Voucher tickets are utilized in the gaming industry for transactions. The voucher tickets include information required to complete secured transactions, including coded data provided in any suitable format, such as barcodes. Typically, a player will cash out after completing the gaming play, and the gaming machine will print a voucher ticket. The voucher ticket is identified by a voucher ID that is issued and managed by the casino voucher ticket system. The voucher ID is printed in a barcode and is associated with a printed validation code printed on the voucher ticket. The voucher ticket received by the player can be inserted into a second gaming machine to credit the machine or can be inserted into a payment kiosk to receive cash that is equivalent to the value of the printed voucher ticket.
Each property issues its own proprietary form of these voucher tickets. Therefore, a gaming patron playing games at a variety of casino properties will be issued voucher tickets from each of the variety of properties; each voucher ticket is property-specific so cannot be used at another property. The gaming patron must keep track of these numerous voucher tickets from different properties.
As previously mentioned, the voucher tickets are limited for use with one gaming company, and generally, limited for use with one specific facility. To ensure security, the voucher tickets are commonly encoded to a financial system that is proprietary to the gaming facility. The proprietary encoding is one method, which restricts the use of the voucher ticket to the associated issuing gaming facility. When the user desires to leave one gaming facility to play at a different gaming facility, this constraint imposes a requirement upon the user to cash in the voucher ticket prior to leaving the current gaming facility.
An object of the present invention is to provide a clearinghouse to manage vouchers from multiple properties. A multi-property clearinghouse has been proposed that connects the back end voucher servers from different properties. This proposal provides a solution to the user for converting a voucher ticket issued by a first gaming facility to a voucher ticket that would be accepted for use at a second gaming facility. However, this solution would require the cooperation of the multiple properties and of gaming regulators.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds