Back to results
US 6,645,072 B1Granted
Portable electronic bingo device
AssigneeBettina Corporation
InventorWilliam G. Kellen
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An electronic bingo device for use in dispensing bingo cards and tracking the cards for bingo during play. The apparatus is equipped with a conventional computer hardware platform and software tailored to track a bingo game by use of a game key with memory for storing data representative of a set of bingo game data including winning patterns and wild cards used during each game. In addition, a player's allocation of bingo cards are stored on the game key. Bingo cards stored in the device corresponding to the number allocated are used for game play. As the player enters the numbers are called out in the bingo hall. The device monitors each card for bingo.
Claims22
An electronic game comprising:
- memory adapted to bingo rules for at least one round of bingo a plurality of bingo cards and an identifier for the number of bingo cards in play;
- a user interface including a display adapted to display at least one bingo card and a key pad confined for entry of bingo numbers;
- and
- a central processing unit adapted under the control of software to:
- markup said bingo cards in play during a bingo game according to said bingo rules in response to entry of bingo numbers using said key pad;
- and
- provide said user interface with at least one of said bingo cards in play wherein said bingo card provided to said user interface is selected by said central processing unit as being most likely to win the round of bingo:
- wherein said display is adapted to simultaneously display up to four bingo cards.
5 more elements
A method of configuring an electronic device for bingo comprising the steps of:
- providing at least one electronic game device having:
- memory;
- a user interface including a display and a key pad;
- and
- a central processing unit adapted under the control of software to play a bingo game;
- generating a plurality of bingo cards;
- said generating step including checking that each of said plurality of generated bingo cards has a unique numerical arrangement;
- selecting a portion of generated bingo cards;
- and
- storing said portion of generated bingo cards permanently in said memory of said electronic game device.
7 more elements
An electronic game apparatus comprising:
- memory adapted to store bingo rules for at least one round of bingo, a plurality of bingo cards permanently associated with said apparatus and an identifier for a number of bingo cards in play, wherein said number of bingo cards in play are selected from said plurality of bingo cards;
- a user interface including a display adapted to display at least one bingo card and a key pad configured for entry of bingo numbers;
- and
- a central processing unit adapted under the control of software to:
- markup said bingo cards in play during a bingo game according to said bingo rules in response to entry of bingo numbers using said key pad;
- and
- provide the user with the status of the game play thru said user interface.
4 more elements
A method of configuring an electronic device for bingo comprising the steps of:
- providing at least one electronic game device having:
- memory in said electronic game device;
- a user interface including a display and a key pad;
- and
- a central processing unit adapted under the control of software to play a bingo game;
- generating a plurality of bingo cards;
- said generating step including checking that each of said plurality of generated bingo cards has a unique numerical arrangement;
- selecting a portion of generated bingo cards;
- and
- storing, at the time of manufacture of said device, said portion of generated bingo cards in said memory of said electronic game device.
7 more elements
A bingo device comprising:
- an electronic bingo apparatus including a processor, user interface and memory with a plurality of bingo cards adapted for playing a game of bingo, said apparatus having a socket adapted to receive a game key;
- and
- a removable game key for storing game data representative of a set of bingo games and a set of winning patterns, and an identifier for allocating a number of bingo cards from said memory to be used in play.
An electronic game apparatus comprising:
- memory adapted to store bingo rules for at least one round of bingo, a plurality of bingo cards and an identifier for a number of bingo cards in play, wherein said number of bingo cards in play are selected from said plurality of bingo cards and said identifier is stored on a removable memory;
- a user interface including a display adapted to display at least one bingo card and a key pad configured for entry of bingo numbers;
- and
- a central processing unit adapted under the control of software to:
- markup said bingo cards in play during a bingo game according to said bingo rules in response to entry of bingo numbers using said key pad;
- and
- provide for display by said user interface at least one of said bingo cards in play.
4 more elements
An electronic game apparatus comprising:
- memory adapted to store bingo rules for at least one round of bingo, a plurality of bingo cards;
- a user interface including a display ad to simultaneously display at least four bingo cards and a key pad configured for entry of bingo numbers;
- and
- a central processing unit adapted under the control of software to
- markup said bingo cards in play during a bingo game according to said bingo rules in response to entry of bingo numbers using said key pad;
- and
- provide said user interface with at least four of said bingo cards in play, wherein said bingo cards provided to said user interface are selected by said central processing unit as being most likely to win the round of bingo.
4 more elements
An electronic game apparatus comprising:
- non-volatile memory adapted to permanently store a plurality of bingo cards associated with said apparatus;
- removable memory adapted to store bingo rules for at least one round of bingo and an identifier for a number of bingo cards in play, wherein said number of bingo cards in play are selected from said plurality of bingo cards;
- a user interface including a display adapted to display at least one bingo card and a key pad configured for entry of bingo numbers;
- and
- a central processing unit adapted under the control of software to:
- markup said bingo cards in play during a bingo game according to said bingo rules in response to entry of bingo numbers using said key pad;
- and
- provide the user with the status of the game play thru said user interface.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.