| WATERLEAF LIMITED Patent applications |
| Patent application number | Title | Published |
|---|
| 20120100902 | Online, Real-Time Game Playing with Distributed Bad Beat Progressive Jackpot - Wagering methods, devices, and systems that allow individual participants in a game of poker to opt-in or opt-out of a bad beat feature are presented. For each hand played at a given table, a participant may activate the bad beat feature. Once the feature is activated, the participant is eligible for winning at least part of a bad beat progressive jackpot. This jackpot may be funded by tokens purchased by the participant, a rake taken from the hand's wagers, or by some other means. Apportionment of the bad beat progressive jackpot may be triggered by the participant losing the hand despite having cards that provide the participant with a significant likelihood of winning the hand. | 04-26-2012 |
| 20110195766 | Methods and Devices for Anonymous Competition - Methods and devices are presented for facilitating anonymous gameplay in multi-state, multiplayer games, such as poker. A gaming server may allow players to anonymously join instances of a game. The gaming server may represent an anonymous player to himself or herself using a non-anonymous alias, while the gaming server may represent the anonymous player to the other players or entities using an anonymous alias. Additionally, the gaming server may record events occurring in the game, and provide similarly anonymized versions of these events to other players and entities. | 08-11-2011 |
| 20110124400 | Methods and devices for incremental wagering to earn multiple prizes per winning wager - Methods, devices, and systems provide means for carrying out video events on which wagers are placed. The wagers may be won, lost, or returned. Multiple prizes, including a main prize and a bonus prize, are awarded for each winning wager. Execution of the video events causes multiple event symbols to be displayed on a display. The event symbols may represent symbols on multiple reels that are spun during each video event, or playing cards that are dealt from a simulated deck of playing cards during each video event. For each video event, a prize symbol may be randomly assigned to each of the two or more displayed event symbols. An event symbol displayed for a winning wager may be selected via a symbol selector. The selected event symbol may be replaced with a prize symbol to reveal the bonus prize for the winning wager. | 05-26-2011 |
| 20110092263 | Methods and Devices for Card Games with Card Replacement - A player of a card game, such as poker, may be presented with opportunities to replace one or more of the cards in his or her hand. For example, the player may be dealt a first set of cards, and then offered a first opportunity to replace one or more cards in the first set. The player may also be dealt a second set of cards, and then offered a second opportunity to replace one or more cards in the second set. Preferably, the first set and the second set of cards, when combined, form the player's hand of cards. The player may accept at least one of these two offers and, in doing so, may incur a cost for accepting one or more of the offers. This cost may be based on the difference between a first return associated with hand of cards played without replacement, and an expected second return associated with the offer(s) the player accepted. | 04-21-2011 |
| 20110092262 | Methods and Devices for Card Games with Card Replacement - A player of a card game, such as poker, is presented with opportunities to replace one or more of the cards in his or her hand. The first such replacement may be free, but the player may incur a cost for each subsequent replacement. This cost may be based on how much the player is expected to benefit from the replacement. Facilitating these subsequent replacements may allow the player to improve a poor hand, thus enhancing the player's excitement of playing the card game. | 04-21-2011 |
| 20110092261 | Methods and Devices for Multi-State Card Games with Card Replacement - Players in a multi-state card game, such as blackjack or baccarat, are presented with opportunities to exchange their cards for new cards when the card game is in one or more particular states. These opportunities may include offers to redeal the player's hand of cards or redeal the player's opponent's hand of cards. Additionally, when the player is dealt a new card to be added to the player's hand, the player may be offered options to discard the new card, replace the new card with another new card, or to redeal the player's hand and/or the opponent's hand. In this way, the player may be able to improve his or her position in the card game. At the same time, the game provider may charge the player for acceptance of these offers, thus improving the profit margin of the game provider. | 04-21-2011 |
| 20110045897 | Promotion Administration System and Method - A system for administering promotions in which a player is awarded promotion credit to be consumed in wagering activities includes a credit administration facility that maintains a player credit account, and a display means capable of displaying a composition of the player credit account on a display means. The promotion credit is either one or both of a priori and a posteriori promotion credit. The credit administration facility automatically determines the composition of the player credit account as a function of any credit purchases made by the player, wagers made by the player and their corresponding payouts, and any promotion credit awarded to the player. | 02-24-2011 |
