This invention relates to gambling games and specifically to games which can incorporate a jackpot which is specifically suited to racing games.

Background of the Invention

Whilst there are many different types of gambling games and jackpot systems, the public is i terested in various types of gambling games and a variety of games to play. This invention is adapted to provide a randomly generated, animated racing game, and particularly one which has a jackpot feature, which game has a much higher degree of excitement and entertainment than a standard race game or a standard jackpot game.

One aspect of the invention relates to a randomly generated jackpot game and more specifically, though should be seen as exemplary only, a random animated horse race game which can offer large prizes to players by means of jackpots for a correct sequence chosen and bonuses for lesser award prizes.

Another aspect of this invention relates to the same randomly generated game played with the standard bet types available on live racing.

Throughout this specification, we shall refer to a horse race game, though the invention could relate to a dog race, a human race, a yacht race etc., and the reference to horse race should be seen as exemplary only.

Summary of the Invention

In a first aspect of the invention we provide a game which has a provision whereby players can bet on a result of a number of races and, if successful in each of their selections, can win part or all of the prize pool ,but if there are no winning selections then the prize can jackpot.

Preferably the game is displayed in the form of a video game in which the various possible selections are shown and it may be run over a substantial network, such as, for example, television channels or Sky Channel or the like.

One feature of the aspect of the preferred embodiment of the invention that each of the participants in each race has a statistically equal chance of success.

In its broadest sense the preferred embodiment of the invention includes a randomly generated, animated racing game comprising one or more races whereby each participant in each race has a statistically equal chance of success and players can bet on selected participants or possible participants in the or each

event and whereby on a successful bet the prize pool of the total bets less the amount retained by the operators is distributed to the players having the successful bet.

In a preferred form, we provide an equaliser system which operates so it is possible for more than one participant to jointly win any race.

If there are several races the possible participants in all races, excluding winners of any previous race in that particular game, remain in the game.

In order that this aspect of the invention may be more readily understood we shall describe certain embodiments thereof.

The race begins with a pool of horses and/or their numbers and the number of runners need not be limited, although for this example only, we will set the total pool of horses at 48.

Most games or jackpots are decided after one event, such as a regular "live" horse race, or a royal flush on a poker game or the correct numbers on a lottery or bingo game, or on one of a large number of events, such as in linked jackpots on gaming machines. However, there have been proposed a number of games which rely on the results of a number of events, such as the "Pick Six" of the Victorian Totalisator Agency Board which is decided on the results of six horse races. In such a game,

however, persons with knowledge have a great advantage over those with none as they can, to a degree, eliminate certain horses in the various races and limit the field from which they attempt to select the winners. Having said that, the odds against success are very high.

One of the features of this game is that the winners of the differing prizes, jackpots and bonuses may be decided after a number of races rather than just one event but the odds against each participant succeeding are generally the same so that any player can have an equal chance with any other.

In order to relate this feature we will describe our preferred method of operation, though again this should be seen as exemplary only and by no means restricted to the amount of races or horses suggested.

Our preferred method of operation would be for the winning sequences to be determined over six races.

In the game of the invention, all horses in all races would be given equal chances of winning by equally seeded random generation, which is not the case in "live" racing.

Therefore the game of all horses having "equal chance" would be playable by, and more appealing to, a wider range of potential players. By introducing "egalitarian" horse racing we eliminate

the areas of expertise that are of concern to the novice player, such as a "horse's past performances (form)", "track conditions (wet or dry)", "Jockey's ability", "Trainer's ability etc".

The object for players of this game is for a player to successfully choose the winning horses of each of the six races.

The chance of an individual player successfully selecting the six winners of the six races would be small, though we envisage that this game would be played state-wide or nation-wide with a large number of players. A large player base would, of course, increase the likelihood of a player successfully choosing the winners of the six races.

A player or players who choose the six winners would win the main prize, which would be divided equally if there was more than one successful player.

Should no player be successful in selecting the correct winners of the six races then in one embodiment the main prize would jackpot and be carried over to the following game, which could be the next hour, next day, next week etc.

