Thermal printer with dual head-audit trail

Abstract

A disclosed thermal printer provides a dual thermal heads for duplicate printing of parameter values indicating game play information obtained from playing a gaming machine. The dual-head thermal printer, which may be incorporated into a gaming machine and other gaming devices as well as devices used outside of gaming applications, simultaneously prints an issued ticket voucher and a duplicate ticket voucher. The duplicate ticket voucher may be stored within the gaming machine or a gaming device to provide an audit trail of the issued ticket voucher. The issued ticket voucher and the duplicate ticket voucher may be printed from stacks of two-ply thermal printing media stored in a single tray, sheets of thermal printing media stored in a single tray or from two stacks of single-ply thermal printing media stored in separate trays. The issued ticket vouchers and the duplicate ticket voucher may also be generated on a thermal printer with only a single thermal print head where a first issued ticket voucher and its duplicate are printed consecutively on the thermal printer.

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . A thermal printer for duplicate printing of parameter values indicating game play information obtained from playing a gaming machine, the thermal printer comprising: 
 an interface for connecting to a master gaming controller of the gaming machine, said interface adapted to receive said parameter values for printing onto sheets of media;    a first thermal printing head arranged to receive first sheets of media and print said parameter values on said first sheets of media;    a second thermal printing head arranged to receive second sheets of media and print said parameter values on said second sheets of media; and    a mechanism for receiving sheets of media for printing said parameter values and directing the first and second sheets of media to the first and second thermal printing heads, respectively,    wherein the parameter values printed on a first sheet of media using said first thermal printing head are substantially duplicated on a second sheet of media using said second thermal printing head.    
     
     
         2 . The thermal printer of  claim 1 , wherein said media is two-ply thermal printing media.  
     
     
         3 . The thermal printer of  claim 2 , further comprising: 
 a mechanism for separating said two-ply thermal printing media into a first ply and a second ply, said first ply providing said first sheets of media and said second ply providing said second sheets of media.    
     
     
         4 . The thermal printer of  claim 1 , further comprising a tray for storing said sheets of media.  
     
     
         5 . The thermal printer of  claim 1 , wherein said sheets of media are single sheets of thermal printing media.  
     
     
         6 . The thermal printer of  claim 1 , wherein a first printed sheet of media is an issued ticket voucher and a second printed sheet of media is a duplicate ticket voucher.  
     
     
         7 . The thermal printer of  claim 6 , wherein the issued ticket voucher and the duplicate ticket voucher are used in a cashless system.  
     
     
         8 . The thermal printer of  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 a storage unit for storing said second sheets of media after printing by said second thermal print head.    
     
     
         9 . The thermal printer of  claim 8 , further comprising: 
 a routing mechanism for routing said second sheets of media after printing by said second thermal print head to said storage unit.    
     
     
         10 . The thermal printer of  claim 8 , further comprising: 
 a storage unit capacity sensor for monitoring a quantity of said second sheets of media stored in the storage unit.    
     
     
         11 . The thermal printer of  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 a first tray storing the first sheets of media prior to printing and a second tray storing the second sheets of media prior to printing.    
     
     
         12 . The thermal printer of  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 a processor for generating control signals for controlling the printing on said first thermal print head and said second thermal print head.    
     
     
         13 . The thermal printer of  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 a memory.    
     
     
         14 . The thermal printer of  claim 13 , wherein said memory stores said parameter values and printing templates.  
     
     
         15 . The thermal printer of  claim 1 , wherein the interface communicates with gaming devices used in a cashless system.  
     
     
         16 . The thermal printer of  claim 1 , wherein the parameter values include an establishment, a location, a bar code, a ticket type, an issue date, a validation number, an issue time, a ticket number, ticket sequence number, a machine number and a ticket value.  
     
     
         17 . The thermal printer of  claim 1 , wherein said second printed sheet of media is used to provide an audit trail for said first printed sheet of media.  
     
