The invention relates to a game playing device comprising a vertical play panel forming a plane of movement for coins, the play panel comprising ports by hitting which the coins control the delivery of prizes of the game playing device; vertical coins stacks on the play panel; a prize delivering mechanism for each coin stack; an inserting means for a coin required for starting a game; and a launching means for launching a coin into the play panel.

In the earliest slot-machine-type mechanical implementations of a game playing device delivering a prize from a play panel, the prize paid out by the device used to decrease when the coin stack intended for the prize delivery was short of coins or empty, since the game playing device could not transfer the delivery of the prize from the empty coin stack to another stack containing a sufficient amount of coins. Also, the game playing device itself was not aware of the number of coins on the play panel, in view of the delivery of prizes.

Finnish Patent 82,993 discloses an earlier arrangement for avoiding this problem. This reference describes a manner for sensing the height of a coin stack in a slot-machine-type game playing device. In this reference, a fixed proportion of the prize is delivered from each stack, and a sensing element is positioned at such a height that if the element is covered, such a proportion of the prize will certainly be delivered. If the sensing element is uncovered, a processor provided in the game playing device can transfer the prize delivery to another coin stack. In this arrangement, the coin stacks cannot be exhausted when prizes are delivered since the prize delivery is

immediately transferred to another coin stack when the surface of the coin stack to be measured does not reach the sensing element. Therefore the total number of coins on the play panel usually remains unclear. The purpose of the present invention is to eliminate the above-described disadvantages. This aim is achieved with the game playing device according to the invention, characterized in that it comprises means for counting coins delivered as payout from the play panel.

Since all the coins leaving the play panel are counted (and the coins arriving at the play panel are counted indirectly by means of the coins that leave), the exact number of coins on the play panel can be monitored, and after a win the coins can be delivered in a controlled manner, and if necessary, transfer from one coin stack to another is possible until the prize has been delivered.

By means of the arrangement according to the invention, the correct prize can be delivered even with only one sensor counting the coins that leave, since the prize delivery is continued and, if necessary, the procedure is transferred from an empty coin stack to another stack until the entire prize has been delivered. On the other hand, if several prize delivering mechanisms share the same counting sensor, prizes cannot be simultaneously delivered from several coin stacks, but then again considerable savings can be achieved in the sensors of the play panel. If several coins are to be simultaneously delivered from different coins stacks, i.e. a prize is to be delivered fast, it is preferable that the means for counting the coins leaving the play panel comprise a sensor intended specifically for each coin stack and positioned below each coin stack.

In the following, the invention will be described in greater detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which

Figure 1 is a front view of the game playing device according to the invention,

Figure 2 shows an arrangement of coin-counting sensors in the game playing device according to the invention, and

Figure 3 shows another arrangement of coin- counting sensors in the game playing device according to the invention.

The game playing device according to the invention, shown in Figure 1, comprises a play panel 1, which forms a plane of movement for coins 2. The upper portion of the play panel 1 comprises a plurality of attached ports 3, arranged to act on prize delivering mechanisms 4 at the back of the play panel 1 in such a way that the passage of a coin 2 through a port 3 affects the prize received by a player. Below the ports 3, the play panel 1 also comprises vertical coin stacks 6, bordered by intermediate strips 5, for delivering the prizes. The game playing device further comprises an inserting means 7 for a coin 2 required for starting a game, a launching means 8 for launching a coin to the circulating path, and a prize delivering chute 9 for a potential prize. The ports 3 and the elements 7, 8 and 9 are commercially available units known per se, wherefore their operation and construction will not be described in greater detail. The prize delivering mechanisms 4 that are mainly situated at the back of the play panel 1 are arranged separately for each coin stack 6. In this embodiment, each prize delivering mechanism comprises, at the bottom of each coin stack 6, two superimposed retention pins 10 and 11 that are spaced apart, for

retaining coins 2 and for releasing coins in a controlled manner after a win. A mechanism (not shown in the figures; several alternative implementations are known in the field) that after a win releases alternately the upper and the lower retention pin 10 and 11 from the position retaining a coin 2, and allows coins to pass by the retention pins 10 and 11 in a controlled manner, interacts with the retention pins 10 and 11. The game playing device according to the invention also comprises means for counting coins 2 delivered as payout from the play panel. In the embodiment shown in Figures 1 and 2, these means comprise a sensor 12 intended specifically for each coin stack and positioned below each coin stack 6 substantially between the retention pins 10 and 11, the sensor counting the coins 2 leaving the coin stack. If no indication of a coin 2 passing by the sensor is received and the delivery of the prize is still in process, the rest of the prize will be delivered from another coin stack since the preceding stack can be considered empty on the basis of the missing bypass indication. In this manner, the number of coins on the play panel 1 is known at all times, and in practice a prize will always be delivered since it is possible to deliver all the coins from each coin stack 6. The advantage of this embodiment is that coins 2 can be simultaneously delivered from several coin stacks 6.

The embodiment of Figure 3 comprises only one sensor 120 that counts the coins 2 delivered as payout from the play panel 1 and that is placed in the lower portion of the play panel 1 below the coin stacks 6 right before the prize delivering chute 9. The coins that are delivered as payout from the play panel 1 are guided along rails 13 via an aperture 14 to the prize

delivering chute 9, and the sensor 120 is positioned at the aperture 14 so that each coin 2 passing through the aperture 14 will be detected and counted. During the delivery of a prize, the procedure is naturally continued until the correct number of coins has passed the sensor 120. This means that if a coin stack 6 delivering a prize runs out of coins 2 and the sensor 120 receives no bypass indication, the prize delivery is transferred to another coin stack 6, or from one coin stack to another until a number of coins corresponding to the prize has passed by the sensor 120. The operation of this arrangement differs from the above-described arrangement in that here the delivery is possible only from one coin stack 6 at a time. The sensors 12 and 120 according to the invention may be of any type suitable for detecting the passing by of a coin 2, but most preferably they are electronically operated sensors.

The above description is only intended to illustrate the invention. However, the invention can be applied in alternative ways in slot-machine-type game playing devices within the scope of the accompanying claims. Therefore, for example the number of sensors can be selected freely.