Bingo prize mapping system with additional ball draw
View Patent ↗After identifying a set of initial game designations to produce a game ending winner for a bingo game, one or more additional game designations may be considered, that is, compared against a bingo card in play in the bingo game. Considering these additional game designations in addition to the set of initial game designations may produce additional matched locations on the bingo card and may produce a winning pattern that would not have been produced considering only the set of initial game designations. This use of additional game designations provides additional opportunities for players to obtain a winning result.
1. A method including:
(a) via one or more processors, conducting a bingo game for a set of players to produce a game ending pattern for a game winning player included in the set of players, the game ending pattern being achieved by matching a set of initial game designations in the bingo game to a bingo card of the game winning player;
(b) via at least one of the processors, generating a first random number and making the following decision in response to the first random number's value:
(i) in response to the first random number being inside a first range, choosing to employ zero additional game designations in the bingo game;
(ii) in response to the first random number being inside a second range, choosing to employ a first, non-zero amount of additional game designations in the bingo game; and
(iii) in response to the first random number being inside a third range, choosing to employ a second, non-zero amount of additional game designations in the bingo game, different from the first, non-zero amount; and
(c) after step (b), via at least one of the processors, identifying a final result in the bingo game for at least one player included in the set of players, the final result being identified based on a pattern achieved by either matching the set of initial game designations or the set of initial game designations and a set of additional game designations, of the first or second non-zero amount, to the bingo card of the at least one player.
2. The method of claim 1 further including identifying a respective final result in the bingo game for each player included in the set of players, the respective final result being identified based on a respective pattern achieved by matching the set of initial game designations and the set of additional game designations to a respective bingo card of each respective player.
3. The method of claim 1 further including providing the at least one player in the set of players the opportunity to forego any potential for employing additional game designations and providing a potential detrimental effect that the additional game designations may have on the value of a given pattern already achieved by the at least one player provided with said opportunity.
4. The method of claim 3 further including, when providing the at least one player in the set of players the opportunity to forego any potential for employing additional game designations, also providing an indication of the amount of additional game designations already chosen to be employed prior to a time that the at least one player is required to choose whether to accept the additional game designations or maintain the result produced considering only the initial game designations.
5. The method of claim 1 further including offering the at least one player in the set of players a choice to proceed to potentially consider the additional game designations at the cost of an additional wager, or to forego the additional wager and the potential to consider additional game designations.
6. The method of claim 5 wherein offering the at least one player in the set of players a choice is performed after choosing how many additional game designations will be employed in the bingo game, and further comprising presenting to the at least one player in the set of players the number of game designations that that has been chosen before receiving the at least one player's choice.
7. The method of claim 1 further including producing a sequence of designations made up of each game designation in a pool of available game designations and wherein the set of initial game designations comprises the number of game designations in the sequence required to produce the game ending pattern and wherein the set of additional game designations comprises some number of one or more additional game designations in the sequence.
8. The method of claim 1 wherein the additional game designations are identified in a separate ball draw conducted after producing the set of initial game designations.
9. The method of claim 1 further including identifying a final result in the bingo game for an additional respective player included in the set of players, the final result for that additional respective player being identified based on a pattern achieved by matching the set of initial game designations and a second set of additional game designations to a bingo card of the additional respective player.
10. A program product stored on at least one storage medium, the program product including a set of machine-readable instructions that when executed are configured to:
(a) conduct a bingo game for a set of players to identify a game ending pattern for a game winning player included in the set of players, the game ending pattern being achieved by matching a set of initial game designations in the bingo game to a bingo card representation of the game winning player;
(b) generate a first random number and making the following decision in response to the first random number's value:
(i) in response to the first random number being inside a first range, choosing to employ zero additional game designations in the bingo game;
(ii) in response to the first random number being inside a second range, choosing to employ a first, non-zero amount of additional game designation in the bingo game;
(iii) in response to the first random number being inside a third range, choosing to employ a second, non-zero amount of additional game designations in the bingo game, different from the first non-zero amount; and
(c) after performing the actions in (b), identify a final result in the bingo game for at least one player included in the set of players, the final result being identified based on a pattern achieved by either matching the set of initial game designations or the set of initial game designations and a set of additional game designations, of the first or second non-zero amount, to a bingo card of the at least one player.
11. The program product of claim 10 wherein the set of machine-readable instructions when executed are further configured to provide the at least one player in the set of players the opportunity to forego any potential for employing additional game designations and provide a potential detrimental effect that the additional game designations may have on the value of a given pattern already achieved by the at least one player provided with said opportunity.
12. The program product of claim 11 wherein the set of machine-readable instructions when executed are configured, when providing the at least one player in the set of players the opportunity to forego any potential for employing additional game designations, to also provide an indication of the amount of additional game designations already chosen to be employed prior to a time that the at least one player is required to choose whether to accept the additional game designations or maintain the result produced considering only the initial game designations.
13. The program product of claim 10 wherein the set of machine-readable instructions when executed are further configured to offer the at least one player in the set of players a choice to proceed to potentially consider the additional game designations at the cost of an additional wager, or to forego the additional wager and the potential to consider additional game designations.
14. The program product of claim 13 wherein offering the at least one player in the set of players a choice is performed after choosing how many additional game designations will be employed in the bingo game, and further comprising presenting to the at least one player in the set of players the number of game designations that has been chosen before receiving the at least one player's choice.
15. The program product of claim 14 wherein the set of machine-readable instructions configured to produce a sequence of designations made up of each game designation in a pool of available game designations and wherein the set of initial game designations comprises the number of game designations in the sequence required to produce the game ending pattern and wherein the set of additional game designations comprises some number of one or more additional game designations in the sequence.
16. A system including:
(a) a bingo game result controller configured to (i) conduct a bingo game to identify a game ending pattern, the game ending pattern being achieved by matching a set of initial game designations to a bingo card of a game winning player in the bingo game, and to (ii) match the set of initial game designations and a set of additional game designations to a bingo card of a respective player in the bingo game to identify a final result for the respective player; and
(b) a supplemental draw controller configured to (i) randomly determine whether at least a null, first non-zero, or second non-zero set of additional game designations will be employed in the bingo game, and (ii) if the player's choice is made to employ the set of additional game designations in the game, determine how many game designations are to be included in the set of additional game designations, before applying any of the game designations in the game; and
(c) a player station for the respective player in the bingo game, the player station including a display device for displaying the final result to the respective player.
17. The system of claim 16 wherein the bingo game result controller is also configured to provide the at least one player in the set of players the opportunity to forego any potential for employing additional game designations and providing a potential detrimental effect that the additional game designations may have on the value of a given pattern already achieved by the at least one player provided with said opportunity.
18. The system of claim 17 in which the bingo game result controller is further configured to, when providing the at least one player in the set of players the opportunity to forego any potential for employing additional game designations, also providing an indication of the amount of additional game designation already chosen to be employed prior to a time that the at least one player is required to choose whether to accept the additional game designations or maintain the result produced considering only the initial game designations.
19. The system of claim 16 wherein the supplemental draw controller includes a random number generator to generate a random number falling in one of a number of ranges of numbers, each range being associated with a respective value for the number of game designations to be included in the set of additional game designations.
20. The system of claim 16 wherein the bingo game result controller is further for offering each respective player in the set of players a choice to proceed to potentially consider the additional game designations at the cost of an additional wager, or to forego the additional wager and the potential to consider additional game designations.