     
         18 . The thermal printer of  claim 1 , wherein the parameter values printed on said first sheet of media and said second sheet of media are in a textual format, a numerical format or a graphical format.  
     
     
         19 . A gaming machine for executing game play that issues ticket vouchers as part of a cashless system, the gaming machine comprising: 
 a master gaming controller designed or configured to present a game on the gaming machine and generate printing instructions for printing ticket vouchers;    a thermal printer for printing the ticket vouchers, said thermal printer comprising: 
 an interface for connecting to the master gaming controller of the gaming machine, said interface adapted to receive parameter values contained in said printing instructions from the master gaming controller for printing onto sheets of media;  
 a first thermal printing head arranged to receive first sheets of media and print said parameter values on said first sheets of media to generate issued ticket vouchers; and  
 a second thermal printing head arranged to receive second sheets of media and print said parameter values on said second sheets of media to generate duplicate ticket vouchers; and  
 a mechanism for receiving sheets of media for printing said parameter values and directing the first and second sheets of media to the first and second thermal printing heads, respectively,  
 wherein the parameter values printed on a first sheet of media using said first thermal printing head are substantially duplicated on a second sheet of media using said second thermal printing head.  
   
     
     
         20 . The gaming machine of  claim 19 , wherein the game is selected from the group consisting of a video black jack game, a video slot game, a mechanical slot game, a video poker game, a video keno game, a video pachinko game, a video lottery game and a video card game.  
     
     
         21 . The gaming machine of  claim 19 , further comprising: 
 a storage unit for storing said duplicate ticket vouchers.    
     
     
         22 . The gaming machine of  claim 19 , wherein the parameter values printed on said issued ticket vouchers and said duplicate printer vouchers are in a textual format, a numerical format or graphical format.  
     
     
         23 . The gaming machine of  claim 19 , wherein the parameter values printed on said issued ticket vouchers and said duplicate printer vouchers include an establishment, a location, a bar code, a ticket type, an issue date, a validation number, an issue time, a ticket number, a ticket sequence number, a machine number, a ticket value.  
     
     
         24 . A thermal printer for duplicate printing of parameter values indicating game play information obtained from playing a gaming machine, the thermal printer comprising: 
 an interface for connecting to a master gaming controller of the gaming machine, said interface adapted to receive said parameter values for printing onto sheets of media;    a thermal printing head arranged to receive sheets of media and print consecutively said parameter values on a first sheet of said media and on a second sheet of said media wherein the parameter values printed on the first sheet of media are substantially duplicated on the second sheet of media; and    a routing mechanism for receiving consecutively the first printed sheet of media and the second printed sheet of media and directing the first printed sheet of media to an issue slot and the second printed sheet of media to a storage unit.    
     
     
         25 . The thermal printer of  claim 24 , wherein prior to routing said printed sheets of media, said routing mechanism detaches said first printed sheet of media from said second printed sheet of media.  
     
     
         26 . The thermal printer of  claim 24 , further comprising a tray for storing said sheets of media prior to printing.  
     
     
         27 . The thermal printer of  claim 24 , wherein a first printed sheet of media is an issued ticket voucher and a second printed sheet of media is a duplicate ticket voucher.  
     
     
         28 . The thermal printer of  claim 27 , wherein the issued ticket voucher and the duplicate ticket voucher are used in a cashless system.  
     
     
         29 . The thermal printer of  claim 24 , further comprising: 
 a processor for generating control signals for controlling the printing on said thermal print head.    
     
     
         30 . The thermal printer of  claim 24 , further comprising: 
 a memory.    
     
     
         31 . The thermal printer of  claim 30 , wherein said memory stores said parameter values and printing templates.  
     
     
         32 . The thermal printer of  claim 24 , wherein the interface communicates with gaming devices used in a cashless system.  
     