| 20110028202 | Methods and Devices for Reel-Type Wagering with Bonus Games - One or more client machines may engage in the play of reel-type games with a gaming server, where each gaming session may include one or more spins of a reel in the reel-type game. Certain outcomes of these spins may include a bonus token, or some other type of indication that bonus credits have been awarded. Once a given client machine has accumulated a sufficient number of bonus tokens, the client machine may have the option to engage in a bonus game. | 02-03-2011 |
| 20100210362 | Methods and Systems for Multiplayer Elimination Tournaments - Disclosed herein are methods, devices, and systems for on-line multiplayer elimination tournaments. Preferably, a number of client devices join a tournament hosted by a server device. These client devices contend with one another at a game of chance over a series of rounds. At least one client device may be eliminated by each round. After the final round, the client devices remaining share a prize amount. | 08-19-2010 |
| 20100167808 | Game playing devices and video slots without paylines - Game playing devices are described which are configured with software instructions for rendering a video slots type game comprising an array of symbols, typically but not necessarily displayed in rows and columns of symbols. The games of this disclosure do not use the concept of pay lines. Rather, winning results are determined by a minimum number of the one or more of the symbols of the game appearing in the array of symbols. Such symbols may appear either in a scattered, random arrangement and the player wins. If they are in an adjacent arrangement, e.g., all on the same row, the player wins a higher prize. | 07-01-2010 |
| 20090325688 | Method and System for Determining a Progressive Multiplier - Disclosed herein are methods, devices, and systems for determining a progressive multiplier in a bonus game associated with a networked game of chance played over a communication network. The progressive multiplier may be determined over the course of one or more rounds of the bonus game and may be awarded to a player who wagers in the game of chance or is awarded winnings in the game of chance. The value of the resulting progressive multiplier may then be applied to the player's wager or winnings to increase or decrease the value of the wager or the winnings. By offering players the opportunity to increase the yield of their wagers or winnings, an operator of the game of chance may increase the attractiveness of the game of chance to players. | 12-31-2009 |
| 20090312081 | Entertainment System and Method of Operation Thereof - An entertainment system ( | 12-17-2009 |
| 20090111566 | Display of bonus game progression in reel-type games - Reel-type games are described in which a player's progress towards an award of a bonus game is displayed to the player. The required triggering event for an award of a bonus game may be accumulated over multiple turns of the game. A bonus indicator (e.g., icon) is provided on the display in association with each reel of the reels. After a spin of the reels, the bonus indicator for a given reel is activated if a symbol associated with an award of a bonus game is presented on the given reel. As the player continues to play, whenever the symbol associated with the bonus game appears for the first time on a given reel, the associated bonus indicator is activated and remains activated. When all the indicators have become activated, a bonus game is awarded to the player. | 04-30-2009 |
| 20090098920 | Method and System for Auditing and Verifying User Spoken Instructions for an Electronic Casino Game - A method and system for auditing and verifying user spoken instructions for an electronic casino game is provided. A player of the electronic casino game may send a query to a manager of the game instructing the manager to retrieve stored records and extract data to verify whether a gaming function that occurred during game play of the casino game properly corresponds to an instruction spoken by the player. An audit trail enables an operator of the casino game to determine what command was actually spoken by the player, the resulting function performed by a gaming server, and whether the gaming function that was performed corresponds correctly to the spoken command. | 04-16-2009 |
| 20090036194 | System for Playing a Bingo-Type Game - A system for playing a bingo-type game comprises a number of player stations, a random event generator capable of generating a number of random events upon which an outcome of a game of bingo is based, a secondary display means corresponding to each player station, the secondary display means being instructable by the player station to display a simulation of the turn of the game of bingo, and a primary display means corresponding to each player station, the primary display means being instructable by the player station to display to a player a simulation of a turn of a different entertainment game. Each player station is operable by a player to place a wager on a turn of the game of bingo. The outcome of the turn of the game of bingo is either an unfavourable outcome in which the player forfeits the wager, and at least one favourable outcome in which the player wins a corresponding prize. The turn of the different entertainment game has an outcome that is unfavourable outcome when the outcome of the turn of the game of bingo is an unfavourable outcome, and an outcome that causes the player to win the same corresponding prize as the game of bingo when the outcome of the turn of the game of bingo is a favourable outcome. | 02-05-2009 |
