Jackpot Server Aggregating Contributions Across Gaming Networks
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Solution Overview
Problem
Managing jackpots in large gaming networks with client/server architectures is challenging due to the complexity of awarding prizes across multiple gaming machines, requiring efficient handling of contributions and communications across numerous participating servers and clients.
Innovation Solution
A jackpot server system that receives and processes jackpot claim data, locks records, aggregates outstanding contributions, and communicates prize data to designated network destinations, while maintaining records of contributions from participating gaming servers, enabling seamless jackpot management across the network.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If a client/server architecture is used to support large numbers of gaming clients, then the system can handle more participants, but the complexity of managing jackpots across multiple servers increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the gaming network into multiple participating servers, each independently tracking jackpot contributions from their local clients. This segmentation allows the system to scale to large numbers of clients while distributing the management complexity across multiple server nodes rather than requiring a single centralized system to handle all participants.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces intermediary components including a central jackpot server that coordinates between participating servers and clients. This mediator receives contribution data from multiple servers, aggregates the totals, and manages the jackpot award process, thereby simplifying the overall system architecture and reducing the complexity each individual server must handle.
2Quantity of substance
If jackpot contributions are aggregated from multiple participating servers, then the jackpot prize pool increases, but the time required to process and communicate prize data increases
Solution Approach 1:
Participating servers continuously track and accumulate jackpot contributions in advance, maintaining up-to-date records of each server's contribution total. When a jackpot win occurs, the pre-aggregated data is immediately available for quick processing and communication, eliminating the need for time-consuming real-time aggregation during the prize award process.
Solution Approach 2:
The system maintains continuous tracking of jackpot contributions across all participating servers, with data being updated and synchronized ongoing rather than batch-processed. This continuous action ensures that when a jackpot is won, the prize pool is already fully aggregated and ready for immediate communication to the winner, minimizing processing time.
3Reliability
If jackpot records are locked during aggregation, then data consistency is maintained, but the system becomes less responsive to new contributions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements selective locking where only the specific jackpot record being processed is locked, while other jackpot records remain accessible and updatable. This localized approach maintains data consistency for the active jackpot without preventing other parts of the system from continuing to accept contributions to different jackpots, thereby preserving system responsiveness overall.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses periodic or event-driven locking rather than continuous locking, where the jackpot record is locked only during the specific aggregation and prize communication process, then released. This periodic action allows the system to maintain data consistency during critical operations while remaining responsive to new contributions during intervals between operations.
Data Source
AI summary
A method of processing a jackpot win in a gaming network comprising: providing a jackpot server: receiving jackpot claim data at the jackpot server; locking a jackpot record corresponding to the jackpot claim data; aggregating any outstanding jackpot contributions for the jackpot record from contributing parts of the gaming network to form a prize; and communicating prize data corresponding to the prize to a network destination identified by the jackpot claim data.