Configuring Networked Entertainment Devices

Abstract

Pay to play entertainment machines or devices for gaming, gambling and other entertainment functions used in public spaces such as bars, clubs etc are networked and centrally controlled. A set of schedules is established, each schedule defining a set of attributes for operation of an entertainment device and stored in a database. Each entertainment device in the network is associated with one or more groups of devices, each group having a specified one of said schedules. For each entertainment device in the network, all the schedules that apply to that device are used to determine a subset of attributes that shall prevail in that device and the device is then automatically configured to have that subset of attributes. Event messages generated in each entertainment device are transmitted to a central messaging server on a real-time or batch process basis according to a priority level. The messaging server forwards subsets of the event messages to respective subscriber entities according to a classification and/or attribute of the messages and as determined by a subscription profile of the subscribing entities.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.