This carry over jackpot would prove to be a very big stimulus for players and would no doubt create enormous public interest, especially if the game was to be played say two or more times per day.

After five races, it would be possible to provide the approximate dividends on the last race, should a certain horse win that race. This would be very exciting for players that still hold a "live" entry. It may well be desirable to pay additional prizes for running 2nd or 3rd in the last race.

Additionally the game provides a possibility that there may be no "live" bets after a number of the races thus potentially causing a carry over jackpot situation. This would ensure continuing interest for players whose bets are no longer "live" as these players would hope for the main prize to "jackpot" so that they retain a chance to win the jackpotted prize in the next game.

In another embodiment, should no player be successful in selecting the correct winners of the six races then the main prize would be distributed equally amongst:-

1. the players who selected five winners and second place in the last race or failing that;

2. the players who selected five winners and third place in the last race or failing that;

3. the players who selected five winners or failing that;

4. the players who selected four winners and second places in

the last race or failing that;

5. the players who selected four winners and third place in the last race or failing that;

6. the players who selected four winners or failing that;

7. the players who selected three winners and second place in the last race or failing that;

8. the players who selected three winners and third place in the last race or failing that;

9. no main prize would be distributed for that game, although constellation prizes could be given.

The game is particularly suitable for use in association with a video reproduction of a race. For example, there are already available video horse racing games which do not necessarily operate on the same parameters as set out hereinbefore for this game, in particular the random generator does not give an equal opportunity for each of the horse, but these games do realistically depict a race of a number of horses.

It is proposed, in the invention, that the actual selection of the winners of each race would be demonstrated by such a video display which could be transmitted through conventional

television channels or through specialist channels such as Sky Channel.

Thus each of the six races to be run in a game can be transmitted at required times, either in direct sequence or at specific times during a period, and the persons who hold bets in the race can have involvement as each particular race is run.

The running of the game could thus become a substantial social event which could be shared by numbers of competitors at a large number of different venues.

One can imagine the excitement generated at a venue operating this game, where possibly there would be players with "live" tickets cheering for their respective horses to win for them and players with "no-live" tickets cheering for the "no-live" horses to win so as to cause the jackpot to carry over to a bigger prize.

A similar format introduced to the racing industry recently is the Pick Six format introduced by the Victorian T.A.B. for wagering on the winners of six nominated races at a specific Victorian race meeting. This has the disadvantage set out earlier herein that the novice or unskilled player is at a substantial disadvantage.

In the game we may feature a format of pooling and re-pooling

horses so that the first race the winner may be any number from 1-48 and after the winner of the first race is decided then all of the remaining horses are re-pooled and the next race winner will come from the remaining 47 horses.

Whilst in this specification we have described the game using the format of 6 winners from a pool of 48 starters, neither of these figures should be seen as fixed or limited, for example the game could use 5 winners from a pool of 35, 40 or 45, 6 winners from a pool of 42 or 54, 7 winners from a pool of 49 or 56 etc., the combinations are feasibly endless, and would be a matter of preference for both the player and operator.

It is also quite feasible to imagine one race of 48 video animated horses with a player trying to choose the first 6 placed horses, or alternatively 2 races of 24 horses with players attempting to pick 1st, 2nd, 3rd in both races 3 from 24 X 2 races = 6 from 48.

Further, if, say, any one race was required the system could first select, say, eight horses from the pool and there could be a single race with the first six horses being equivalent to the six winners in the previous embodiment.

The "equal chance" format could also be used without a jackpot feature and be used as a straight "equal chance" race format which would be simply be an easier format for novice horse

players that have problems with the aforementioned existing expertise areas associated with established racing formats.

The standard industry wagers of win, quinella, trifecta, etc. can all be played on the "equal chance" format with all players, expert and novice alike, having confidence that all horses have the same "equal chance" of winning, which is not the case in established forms of racing.

It will be seen that the odds involved in picking six winners are very long.

In the exemplified form they are of the order of 8.8 x 10 ⁹ .

For a game which is held with a very large number of entries these are somewhat less than the odds in such lotto games as Tattslotto, where the winning entry is six correct numbers from 45.

