DYNAMIC CONFIGURATION OF A GAMING SYSTEM
A method to enable dynamic configuration of gaming terminals installed in one or a plurality of gaming premises whereby certified games, certified data files and certified support software components are activated in accordance with a predetermined schedule or automatically in response to the observed gaming activity. The method may include allocating an individual PKI certificate to each executable software component and each of its versions, binding the PKI certificate to the executable software, associating a distinctive policy for each certificate and then enforcing the software execution policies in accordance with the desired authorized game configuration and schedule. The PKI certificate's “Subject Name” (or “Issued to” field or “CommonName” field) may be a concatenation of the software component identification, its version number and optionally other identification characters. The method applies equally to other network connected gaming subsystems. The method enables a fine-grained and secure control of the authorized software components and thus the flexibility to securely configure the gaming system in accordance with a schedule or in a close-loop fashion in order to meet business objectives. In addition, a method to enable the certification authority to bind the certificates to the tested code is described.
1 . A method for a network connected gaming system to enable selective execution of at least one authorized software component, comprising the steps of: configuring Software Restriction Policies for the at least one authorized software component at a predetermined time; unrestricting the Software Restriction Policies for the at least one authorized software component at a predetermined time; enabling a link for the Software Restriction Policies for the at least one authorized software component at a predetermined time; checking for a change of the Software Restriction Policies and if there is no policy change then looping to the beginning of this step, and enforcing the change of the Software Restriction Policies at a predetermined time.
2 . A method for a network connected gaming system according to claim 1 , wherein the checking step includes checking for the change of the Software Restriction Policies whenever a predetermined timeout has expired subsequent to the player balance reaching zero and if there is no policy change then looping to the beginning of this step.
3 . A method for a network connected gaming system according to claim 1 , further comprising the step of displaying a list of authorized software to the player for selection.
4 . A method for a network connected gaming system according to claim 1 , wherein a rule for the Software Restriction Policies is at least one of certificate rule, path rule, hash rule, Internet zone rule and registry path rule.
5 . A method for a network connected gaming system according to claim 1 , wherein the network connected gaming system is connected in at least one of a local area system and a wide area network.
6 . A method for a network connected gaming system according to claim 1 , wherein the network connected gaming system comprises at least one of gaming terminals and gaming servers.
7 . A method for a network connected gaming system according to claim 1 , wherein the checking step includes executing the RegisterGPNotification function.
8 . A method for a network connected gaming system according to claim 1 , wherein the checking step is bypassed.
9 . A method for a network connected gaming system according to claim 1 , wherein the enforcing step includes executing the gpupdate function.
10 . A method for a network connected gaming system according to claim 1 , wherein the enforcing step includes executing the gpupdate function followed by a reboot.
11 . A method for a network connected gaming system according to claim 1 , wherein the enforcing step includes executing the RefreshPolicy or RefreshPolicyEx function.
12 . A method for a network connected gaming system according to claim 1 , wherein the enforcing step includes executing the RefreshPolicy or RefreshPolicyEx function followed by a reboot.
13 . A method for a network connected gaming system according to claim 1 , further comprising the steps of: configuring Software Installation Policies for the at least one authorized software component at a predetermined time; enabling a link for the software installation policies for the at least one authorized software component at a predetermined time; checking for a change of the Software Installation Policies and if there is no policy change then looping to the beginning of this step, and enforcing the change of the software installation policies.
14 . A method for a network connected gaming system according to claim 13 , wherein the checking step includes checking for the change of the software installation policies whenever a predetermined timeout has expired subsequent to the player balance reaching zero and if there is no policy change then looping to the beginning of this step.
15 . A method for a network connected gaming system according to claim 13 , wherein the checking step includes executing the RegisterGPNotification function.
16 . A method for a network connected gaming system according to claim 13 , wherein the checking step is bypassed.
17 . A method for a network connected gaming system according to claim 13 , wherein the enforcing step includes executing the gpupdate function.
18 . A method for a network connected gaming system according to claim 13 , wherein the enforcing step includes executing the gpupdate function followed by a reboot.
19 . A method for a network connected gaming system according to claim 13 , wherein the enforcing step includes executing the RefreshPolicy or RefreshPolicyEx function.
20 . A method for a network connected gaming system according to claim 13 , wherein the enforcing step includes executing the RefreshPolicy or RefreshPolicyEx function followed by a reboot.
21 . A method for a network connected gaming system according to claim 13 , further comprising the step of displaying a list of authorized software to the player for selection.
22 . A method for a network connected gaming system according to claim 1 , further comprising the initial steps of: monitoring the game activity of players, and choosing the at least one authorized software components in order to adapt game offering on the gaming terminals.
23 . A method for a network connected gaming system according to claim 22 , wherein the monitoring and choosing steps are carried out in a close-loop fashion such as to optimize player game activity in real-time.
24 . A method for a gaming terminal in a network connected gaming system to generate a list of authorized games available to the players comprising the steps of: enforcing Software Restriction Policy for preventing non-authorized software components from executing; enforcing Software Restriction Policy for enabling execution of a selected set of authorized games; attempting to execute each game, and adding games that have not been denied execution to a menu list.
25 . A method for a network connected gaming system according to claim 24 , further comprising the step of removing games from the menu list for games that have been denied execution.
26 . A method for a network connected gaming system according to claim 24 , further comprising the step of removing games from the menu list for games whose executable file are not found.