. Following the incorporation of the seven into the player's hand, this blackjack game is delayed so that the next time interval corresponding to the value of two in sequence 604 is not dealt to either the player or the house in blackjack game 610. Note that it is an important aspect of the present invention that card representations generated by the card generator module 38 are only incorporated into a

SUBSTTI UTE SHEET RULE 26 particular blackjack game when a request for such a card representation is made during the time the card representation is the most recent output from the card generator module 38. Thus, one or more card representations output by the card generator module 38 during a blackjack game may not be used in the game. More precisely, it is typical (although not shown in the example of Fig. 5) that substantially any length or subsequence of consecutive card representations output by the card generator module 38 may be ignored within a given blackjack game due to time delays occurring in the game. Thus, in some circumstances such delays could be as long as a number of days if the player, for example, did not request another hit during such a time interval.

Continuing now with the remaining plays of blackjack game 610, note that in the fifth time interval the player requests a hit thereby obtaining a card representation having a value of nine and thus obtaining a player's hand value of nineteen. Subsequently, the house takes hits for the next two consecutive card representations having values eight and ten respectively. Thus, the house hand busted when the value of twenty-three was obtained for the house hand.

Blackjack game rows 606 for blackjack games 614 through 626 may be interpreted similarly to the description above for blackjack game 610. Note however that each of these games commence at a different time interval in that each game commences with a different card representation taken as the first hit for the player's hand. That is, the first card representation dealt in each of the blackjack games 610 through 626 is different and further each of the card representations requested corresponding to values of the sequence 604 is different for each blackjack game. Therefore, substantially every blackjack game, even if played concurrently with other blackjack games, will have unique player hands and house hands . Thus, not only can a large number of asynchronous blackjack games be played simultaneously head-to-head with the house, but also there may be a greater degree of confidence by the blackjack players that the house is not manipulating card representations in that blackjack players may substantially determine the timing for substantially all hits in a blackjack game (for both the player hand and the house hand) and thereby reduce any suspicions that the card representations are being manipulated. Moreover, in one embodiment, the players may request the sequence of card representations that were generated during the course of a game.

Note that the present invention also may include other blackjack variations as well. In particular, referring to step 416 (Fig. 4A) again, instead of generating card representations at regular intervals, this step may simply activate the card generator module 38 so that it generates a substantially random card representation on demand whenever a request for a new card representation is made (e.g., steps 536 and 568). Additionally, in another blackjack variation, particularly suited for tournament blackjack where each player can be monitored, the players play each play for a blackjack game synchronously as blackjack is typically played with a human dealer in casinos. However, in the present variation, each player is provided with the identical card representations for their initial cards. Subsequently, each player hand and the house (i.e., dealer) hand varies between players only when players play their blackjack hands differently. That is, for each synchronously played blackjack game among a plurahty of players, the same sequence of card representations is available to each player and the house blackjack playing module 42 so that, for example, the dealt card representations in each game between one of the players and the house blackjack playing module are identical for players playing the same sequence of plays throughout the game. Accordingly, as one skilled in the art will appreciate, for each blackjack game, it may be necessary for the card generator module 38 to maintain a predetermined sequence (or ordered collection) of card representations throughout the game so that layers playing differently may be dealt an appropriately sequenced card representation. Moreover, it may also be necessary for the house blackjack dealer playing module 42 to provide sufficient control information to the card generator module 38 so that the card generator module can respond with the appropriate card representation from the predetermined sequence.

Another embodiment of the present invention is presented in Figs.6A and 6B, wherein this embodiment is enhanced for presenting sponsor or advertiser product and/or service advertising to qualified users that adequately match a predetermined user profile such as a demographic profile of a particular group of users. Accordingly, in Figs. 6A and 6B, there is a game/advertisement controller 604 for providing substantially the same functionality as the blackjack game controller 14 (Fig.3) except that various informational services such as other games or network services may also be activated and utilized. For example, such informational services may be financial analysis services, news services, Internet search services, Internet chat rooms, and Internet educational or conference presentations. However, for simplicity in the discussion that follows a website according to the present invention will be referred to as a "game/advertisement" website. Additionally, the game/advertisement controller 604 also performs functions related to matching particular advertising with the users (i.e., players) playing the various games (more generally, accessing various informational services) provided by the game/advertisement web site 308, wherein each user communicates with the web site 308 on a corresponding Internet client node 318 (alternatively interactive cable television node). That is, the present Figs. 6 A and 6B present the high level modules for matching users having desired user characteristics (e.g., profiles) with advertising from sponsors or advertisers requesting users with such user characteristics. In particular, only the users with such desired profiles qualify for receiving a particular advertisement and/or promotional (i.e., advertising) from a particular sponsor or advertiser. Accordingly, it is an aspect of the present invention that various criteria may be used to make such a determination as to which users receive which advertising. For example, one or more of the following attributes may be used in matching users with advertising presentations:

(8.1) age,

(8.2) sex,

(8.3) financial status,

(8.4) location or residence, (8.5) education,

(8.6) marital status,

(8.7) amount of recreational time,

(8.8) personal tastes and/or habits (e.g., smoker/non-smoker, preferences for sports, movies, liquor, foods, clothes, vacations, cars, etc.), (8.9) size of household,

(8.10) number of children, and

(8.11) categorizations of users according to network interactions such as the type of web sites accessed, the type of advertising for which the user seeks additional information, the risk tolerance in playing games such as blackjack. To provide (or, match) particular users with particular advertising, data (or user information items) on each user is maintained in the form of a user profile in the user (player) database 28 which is an enhanced version of the blackjack player registration and playing status database 28 of Fig. 3. The user profiles are populated with such user related information as in (8.1) through (8.11). This information is obtained when users register at the web site 308 when users respond to explicit questions subsequently asked of them, or by monitoring the network activities of users. Note that user profiles may vary in length, depending on the amount of information obtained on each user. Moreover, different types of information may be obtained for different types of users. For example, for users having assets of more than one million dollars, these users may be requested to enter their favorite vacation destination location since this may be important for certain advertisers. However, for users whose assets are less than forty thousand dollars, no such information may be obtained since the information would be likely irrelevant to any advertiser. Thus, in one embodiment of the user profiles, each user profile has a variable length section for storing user information items not uniform across all users. Moreover, in such an embodiment, each user information item stored in the variable length section may be considered as a pair, wherein the first component of each pair indicates or references a question, user attribute, or user classification to which the second component provides an answer or value related to the first component. Thus, for example, for a particular user, an information item may provide the pair: (4, "Madrid"), wherein "4" identifies the attribute: "favorite vacation destination location," and "Madrid" is the value for this attribute, as one skilled in the art will understand.

Alternatively, data related to the advertisers or sponsors may reside in a different database, the advertiser database 612. Accordingly, this database stores demographic profiles which, in one embodiment, have a data structure substantially identical to the user profile data structure. Such demographic profiles may have a variable length section for specifying requested values for user information items that may be provided in (potentially only a relatively small number of) user profiles. In some embodiments, a demographic profile includes a reference to the advertiser's or sponsor's identity, a reference to the advertising to be presented and a variable length section of demographic item pairs, wherein the first component of each pair has the same interpretation as the first component of a user information item pair and the second component of the pair specifies a desired value or range of values that the advertiser or sponsor prefers. Further, note that, in some embodiments, each demographic item pair may have additional information associated with it such as a perceived importance of the demographic item pair to the advertiser or sponsor. Thus, such additional information may be in the form of a normalized scalar value wherein a value of one indicates that the demographic item pair is of highest importance whereas a value of zero indicates that the demographic item is substantially irrelevant to the advertiser or sponsor. Accordingly, regardless of the particular embodiment of the demographic profiles, the users' demographic profiles are used to match (i.e., select) one or more corresponding advertising presentations with a particular target group of users that, presumably, are likely to purchase the product and/or service portrayed in such advertising presentations. Thus, since such advertising presentations may be provided to only users who are likely to be subsequent customers, advertisers and/or sponsors may provide to these users specifically targeted advertising having relatively expensive promotionals such as product or service discounts, free samples, or a trial usage.

Accordingly, to perform the selecting or matching of users with such demographic profiles, for each user, the user profiles stored in the user database 28 are compared with the demographic profiles by the advertising selection engine 618. Note that there are numerous techniques for performing such a comparison for selecting a group of users. In particular, a precise match may be required between each demographic item pair and a corresponding user information item pair so that the second component of the user information item pair is (within) a desired range as specified in the corresponding demographic item pair. Alternatively, various weighting statistical techniques may be used for determining a "similarity" measurement when not all demographic pairs are required to precisely match a demographic profile. In one embodiment, the similarity measurement may be provided by a statistical analysis module that determines the users that most closely match the corresponding demographic profile for an advertising presentation. Thus, in order for a user to be selected, the similarity measurement between the user's profile and a corresponding demographic profile may be required to be above a predetermined threshold. Additionally, note thatthe advertising selection engine 618 may perform the matching of users with advertising presentations as a background or non-real time process so that, for example, for each user profile in the user database 28, there is a related table identifying the advertising presentations that are candidates for presentation to the corresponding user when, for instance, this user communicates with the game/advertisement web site 308.

Moreover, it is important to note that at least in one embodiment of the present invention, the advertising selection engine 618 may, for a particular demographic profile, periodically re- evaluate user profiles in the user database 28 for reselecting the group of users to which an advertising presentation is to be presented. Thus, users previously selected may be requalified or disqualified and users previously disqualified may be now qualified for selection due to, for example, an enhanced user profile.

Accordingly, the present invention may commence or cease transmitting a category of advertising to a user whose user profile is enhanced with additional information. For example, if a user indicates that he/she is currently considering the purchase of a new car, then adverting for purchasing a car may be transmitted to the user. Alternatively, once the present invention is notified that, for example, a car has been purchased or that no further car advertising is are desired, then a further enhancement of the user's profile may be performed so that no further advertising from the category of car advertising is transmitted to the user. Note that the present invention provides for flexibly creating, deleting and modifying categories of advertisements by providing techniques for linking demographic item pairs that are similarly related to a category record or object. Thus, at least the following advertising categories may be provided by the present invention: sports categories (e.g., baseball, soccer, hockey, etc.), food related categories (e.g., restaurants, grocery stores, food items), exercise related advertising (e.g., bicycles, in-line skates, skiing), insurance related advertising (e.g., auto insurance, life insurance), political related advertising (e.g., for or against a particular political candidate), and geographical related advertising (e.g., for users living in a particular area such as the Denver metropolitan area). Thus, the advertising selection engine 618 supplies the selected advertising presentations to the HTML display engine 622 for translating this data so that it may subsequently be included in an HTML output to the user by the common gateway interface 348.

More precisely, the selected advertisement data is joined in the HTML display engine 622 (at least in one operation of the present invention) with a token 628 representing, for example, a game card (for a current user game) that has been issued by the token generator (module) 38, this generator being an enhanced version of the card generator module 38 of Fig. 3. The generated token is supplied initially to the game play engine 632 for processing user gaming requests according to the rules of the game being played. That is, the game play engine 632 determines, for each available game: (a) how each token may be "played"; (b) who receives the token, for example, the user or the house playing module 42; and (c) the result of playing the token. Note that in one embodiment, the token generator 38 generates tokens on request by, for example, the house playing module 42 and/or the player options evaluators 34, wherein the tokens generated are appropriate to the game being played. Alternatively, in another embodiment, the token generator 38 may generate random tokens and the game play engine 632 transforms the tokens into appropriate randomized values for the games offered, as one skilled in the art will appreciate. Furthermore, other embodiments for supplying randomized tokens to a plurahty of different games are within the scope of the present invention. Additionally, the game play engine 632 contacts the player database 28 to maintain the status of the user in relation to the particular game being played as well as the user's relationship to all of the other users (if, for example, the user is involved in a tournament offered at the game/advertisement web site 308). Note that, as one skilled in the art will appreciate, in one embodiment of the game play engine 632, its internal modules provide a similar architecture and functionality to the correspondingly labeled modules of Fig. 3, albeit additionally, for games other than blackjack (e.g., "head-to-head" poker, craps, roulette, bingo, hearts, and pai gow). The common gateway interface or CGI scripts 348 transfer data between the HTML display engine 622 and the World Wide Web server 340 which, as one skilled in the art will understand, may be a plurahty of high level executable programs as discussed in the description of CGI scripts 348 for Fig. 3. The World Wide Web server 340, in turn, transfers the data to the Internet TCP/IP stack 332 that interfaces with the Internet 324 for transferring the data to an intended Internet client node 318 having an appropriate World Wide Web browser 640.

The present embodiment maintains information on the status of games being played and user responses to advertising in the user database 28. Moreover, additional advertiser specific information (e.g., desired demographic profiles, advertisements, promotionals, and information related to user responses) is provided in the advertiser database 612. Accordingly, as discussed above, the demographic profiles in the advertiser database 612 may include schemes or templates having fields for designating one or more of the attributes (8.1) through (8.11). Moreover, the databases 28 and 612 may maintain records of various types of pertinent statistics such as: (a) the advertising presentations presented to each user; (b) the time, date and number of presentations of a particular advertising presentation; and (c) the detected user responses to the advertising. Thus, this information may provide advertisers or sponsors with enhanced feedback as to the efficacy of their products, services and presentations thereof. For example, an advertiser may be able to query the user and advertiser databases 28 and 612 to obtain such feedback as: (9.1) who has seen a particular advertisement; (9.2) when it was seen;

(9.3) the number of times the advertisement was accessed: (a) by any particular user;

(b) by all users; and

(9.4) the number of favorable and/or unfavorable responses.

Referring now to Fig. 7, a diagram is presented providing one embodiment of the access routes or paths users navigate in accessing the features of the game/advertisement web site 308. In particular, upon initiating Internet contact with the game/advertisement web site 308, a user is first presented with the opening page 700 identifying the web site 308. Subsequently, the user can access the benefits and registration pages 704 for viewing general information related to web site 308 and also for registering at the web site (as is discussed in further detail below). Alternatively, the user may access one or more "Lobby" pages 708 to view the gaming and information exchange capabilities as, for example, provided by advertisers. Assuming the user is registered at the game/advertisement web site 308, the user may proceed from the LOBBY 708 to the game page 710, wherein a game 726 or game rules 730 can be selected for playing, via the introduction to game pages 728. Alternatively, the user may instead access one or more index pages 714 having, for example, listings of organizations to which the user may be allowed to access depending on the affiliations of the user (e.g., a member of a particular membership discount store chain). Additionally, from the index page(s) 714 substantially any user may access an advertisement or promotional provided by an advertiser on an advertiser page(s) 722. However, it is an aspect of the present invention that information related to certain promotionals provided by advertisers or sponsors are restricted. That is, such promotionals may be only presented to users having a demographic profile that has been determined by the present invention to be sufficiently compatible with a desired user profile for the advertiser or sponsor to warrant providing such a promotional. Thus, the present invention provides access to certain advertiser promotionals only to "qualified" users who are, for example, considered likely subsequent purchasers of the advertiser's products and/or services. Additionally, such promotionals may also be presented to users who express an interest in a particular product or service advertised. For example, users who (a) request additional or supplemental information related to an advertised item, or (b) provide a favorable response to such advertising (by, for instance, indicating a preference for an advertised item), or (c) respond to a questionnaire related to personal information or marketing survey information may also be provided with information regarding promotionals. Thus, advertisers or sponsors may offer relatively substantial or expensive promotionals via the present invention to such users as well. Moreover, the present invention may also utilize such demographic profiles to prohibit a user not sufficiently matching such a demographic profile from gaining access to a corresponding promotional. Accordingly, in one embodiment of the present invention, when the user accesses an advertiser page 722, the user's profile (in the user database 28) is compared with the demographic profiles in the advertiser data base 612 for deteπnining any promotionals that can be presented to the user.

Moreover, from the index page 714 the user may be provided with the ability to link into various web sites or web site pages . That is, the user may be provided with the ability to link into another web site or web page at any time a link is made available (typically a hyperlink). Additionally, note that similar links may be accessible by users while playing a game 726. However, these links may generally hyperlink the user to an advertiser page 722 within the game/advertisement web site 308 so that the user may be exposed to further information and/or presented with promotional options for an advertised item. For instance, certain advertising hyperlinks may be integrated into the presentation of plays of a game 726. Accordingly, since an aspect of the present invention is to repeatedly integrate different advertising presentations (and any related hyperlinks) into the play of a game 726, a user may repeatedly be enticed to seek out additional information about different products or services by activating the related hyperlinks. Moreover, it is also an aspect of the present invention that when such hyperlinks provide the user with access to a different web site, that at least a portion of the display of the user's Internet client node 318 maintains a graphical format associated with the game/advertisement web site 308, and that the user may leave and return to the web site 308 without the user being aware of accessing another web site. Moreover, by monitoring user input related to an advertising presentation, the present invention is able to provide feedback to an advertiser as to, for example, the number of times the advertising presentation is accessed by users for such additional information about products or services.

Also note that some advertisements (presented via advertiser pages 722 or as part of a game play presentation) may be interactive with the user wherein the user may perform a transaction such as making a reservation (e.g., an airline or hotel reservation). Further, a user may be given the opportunity to provide positive and negative opinions or responses on, for example, various advertisements, promotionals and other related matters by expressing such responses upon accessing advertisement related information. Thus, it is an aspect of the present invention to be able to conduct "test marketing" in that statistically representative groups of users may be selected for determining:

(10.1) the efficacy or appeal of one advertisement in comparison to another advertisement for a particular advertised item;

(10.2) the profile of the users that are responsive to a particular advertising presentation; and/or

(10.3) whether a particular group of users, for example, having similar user profiles favorably respond to a particular advertising presentation. For example, the present invention may determine such a response: (a) by detecting an activation of a hyperlink, (b) by detecting a response to questions presented, and/or (c) by determining the length of time the advertising presentation is displayed or visible.

Accordingly, input response data may be transmitted to the game/advertisement web site

308 and retained for subsequent statistical evaluation. Thus, resulting aggregate statistics can be made available to, for example, advertisers or sponsors, thereby preserving the privacy of the users. In particular, statistics may be made available for: (H I) providing information about, for example, the efficacy of certain advertising presentations (e.g., the number of positive responses to such presentations and/or the number of

.advertised items sold directly through the advertisements at the game/advertisement web site 308); (11.2) providing information related to the number and profile of users accessing certain advertising presentations; (11.3) deteπnining measurements related to the number of different (groups of) users to which an advertising presentation has been presented;

(11.4) determining the total number of presentations of a particular advertisement;

(11.5) determining the cost of advertising presentations to the advertisers and billing the advertisers for such costs according to, for example, at least one of: (a) the number of users to which an is presented, (b) the number of promotionals requested or (c) the number of network user communications (i.e., hits) with the web site 308;

(11.6) determining if an advertising presentation should be discontinued because the advertiser's cost limits have been reached, such limits being, for example, related to a total number of presentations of an advertising presentation. Note that, in one embodiment, it is an aspect of the present invention to charge an advertiser for each presentation to a user; or

(11.7) determining which of an advertising presentation and a different second advertising presentation (from the same advertiser) is most effective when both are provided to various selected (groups of) users, so that the advertiser or sponsor may then have a basis for choosing the most appropriate of the two advertising presentations in future advertising.