Depending upon the likely entry the odds can be varied to ensure that winners occur more regularly but of course it will be appreciated that the likely size of the prize pool depends substantially on the total number of entries.

For example, the game could be varied so that each race had horses bearing saddle cloth numbers from one to eight, although for amusement purposes it would be preferred that they had

different names, and in this case the likelihood of an accurate result would be 1 in 262,000.

It may be desirable that barriers always carry the same jockey's colours, so that it would be easy for players to recognise their horses during the race.

The saddlecloths of the horses that are randomly selected to race will, of course, always carry the number 1-48 of the horse.

Should a horse have a hood or blinkers this would coincide with the colours of the barrier.

All this would be very important if a race-caller was to be used to do a voice over of any events, additionally this would assist players of this game in recognising the horses that they have selected.

Should all of the pooled horses be given names then players would soon recognise these names and could select the preferred horses by number or name or both.

The coloured jackets, silks and caps of each jockey could be randomly chosen after each horse is chosen.

This would also make it more realistic and easier for players to hear the name and possibly the number of their selection being

called during the race.

Pooling and Re-Pooling:

1. Pool of 48 horses All equal chances

2. Random selection of 8 horses from pool.

3. The selected horses randomly put in barriers 1-8.

4. The horses each with an equal chance are then raced.

The winning number is held aside and displayed as the winner of Race 1.

5. The seven other horses in race 1 are then re-pooled so that they may be re-selected to compete in other following races.

The pool is now 47, then repeat steps 2 through to 5 and so on to determine the winning horse of Race 2. This is held aside and displayed as the winner of Race 2.

The seven other runners are re-pooled and the pool of horses available for selection is now 46.

These steps are repeated until winning numbers are provided for

all races, in this case all 6 races.

The 2nd and 3rd place getters of the last race will also be held aside to provide additional numbers for players so as to be able to generate additional pays.

A feature of this game is that an equalizer system operates so it is possible for more than one participant to win any race.

In the event that the equalizer creates a dead heat for first place in a race, all participants coming first are removed from the participants pool for the remaining races in the game.

In the event that the equalizer creates a dead heat for second or third place, those particular participants are returned to the participants pool for the remaining races in the game.

Exemplary Possible Pay Tables:

6 winners - Top prize - Jackpot.

5 winners and 2nd place (last race)

5 winners and 3rd place (last race)

5 winners

4 winners and 2nd place (last race)

4 winners and 3rd place (last race)

4 winners

3 winners and 2nd place (last race)

3 winners and 3rd place (last race)

A possible scenario to show players the random selection of horses and barriers at the same time would be for a "head on" picture, which may be graphically generated, or a picture from a video display of the barriers for the race. Above each stall would be a "window" large enough to display the number randomly selected from the pool.

It may be preferred that all of the graphic windows above the barriers would be seen to display the numbers spinning vertically "through" the windows until such time that one by one in numerical order from barrier 1 through 8 they would stop spinning and display the numbers randomly chosen.

By using a required seeding of the random generator all horses would have an equal chance of success.

An alternative form of betting on each race the game can offer all of the standard bet types available on live racing, such as:-

Win and Place - For each race.

Running Doubles - Pick the winners of consecutive races, for example race 1 and 2, 2 and 3 etc.

Daily Doubles - Pick the winners of specific races for

example between races 3 and 5 etc.

Quinellas Pick the first and second or second and first placegetters of any race.

Superfectas Pick the nominated number of horses of a particular race in the specific finishing order for example the first five horses across the line in the exact finishing order.

Trebles Pick the winners of three nominated races.

Quadrellas Pick the winners of four nominated races.

An alternative feature of this aspect of the invention in that each of the participants in each race has randomly generated unequal chance of success. As the odds of success of each participant in each race could vary, each participant's seeding would also be varied accordingly in a way such that the participant with the least chance would have the longest odds and the participant with the most chance would have the shortest odds. The object of the game and the methods of betting on the game remains the same as for the equally seeded randomly generated game.