| 20090023490 | Pre-paid game cards and lottery tickets providing access to online electronic games - A ticket or game card contains information such as a number, code or password by which a player accesses an electronic wager game on a web site using a computer. The ticket is associated with some quantum of credit (non-cashable or cashable) which the player uses to play turns of the game. The game has a pay table that includes losing results, intermediate results in which the player wins additional non-cashable resources (such as additional spins or additional non-cashable credit) and winning results in which the player wins credit redeemable for cash. The winning results can be directly converted to cash on a one to one basis, or converted to cash value by means of a second pay table. The systems and methods can be used to implement a lottery in which case the ticket is a lottery ticket. Alternatively, a player purchases the card and then proceeds to play at a land-based or online casino. | 01-22-2009 |
| 20090011810 | Tournament System and Method of Operation Thereof - A tournament system ( | 01-08-2009 |
| 20080318670 | Token Management System and Method of Operation Thereof - A method and system for managing tokens in an electronic gaming environment includes managing computer-readable tokens that may be issued by an issuer and transferred to an original recipient of the issued tokens, and thereafter, to one or more players of electronic casino games and/or to electronic gaming devices at which the players intend to play the casino games. The issued tokens may not be redeemable by the issuer, but may be redeemable by the original recipient of the issued tokens or an intermediary device of a hierarchy of devices including the original recipient and the electronic gaming devices. The players may play single-player and/or multi-player games. Tokens wagered during a single-player game may be cancelled if the wager is lost. Tokens wagered during a multi-player game may not be cancelled, but instead transferred to the winner of the multi-player game | 12-25-2008 |
| 20080301057 | Online Commercial Transaction System and Method of Operation Thereof - A system for conducting commercial transactions comprises an application server that hosts a software application that can be accessed by users to conduct commercial transactions thereon, an application user database of authorised users capable of accessing the application server, each authorised user in the application user database being uniquely identifiable by means of corresponding login name and password, and a proxy server communicable with the application server and accessible by a plurality of registered users from respective mobile phones The proxy server provides each one of the plurality of registered users with access to the application server from that user's respective mobile phone. A proxy database is associated with the proxy server, the proxy database containing details of authorised users in the application user database who are also registered to access the application server through the proxy server from their respective mobile phones. Each registered user in the proxy database is uniquely identifiable by means of a corresponding user identification code, the proxy database also providing, for each registered user, a mapping of that user's user identification code and the user's corresponding user information contained in the application user database. The proxy database stores each registered user's corresponding user information in encrypted format, and the system includes a encryption engine capable of encrypting any data passed between the proxy server and the mobile phone of each registered user. The proxy database also stores an active encryption key for each registered user, the active encryption key being used by the encryption engine to encrypt and decrypt data passed between the proxy server and the user's mobile access terminal. The encryption engine is dynamic, using a different encryption key during each session in which the user accesses the application server from his respective mobile phone, the encryption engine generating, during each session, a further encryption key for the user and transferring the further encryption key to the user's mobile phone for storage therein. | 12-04-2008 |
| 20080242416 | Broadcast System - A broadcast system includes an online multiplayer gaming system that enables a number of different players to play one or more instances of multiplayer poker, and game play recording means that generates game play records corresponding to game play events occurring in each turn of each instance of the multiplayer poker game. The generated game play records are stored a historical log file. A replay means retrieves the stored game play records from the historical log file and generates, from the game play records, replays of the instances of the multiplayer poker game. The replay the replay is delayed relative to the original play of the game by a predetermined time interval. A broadcast facility converts a selected one or more of the replays to signals for broadcast, preferably television broadcast signals. | 10-02-2008 |
| 20080214259 | Methods and apparatus for playing poker games - Methods and apparatus for playing poker are provided. The method includes a step of placing an ante bet for each of one or more hands to be played. The player may optionally place a side bet for each of the one or more played hands. The side bet is that a set of cards (e.g., two) to be dealt to such hand will have a predetermined ranking. In any event, the set of cards are dealt to each played hand. For each of the played hands, the player takes one of the following actions: a fold action, a call action, or a raise action. Then, one or more community cards are dealt (alternatively, the cards are dealt into each hand directly). Then, a ranking is done each of the played hands, each played hand formed of the initial set of cards dealt plus the community card(s). A payout occurs for each of the played hands according to the wager, the ranking, the result of any side bets placed, and a predetermined paytable. | 09-04-2008 |
