Anonymous biometric player tracking

A method of operating a gaming system including at least one server and a plurality of gaming machines, the method comprising:

• maintaining, via the at least one server, a database of stored player profiles that include biometrics of known players;
• detecting passively, via at least one anonymous player tracking device of one of the plurality of gaming machines, a first biometric for an anonymous player of said gaming machine;
• determining, via the at least one server, whether the first biometric is associated with an existing player profile stored on the database;
• tracking, via said gaming machine, information regarding the gaming activity of the anonymous player at said gaming machine;
• determining, via the at least one server, if a confidence level associated with the first biometric exceeds a designated confidence level, said determination being separate from and in addition to any determination to associate any detected fingerprint with any existing player profile, said confidence level based on at least one earlier detection of the first biometric;
• if the first biometric is associated with an existing player profile stored on the database and the confidence level associated with the first biometric exceeds the designated confidence level, attributing, via the at least one server, credit for the gaming activity of the anonymous player to the existing player profile stored on the database;
• if the first biometric is associated with an existing player profile stored on the database and the confidence level associated with the first biometric does not exceed the designated confidence level, not attributing the credit for the gaming activity of the anonymous player to the existing player profile stored on the database based on the first biometric;
• upon an occurrence of a confidence level increase event, increasing, via the at least one server, the confidence level associated with the first biometric for use upon a next detection of the first biometric.

A player tracking system comprising:

• a plurality of gaming machines, each having a master gaming controller configured to control one or more aspects of a wager-based game and an anonymous player tracking device in communication with at least one of the master gaming controller and a separate player tracking server, wherein the anonymous player tracking device is configured to detect biometric information from a plurality of different players that utilize the gaming machine to facilitate the anonymous tracking of gaming activities without the use of player tracking instruments for the plurality of different players;
• a database storing a plurality of player profiles that include biometric data previously detected by said plurality of gaming machines;
• and
• a remote player tracking server in communication with the plurality of gaming machines and the database, said remote player tracking server including a processor, a memory, and a network interface, wherein the processor is configured to:
• (a) receive passively detected biometric data regarding an anonymous player from one of the plurality of gaming machines,
• (b) receive information regarding gaming activity of the anonymous player from said one of the plurality of gaming machines,
• (c) determine whether the received biometric data is associated with an existing player profile stored on the database,
• (d) determine if a confidence level associated with the received biometric data exceeds a designated confidence level, said determination being separate from and in addition to any determination to associate any biometric data with any existing player profile, said confidence level based on at least one earlier detection of said biometric data;
• (e) if the received biometric data is associated with an existing player profile stored on the database and the confidence level associated with the biometric data exceeds the designated confidence level, attribute credit for the gaming activity of the anonymous player to the existing player profile;
• (f) if the received biometric data is associated with an existing player profile stored on the database and the confidence level associated with the biometric data does not exceed the designated confidence level, not attribute the credit for the gaming activity of the anonymous player to the existing player profile based on the biometric data;
• and
• (g) upon an occurrence of a confidence level increase event, increase the confidence level associated with said biometric data for use upon a next detection of said biometric data.