The second aspect of this invention relates to a format for the

adaption of a game to a video gaming or amusement machine.

Background of this aspect.

Most video gambling games have been developed around established and recognised gambling games, and in general standard casino type games, such as video poker, video blackjack, video keno, video craps are all based on games which are used in casinos.

This invention relates to a format for a video gambling game designed primarily to encompass the concept of a video horse race game, though this system could incorporate other animal racing games, such as harness racing, dog racing, or other types of racing, cars, boats, humans etc. Alternatively, the delivery of cards could be used in the game.

This system, although primarily envisaged for adaption to a video game, it should also be seen that the said format could be adapted to a "live game" format, when used in a casino environment, would employ the use of a dealer which shall be discussed later. Generally, however, the specification will describe the video game adaption of the system.

In this aspect we provide a game wherein a number of participants are each moved on a display in discrete steps characterised in that there can be provided randomly generated "equaliser" steps in which all of the participants are moved by an equal number of

discrete steps at the same time.

This system would employ the use of a random generator, which could be a deck of cards, die, coins or, as more commonly used in video games, a pseudo random number generator using a microprocessor.

The particular embodiment will describe the use of the system for use on a five participant race, though the number of participants in the race should not be restricted to five. Further, the specification will describe the game played with "horses" but other symbols could be used.

The participants would be emulated graphically on a video monitor.

Each of the five horses would have to get a predetermined number of movements to win the race and this may be, say, nine movements. On the board or display, the first eight movements will be shown by the horses effectively moving eight discrete spaces, the ninth movement taking the horse over the finish.

In a practical form of the invention we may, for simplicity, and to assist in participator friendliness, select names which would be readily identified by effectively all players, for example, the ^" names could be selected after card suits, and one suggestion would be as follows:-

1. Ace of Hearts

2. Ace of Diamonds

3. Ace of Clubs

4. Ace of Spades

5. The Joker

In order to add another stimulus to this format and in keeping with the casino style of a video gaming machine yet differing from a perceived horse race there could be the addition of a "jackpot" to the game format.

In order to adapt a "jackpot" to this randomly generated horse race, we envisage a concept of allocating at least one result from the random generator which would apply to each of the five horses.

This one movement applied to each horse, is entitled the "Equaliser". In the event that this Equaliser is selected, all the participants would move one unit each.

Normally each horse moves one unit when its "number" is generated by the random number generator. That is while all or any of the horses can be at the same relative position on the track, one would have got to this position first and the others would have sequentially reached the position. At some time one horse moves forward one position and this leads the race although some or all of the other horses could first catch this horse to again be at

the same relative position and then move forward and pass the previously leading horse.

In the game if one horse has already crossed the finish line without the equaliser space being selected, the race would be over and the jackpot system would not come into effect.

The manner in which the jackpot system would come into play would be when the following situation arose.

When more than one horse was positioned, one move away from winning, and the equaliser occurs then the horses positioned one length away from winning would all cross the finish line at the same time, thus providing a dead heat, which could be a multiple dead heat.

It should be seen that the odds of the five horses, the entire field, crossing the finish line simultaneously are greater than any lesser number and the jackpot pay offs would be adjusted accordingly.

In order to win a bonus prize a player must have wagered on one of the horses that was involved in the dead heat.

The selection of the equaliser may be such that it only occurs at ^~ intervals long compared to movement results. For example, the likelihood of the equaliser being applied could be of the order

of 50:1 compared to any one of the other results and, of course, in a majority of cases this would not occur when a horse, let alone more than one horse is about to cross the finishing line.

It is possible to set the odds that the equaliser will be selected when more than one horse is only a single space from victory and the bonus payout can be matched to these odds.

It is a feature of the system that a wild move can be randomly applied to any one or more of the horses.

If a wild space is selected rather than a standard space then the horse will move the length of two normal moves rather than its normal move.

If such a wild space is received by one of the rear horses then it would have an impetus to move towards the front and, of course, a front runner could move effectively rapidly towards the finish.

It is to be understood that there are many variations and modifications which can be made in the various aspects of the invention.