Conversion of non-negotiable credits earned from a game of chance to negotiable funds

A computer program product stored in a machine readable, non-transitory, tangible storage medium having machine readable code for a software application which, when executed on a computing system, causes the computing system to:

• identify entertainment credits from a game of chance associated with an entity with which said user has previously interacted, the previous interactions earning the entertainment credits, which are non-negotiable credits;
• responsive to a user request, convert, via a conversion agency, a quantity of the entertainment credits to a quantity of negotiable funds, wherein the conversion agency is not directly associated with the entity;
• and
• permit the user to access the quantity of negotiable funds, wherein the quantity of negotiable funds are able to be applied to user specified purchases, wherein at least a portion of said user specified purchases involve at least one vender that does not honor the non-negotiable credits.

A computer program product for converting credits to funds, the computer program product comprising:

• a computer usable storage medium that is a tangible, non-transitory storage medium having computer usable program code embodied therewith, the computer usable program code comprising:
• computer usable program code operable to identify entertainment credits from a game of chance associated with an entity with which said user has previously interacted, the previous interactions earning the entertainment credits, which are non-negotiable credits;
• computer usable program code operable to, responsive to a user request, convert, via a conversion agency, a quantity of the entertainment credits to a quantity of negotiable funds, wherein the conversion agency is not directly associated with the entity;
• and
• computer usable program code operable to permit the user to access the quantity of negotiable funds, wherein the quantity of negotiable funds are able to be applied to user specified purchases, wherein at least a portion of said user specified purchases involve at least one vender that does not honor the non-negotiable credits.

A system for converting credits to funds comprising:

• a processor;
• a non-volatile memory;
• a volatile memory;
• and
• a bus connecting said processor, said non-volatile memory, and said volatile memory, wherein a set of computer readable instructions are stored in the non-volatile memory, which are executable by the processor, wherein said system is configured to:
• identify entertainment credits from a game of chance associated with an entity with which said user has previously interacted, the previous interactions earning the entertainment credits, which are non-negotiable credits;
• responsive to a user request, convert, via a conversion agency, a quantity of the entertainment credits to a quantity of negotiable funds, wherein the conversion agency is not directly associated with the entity;
• and
• permit the user to access the quantity of negotiable funds, wherein the quantity of negotiable funds are able to be applied to user specified purchases, wherein at least a portion of said user specified purchases involve at least one vender that does not honor the non-negotiable credits.

A software method for converting non-negotiable credits into negotiable funds comprising:

• receiving a user request to convert a quantity of non-negotiable credits earned from a game of chance and held in a user account associated with an entity that provided the game of chance;
• automatically determining a conversion rate between the non-negotiable credits available to the user and a form of negotiable funds;
• automatically subtracting a quantity of non-negotiable credits from the user account;
• and
• automatically transferring a quantity of the negotiable funds based upon the determining step to a financial account, wherein the financial account is not associated with the entity that provided the game of chance, wherein the receiving, determining, subtracting, and transferring are performed by computing equipment running software stored in a non-transitory storage medium.

A Web-based credit to fund conversion system comprising:

• a non-negotiable credit account associated with an entity, wherein the non-negotiable credits contained within the non-negotiable credit account are earned though previous interactions between a user and the entity and are winnings from playing a game of chance;
• a negotiable funds account including negotiable funds that the user is able to apply to user specified e-commerce purchases, wherein venders involved in the e-commerce purchases do not honor the non-negotiable credits for the e-commerce purchases;
• and
• a conversion agency configured to automatically and approximately immediately convert a quantity of credits from the non-negotiable credit account to a quantity of funds in the negotiable funds account responsive to a request from the user.