Additionally, it is an aspect of the present invention that it may also maintain statistics (and/or related information) for:

(12.1) providing "real time" game rankings of users (players) involved in a gaming tournament provided by the game/advertisement web site 308. Note that such rankings may be provided to a user so that he/she may know his/her standing and the number of players remaining in the tournament; and

(12.2) providing a "style of personahty" of the game playing users so that, for example, a risk tolerance of such users may be estimated and used to determine if a particular user might be interested in a particular product or service. Thus, such "style of personahty" statistics for a user may be stored in the user's profile. For example, the information captured here may include: average size of wager, average size of wager in comparison to the total amount that could be wagered, length of time playing in a single session, the ratio of the number of wagers on high risk plays presented, and the skill of the player. Accordingly, the following aspects of the present invention are noteworthy:

(13.1) the user may be provided with free access or reduced cost access to other areas of the Internet 324 upon viewing the presentations of certain organizations and or advertisers. Note that the ability to reduce the cost of accessing the Internet may act as a vehicle for attracting various users; ( 13.2) the index page 714 gives a user the opportunity to access a particular organization

(e.g., organizations 718) that the user may belong to or any particular advertiser (e.g., advertisers 722) without going through any games although the user may be required to go through the "LOBBY" page(s) 708 and thereby be exposed to advertising and/or the opportunity to join a game; (13.3) a user may also be able to go from an initial organization page 718 to an introductory game page 728 (e.g., for a game 726) but, unless authorized, may not be provided with further access to the organization's web pages or the game;

(13.4) while playing a game 726, the user has the ability to access further information related to an advertisement or promotional being presented; (13.5) during the playing of a game 726 (e.g., blackjack), the user may be allowed to review and/or stepwise replay a previous portion of a game 726 during a current gaming session;

(13.6) when in a particular organization page 718, the user may be required to return to the index page 714 before linking into an advertiser 722 unless a direct link has been provided for some reason on the particular organization web page. Moreover, the user may access the game page 710 from the index page 714 and vice versa;

(13.7) a user may either go directly into playing a particular game 726 (as authorized) or to a rules section 730 for reviewing the rules for the corresponding game 726. Note that a user may always access the rules section 730 during the corresponding game 726; (13.8) there is a help feature for providing information such as: a) how to do some particular action or the reason for some action or the reason an action is blocked. For example, the reason for an inability to access a certain web page, the reason for an inability to make a particular game play, such as a bet, stand or hit in the game of blackjack and or the reason for a particular result of a certain bet, hit, stand or other user play in a game such as blackjack; b) for contacting a gaming referee for resolving gaming conflicts. Such a referee will be available to resolve any dispute. Note that the user can notify the management operating the present invention of a problem via, for example, notification forms displayed when a notification button is activated. Referring now to an alternative embodiment of the present invention presented in Fig. 8, wherein the game/advertisement web site 308 coordinates with a third party Internet access service provider 810 (or interactive cable television provider) for providing Internet 324 (cable television) access to users on a reduced cost or free basis once a user has registered with the web server 340 (cable television provider). That is, the game/advertisement web site 308 contacts the user's Internet service provider and arranges to subsidize the user's Internet service charges in return for the gaming advertisement web site 308 being able to repeatedly download to the user's Internet client node 318 (or alternatively, interactive cable television node), unrequested information such as advertising for presentation to the user.

Accordingly, a prospective user of the present invention can sign up or register with the game/advertisement web site 308 for reduced Internet service fees by dialing into an Internet service provider 810 with normal serial dialing and after gaining Internet access, subsequently log on to the web site 308 as a user identified by the generic user identifier "NEW." Each user identified by "NEW" is forced into a connection with an enrollment or registration program so he/she can provide information requested by the present invention that can subsequently be used in determining which advertising to present to this user according to, for example, advertiser preferences. Thus, when registration is completed, the present embodiment of the invention downloads, for example, an ad viewer program 812 and a communications daemon (e.g., ad receiver daemon 806) to the user's Internet client node 318, wherein this daemon allows the game/advertisement web site 308 to download to the user's Internet client node 318 unrequested information such as advertising repeatedly. Accordingly, assuming the daemon 806 is installed, the user may access not only the gaming and advertisement services of the web site 308, but also access substantially the entire Internet through the web site 308 at a reduced cost. Thus, whenever the end user processor 318 connects with the Internet service provider 810, the game/advertisement web site 308 is alerted by the Internet service provider 810 and the DISPLAY ENGINE 622 starts up the downloaded daemon 806 via Internet communications with the user's Internet client node 318. Subsequently, the DISPLAY ENGINE 622 periodically sends selected advertising to the daemon 806. Accordingly, the daemon 806 utilizes the ad viewer program 812 to coordinate the display of the advertising presentation. Note that various alternative embodiments related to the architecture and functionality of

