Localized remote gaming

A gaming system for providing remote access to a physical gaming machine located in a gaming environment comprising:

• a plurality of physical gaming machines located in a gaming environment and configured for in-person play, each of said gaming machines including:
• a housing,
• a plurality of input devices supported by the housing, said plurality of input devices including:
• (i) an acceptor, and (ii) a cashout device, and
• at least one processor configured to operate with the plurality of input devices to:
• (i) if a physical item is received via the acceptor, cause a credit balance to be established based, at least in part, on a monetary value associated with the received physical item, and
• (ii) if a cashout input is received via the cashout device, cause an initiation of any payout associated with the credit balance;
• and
• at least one computing device configured to:
• (a) select, from among the plurality of gaming machines, one of the gaming machines for remote play;
• (b) communicate via a remote access service configured to bridge an internal network of the gaming environment and an external network apart from the gaming environment, a non-gaming protocol command received from a client device to the selected gaming machine, the non-gaming protocol command being configured to cause the selected gaming machine to initiate a round of gameplay and the non-gaming protocol command being formatted, via a gameplay service, to a gaming protocol command;
• and
• (c) communicate a result of the gameplay from the selected gaming machine to the client device.

A remote access system comprising:

• a remote access service configured to provide a bridge between a network internal to a gaming environment and an external network located outside of the gaming environment;
• and
• a gameplay service configured to provide gaming protocol formatted commands to a gaming machine located in the gaming environment via the internal network of the gaming environment, said gaming machine including:
• a housing, a plurality of input devices supported by the housing, said plurality of input devices including:
• (i) an acceptor, and (ii) a cashout device, and at least one processor configured to operate with the plurality of input devices to:
• (i) if a physical item is received via the acceptor, cause a credit balance to be established based, at least in part, on a monetary value associated with the received physical item, and (ii) if a cashout input is received via the cashout device, cause an initiation of any payout associated with the credit balance,
• wherein the remote access service is configured to receive a gameplay command for the selected gaming machine from a client device via the external network and to forward the command to the gameplay service,
• wherein the gameplay service is configured to convert the command received from the remote access service into a gaming protocol format and to send the converted command to the selected gaming machine via the internal network of the gaming environment.