Casinos and other forms of gaming comprise a growing multi-billion dollar industry that has experienced many changes and innovations in recent years. While gaming machines have become a staple for many casinos and gaming establishments, table games remain an immensely popular form of gaming and a substantial source of revenue for gaming operators as well. Such table games can include poker, blackjack, craps, roulette and other traditional standbys, as well as other more recently introduced games such as pai-gow, Carribean Stud, Spanish 21, and Let It Ride, among others. Under a typical gaming event at a gaming table, a player places a wager on a game, whereupon a winning may be paid to the player depending on the outcome of the game. As is generally known, a wager may involve the use of cash or one or more chips, markers or the like, as well as various forms of gestures or oral claims. The game itself may involve the use of, for example, one or more cards, dice, wheels, balls, tokens or the like, with the rules of the game and any payouts or pay tables being established prior to game play. As is also known, possible winnings may be paid in cash, credit, one or more chips, markers, or prizes, or by other forms of payouts.
A primary concern in the administration of table games by a casino or other gaming establishment is the management and tracking of gaming chips or markers used by players and casino personnel in general to denote monetary values, as well as to “cash in” players, make wagers, pay out winnings, “cash out” players, and the like. Such gaming chips typically come in varying denominations, such as, for example, $1, $5, $25, $100, $1000 and $10,000, although a wide variety of other denominations and currencies for gaming chips are certainly known and possible. Various systems and methods for managing and tracking transactions in a casino environments are known, such as that which is disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,651,548; 5,735,742; and 6,663,490, each of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety and for all purposes.
In particular, the first two of these references deal with the use of radio frequency identification (“RFID”) tags as a way of identifying and tracking the movement of gaming chips within a casino environment, and specifically in the context of a gaming table. To implement such a system, an RFID tag is typically embedded within each gaming chip to be used in the system. RFID readers and antennae are then deployed at a gaming table to track the RFID tag embedded gaming chips. As is generally known, such as from the first two references above, for example, each gaming table typically has a set number of chip placement areas, such that an RFID system antenna can be placed at each such chip placement area to facilitate the chip reading and tracking.
Although useful, such basic RFID chip tracking systems tend to have several drawbacks. For example, it has been experienced that RFID antennae and readers positioned about the table may not detect and/or a read one or more particular RFID embedded gaming chips on occasion. This is particularly noticeable where there are a large number of gaming chips stacked atop one another, and also where multiple gaming chips are accumulated in one region in random unstacked fashion. As another drawback, the antennae and readers that are typically used tend to have very limited range, such that gaming chips that are slightly outside a particular chip placement area might not be detected. Of course, gaming chips that may be outside designated bet regions or other chip placement areas very likely go undetected and unread altogether. For example, gaming chips that may be stacked directly in front of a player but are not subject to a current bet or wager will likely go undetected. This can be unfortunate in some circumstances, particularly where the casino or other gaming establishment desires to track gaming chips in a more comprehensive manner.
Another potential drawback to the way RFID embedded gaming chip systems are currently designed is that the RFID components themselves tend to be rather simplistic. For example, data is typically transmitted from a gaming chip to a table reader in clear text, with such data usually defining a chip denomination, chip serial number, the site location and so forth. As is generally known, however, a casino can be a magnet for thieves, cheats and unscrupulous individuals. To the extent that such persons could provide their own equipment to read RFID embedded gaming chips, decipher the data thereupon, and/or even possible write to or alter data on such gaming chips, the typically simple clear text approach may result in serious problems to the gaming establishment. Further, such persons may attempt to dissect a gaming chip or otherwise remove the embedded RFID tag from the chip for various reasons, such as to further attempt to gain information. As another example of the general simplistic nature of man, current RFID gaming chip systems, these systems also tend to use gaming chips having a single simple embedded RFID tag, with such a tag being passive, having limited memory and functionality, and having no writing or other dynamic capabilities.
Thus, although existing systems and methods for providing identification and tracking of casino gaming chips through embedded RFID tags may have been adequate in the past, improvements to such existing systems and methods are usually encouraged. It is thus desirable to provide such improvements, and in particular for such systems and methods to involve more dynamic RFID tags within casino gaming chips with greater security features and general functionalities, and in particular for such gaming chips to be more readily identifiable and traceable regardless of position or orientation at a system gaming table.
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