Fig. 8 are also within the scope of the present invention. For example, instead of communicating with a plurality of third-party Internet service providers 806 for determining when users registered with the present invention are accessing the Internet via subsidized Internet connections, the game/advertisement web site 308 may include or be related to a dedicated Internet service provider 806 so that when a user registers with the present invention, the user is provided with a new Internet access code for the dedicated Internet service provider 806 and the user's Internet access fees may be subsidized.

However, regardless of how the present invention subsidizes Internet access, the game/advertisement controller 604 is notified whenever each subsidized user connects to the Internet or disconnects from the Internet. Additionally, certain reliability features are included in the daemon 806 and ad view program 812 for assuring that advertising is indeed presented to the user. For example, there may be periodic transmissions from each subsidized user's Internet client node 318 to the web site 308 verifying that both the daemon 806 and the ad view program 812 are active. Note that whenever any advertising is received at the user's Internet client node 318, the daemon 806 transfers the advertising to the ad viewer program 812 which, in turn, converts the transmitted information to a displayable format and forces the display of the user's Internet client node 318 to present the advertising unobscured to the user. Additionally, note that in certain contexts the DISPLAY ENGINE 622 may transmit a message to an Internet Service Provider 806 indicating that no further Internet access will be subsidized due to a predetermined number of advertising presentation display failures.

In another embodiment of the present invention, game tournaments may be provided, wherein the players of such a tournament play instances of a game on a communications network such as the Internet, a cable network, an interactive television network, or an intranet (such as in a casino). Such game tournaments provide for the playing of a plurahty of instances of a game by each of a plurahty of players. In general, a tournament is a multi-level structure, wherein at a first level players are grouped within the tournament into groups and the players within a group compete against one another when playing one or more instances of the game. At a higher level of the tournament, winning players from a lower level (e.g., the first level hereinabove) are partitioned into one or more groups such that for e^h of these new groups, the players within the group compete against one another by playing instances of the game, or, alternatively, by playing instances of a modified version wherein one or more rules of the game are changed (such as described hereinabove when discussing blackjack).

Below is a brief itemization of some of the novel tournament aspects of the present invention.

1. The participants usually register by identifying themselves in such fashion so that they may be recognized by those managing the tournament and/or the other participants as participating members of the tournament. a. The participants need not register by responding to all identification questions at one time that may be provided, but instead may respond to a few questions submitted at various times while the tournament is in progress.

2. Keeping score is performed by using a numeric indication, tokens, chips, or another indication of the number of credits acquired by each participant in the tournament.

3. There are game rules set forth by which the participants acquire or lose their credits for each game involved in the tournament. a. An objective by which a participant wins a tournament depends upon the participants acquiring or losing their credits within the rules of each tournament. i. The participants usually have the ability to access their scores and determine their ranking in the round or tournament they are in. ii. The participants may be placed into various groups wherein they operate under different rules from the other participants depending upon the group to which they were assigned. b. Dice, cards or other objects may be used during the game to determine the winner(s). c. The methods by which the tournament is operated may include a plurahty of rounds in which the participants are divided into groups and the participants in each round compete against other participants in the round to determine the winner of the round. i. A winner(s) is similarly chosen from each round until a winner(s) is determined to be the winner(s) of the tournament. ii. The rounds may vary in number and size, but usually, although not necessarily, each round consists of fewer participants since only the winner(s) of each round advance into the next and final rounds.

(1) There may be situations in which the rules may allow one or more persons who have not participated in an earlier round to be placed into an advanced round. d. The participants may or may not be questioned about their personal preferences, beliefs or attitude during the tournament, which responses may be placed into a data base for further questions or qualify them to be involved in other rounds or other aspects of the tournament. Note this aspect of the invention is similar to previous embodiments of the invention described hereinabove regarding advertising during the playing of a game. e. The tournament may or may not include a "sudden death" or special round containing special rules for winning that differ from the rules for the tournament leading up to the special round. f . The game rules may allow additional participants to enter the tournament after many of the other participants have qualified to be placed into an advance round by obtaining a special score that may be related to the scores of those who did advance or by complying and satisfying any other such special rules that may allow a participant to qualify to play in a tournament that is in progress and in which most or many of the other participants are playing in an advanced round of the tournament. g. The rules may provide for a tournament within a tournament in which special rules may qualify the participants to play in and or win a tournament which relates in some fashion to the participants and rules of another tournament tliat is already in progress. i. The rules may provide for a tournament within a tournament within a tournament in the same fashion as set forth above. ii. The participants may be designated as apart of a particular group wherein the success of one of the participants determines the success of the other participants in the group. hi. The participants may or may not have the ability to delete themselves or to be deleted and moved from one such group to another group within the tournament(s).

Regarding the designation of winners in a game tournament by grouping the players into groups and having each goup compete against a corresponding "population of players" as briefly described in the SUMMARY section of the present application, an example will now be given to further illustrate this aspect of the present invention. If a game tournament is performed wherein there are up to four winning positions per player group, and there are three groups, then a total of twelve prizes may be distributed among the players of the tournament. If the three groups are denoted Group A, Group B and Group C, wherein the players in Group A are considered more skilled at the tournament game(s) than the players of Group B and correspondingly, the players in Group B are considered more skilled at the tournament games than the players of Group C, then Group A is ordered as the highest group, with Group B ordered second and Group C following in the ordering. Accordingly, the players of Group A effectively compete against the entire population of Groups A, B and C, whereas the players of Group B effectively compete against only those players in Groups B and C, and lastly, the players of Group C only compete among themselves. Thus, a potential of three top positions may be attained by the top three tournament players, wherein each player is in a different one of Groups A, B and C. Moreover, since the rankings within each group are determined in terms of a larger population, a group may have no winners in a particular position due to the fact that players of another group may occupy that position in the overall ranking of the population of players against which that group's players are ranked. For example, if a player in Group C scored third in the tournament over all players regardless of group, then for Group A, there would be no player identified in the third position for Group A. Continuing with a more specific example of Group A, Group B and Group C, consider the following scores obtained by players Al through A7 of Group A, B 1 through B7 of Group B, and Cl through C7 of Group C.

Group A Group B Group C

Al=100 Bl= 95 Cl= 90

A2= 93 B2= 94 C2= 80

A3= 79 B3= 81 C3= 79

A4= 75 B4= 75 C4= 71

A5= 74 B5= 68 C5= 60

A6= 59 B6= 60 C6= 55

A7= 54 B7= 50 C7= 45 Accordingly, the overall rankings of all tournament participants are as follows.

1) Al=100 8) A3= 79

2) Bl= 95 9) C3= 79

3) B2= 94 10) A4= 75

4) A2= 93 11) B4= 75

5) Cl= 90 12) A5= 74

6) B3= 81 13) C4= 71

7) C2= 80 14) B5= 68

Thus, the following table shows the players that have won winning positions in each of the Groups A, B and C.

Group A Group B Group C

1 Al Bl Cl

2 B2 C2

3 C3

4 A2 B3 C4

5 C5

6 C6

7 B4 C7

8 A3

9 B5

10 A4

Note that in an alternative embodiment, the above described method of determining winning positions may be commenced after some number of overall all winning players are determined. For example, a winner for the population of all players may be determined before the above method is utilized for determining other winning players.

To further illustrate the present invention, reference is made to Fig. 9, wherein a flowchart is provided of the method for distributing prizes when the scores of one or more games are played and the players have been grouped according to the present invention. Accordingly, in step 910, the players are divided into groups Gi..., G_N, where N is greater than or equal to 2, and wherein the groups themselves are ordered according to some predetermined one or more criteria such as skill levels of players in each group. Thus, as described hereinabove, players in each successively higher indexed group may be more skilled in playing the one or more games for which prizes are to be offered. However, it is wilhin the scope of the present invention that players could be grouped according to other criteria, or indeed, randomly assigned to one of the groups. Note that an alternative technique for defining the groups may be a measure of the increase in proficiency in playing the one or more games over a recent period of time. Accordingly, in this latter technique for grouping, Group Gi. may be those players that have progressed most, while successive groups have players that have progressively shown a lesser amount of increase in gaming skill.

In step 914, all players are allowed to play the one or more games and thereby attain, for example, a proficiency score. However, it is also within the scope of the present invention to score the players by other methods other than proficiency. In particular, scoring may be performed by providing scoring preferences and/or scoring weightings to players of a given group, wherein the group members may be identified according to such criteria as: age, gender, and other demographic status. Subsequently, in step 916, the variable, PP, is assigned the collection of representations ofall players in all groups . Following this, in step 918, the variable, R, is assigned a list of the rankings ofall players according to their scores wherein the highest ranked players are listed first. In step 922, the variable, NBR POSITTONS, is assigned the value for the number of winning positions that may be attained by players of each group. Following this, in step 926, Group G_N is assigned to the variable, NXT_GP, as the first group for which winning positions are to be determined. That is, this group is the group with the highest group ordering and accordingly includes the players from all groups G,. In step 930, a variable, WINNERS, is assigned identifications of the players in NXT_GP, wherein these players are also in the top NBR_POSΓΠONS scoring players in the corresponding population of players PP which includes (in this case) the combined collection ofall groups. Subsequently, in step 934, for each player P identified in the variable, WINNERS, let R(P) be this player's ranking within the ranking R determined from the larger population of players PP. Thus, in step 938, each player identified in the variable, WINNERS, is assigned to a set within a list of indexed sets denoted by WINNERS_SET wherein each indexed set WINNER_SET includes the identifications of the players where each such player P was ranked in the i^Λ position when compared against all other players in the corresponding population of players, PP, for the group containing P. For example, the first set of WINNERS_SET, WINNERS_SET is the set of all players having been identified for the top winning position of their corresponding player populations. Of course, as mentioned hereinabove, one or more of the groups may have no player eligible to be identified in this position. Similarly, WINNERS_SET is the set of players wherein each such player is identified in a second winning position for the player population in which the player was ranked. Accordingly, WINNERS_SET is the set of players wherein each such player is identified as being in the i^Λ winning position of the players against which the player was ranked. In step 942, the population of players PP is modified so that all the players from the current group, NXT_GP are removed from PP. Subsequently, in step 944, the new player population PP is ranked and assigned to R. In step 946, the next highest ordered group is assigned to the variable NXT GP, and subsequently, in step 950, a determination is made as to whether the newly modified list R has players identified therein who have not had their group(s) processed for determining potential winners of the group; i.e., is R non-empty. Thus, if list R is not empty, then steps 930 - 950 are again performed until R becomes empty, which is equivalent to all player groups being processed. When all such player groups have been processed, the determination in step 950 results in step 954 being performed, wherein an index variable, I, is initialized to 1. Note that this variable is used in the subsequent loop of steps 958 - 966 to provide prizes to winners in each of the sets of winning positions. Accordingly, in step 958, a first collection of prizes is provided to players identified by the set WINNERS_SET, wherein these players attained the top scores in the respective player populations to which they were compared. Subsequently, in step 962, the variable, I, is incremented, and in step 966, a determination is made as to whether there are further sets of players to which prizes are to be given. If so, then steps 958 through 966 are again performed until all prize positions have been distributed. Alternatively, the present invention terminates. Note that alternative embodiments of the present invention are also within its scope. For example, the player groups need not be ordered as indicated above. Instead, for each of one or more such groups G, there may be a non-empty list of one or more additional groups to include within the player population used in ranking the players of G. Moreover, there may be (additionally and/or alternatively) a non-empty list of one or more groups to exclude from the player population used in ranking the players of G. Furthermore, the partitioning of the players into groups need not occur prior to playing the one or more games.

Additionally, note that the winning positions and prizes may be different for one or more of the player groups. Thus, players from one group may be eligible for more vraining positions and more expensive prizes than another group. The foregoing discussion of the invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description. Further, the description is not intended to limit the invention to the form disclosed herein. Consequently, variations and modifications commensurate with the above teachings, within the skill and knowledge of the relevant art, are within the scope of the present invention. The embodiment described hereinabove is further intended to explain the best mode presently known of practicing the invention and to enable others skilled in the art to utilize the invention as such, or in other embodiments, and with the various modifications required by their particular application or uses of the invention. It is intended that the appended claims be construed to include alternative embodiments to the extent permitted by the prior art.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A method for identifying winning players playing one or more games, comprising: partitioning the players into a plurahty of groups; playing the one or more games by substantially all players in s.aid groups; determining a score for each of the players, wherein said score is related to playing the one or more games; for an identified group of said groups, perform the following steps (Al) through (A3): (Al) detern ining a population of players having scores for comparing with the scores of players from said identified group, wherein said population includes players from at least a second of said groups;

(A2) ranking players of said population using said player scores for providing a player ordering;

(A3) identifying a player in a winning position of one or more winning positions allocated to said first group, wherein the player is identified using the player's position in said player ordering.

2. A method as claimed in Claim 1, wherein said step of identifying includes choosing said first player from said first group for said winning position when said player occupies an identical position in said player ordering.

3. A method as claimed in Claim 1, wherein said step of determining a population includes excluding players from a third group of said groups.

4. A method as claimed in Claim 1, wherein said step of partitioning includes generating said groups according to one or more of: age, sex, skill in playing said game(s), organizational affiliation, and a demographic attribute.

5. A method as claimed in Claim 1 , further including a step of providing an ordering on said groups, wherein said ordering is used to determine said second group.

6. A method for identifying winning players playing one or more games, comprising: partitioning the players into a plurahty of groups; playing the one or more games by substantially all players in said groups; determining a score for each of the players, wherein said score is related to playing the one or more games; for an identified group of said groups, perform the following steps (Al) through (A3): (Al) determining a population of players having scores for comparing with the scores of players from said identified group, wherein said population excludes players from a second of said groups; (A2) ranking players of said population using said player scores for providing a player ordering;