     
         33 . The thermal printer of  claim 24 , wherein the parameter values include an establishment, a location, a bar code, a ticket type, an issue date, a validation number, an issue time, a ticket number, ticket sequence number, a machine number, a ticket value.  
     
     
         34 . The thermal printer of  claim 24 , wherein said second printed sheet of media is used to provide an audit trail for said first printed sheet of media.  
     
     
         35 . The thermal printer of  claim 24 , further comprising: 
 a storage unit for storing said second sheets of media.    
     
     
         36 . The thermal printer of  claim 35 , further comprising: 
 a storage unit capacity sensor for monitoring a quantity of said second sheets of media stored in the storage unit.    
     
     
         37 . A gaming machine for executing game play that issues ticket vouchers as part of a cashless system, the gaming machine comprising: 
 a master gaming controller designed or configured to present a game on the gaming machine and generate printing instructions for printing ticket vouchers;    a thermal printer for printing the ticket vouchers, said thermal printer comprising: 
 an interface for connecting to the master gaming controller of the gaming machine, said interface adapted to receive parameter values contained in said printing instructions from the master gaming controller for printing onto sheets of media;  
 a thermal printing head arranged to receive sheets of media and print consecutively said parameter values on a first sheet of said media and on a second sheet of said media wherein the parameter values printed on the first sheet of media are substantially duplicated on the second sheet of media; and  
 a routing mechanism for receiving consecutively the first printed sheet of media and the second printed sheet of media and directing the first printed sheet of media to an issue slot and the second printed sheet of media to a storage unit.  
   
     
     
         38 . The gaming machine of  claim 37 , wherein the game is selected from the group consisting of a video black jack game, a video slot game, a mechanical slot game, a video poker game, a video keno game, a video pachinko game, a video lottery game and a video card game.  
     
     
         39 . The gaming machine of  claim 37 , further comprising: 
 a storage unit for storing said second sheets of media after printing by said thermal print head.    
     
     
         40 . The gaming machine of  claim 37 , wherein the parameter values printed on said first sheet of media and said second sheet of media are in a textual format, a numerical format or a graphical format  
     
     
         41 . The gaming machine of  claim 37 , wherein the parameter values printed on said first sheet of media and said second sheet of media include an establishment, a location, a bar code, a ticket type, an issue date, a validation number, an issue time, a ticket number, ticket sequence number, a machine number, a ticket value.  
     
     
         42 . The gaming machine of  claim 37 , wherein prior to routing the printed sheets of media, said routing mechanism detaches said first printed sheet of media from said second printed sheet of media.  
     
     
         43 . A thermal printer for duplicate printing of parameter values, the thermal printer comprising: 
 an interface for connecting to an external device, said interface adapted to receive said parameter values for printing onto sheets of media;    a first thermal printing head arranged to receive first sheets of media and print said parameter values on said first sheets of media;    a second thermal printing head arranged to receive second sheets of media and print said parameter values on said second sheets of media; and    a mechanism for receiving sheets of media for printing said parameter values and directing the first and second sheets of media to the first and second thermal printing heads, respectively,    wherein the parameter values printed on a first sheet of media using said first thermal printing head are substantially duplicated on a second sheet of media using said second thermal printing head.    
     
     
         44 . The thermal printer of  claim 43 , wherein said external device is a gaming device.  
     
     
         45 . A thermal printer for duplicate printing of parameter values, the thermal printer comprising: 
 an interface for connecting to an external device, said interface adapted to receive said parameter values for printing onto sheets of media;    a thermal printing head arranged to receive sheets of media and print consecutively said parameter values on a first sheet of said media and on a second sheet of said media wherein the parameter values printed on the first sheet of media are substantially duplicated on the second sheet of media; and    a routing mechanism for receiving consecutively the first printed sheet of media and the second printed sheet of media and directing the first printed sheet of media to an issue slot and the second printed sheet of media to a storage unit.    
     
     
         46 . The thermal printer of  claim 45 , wherein said external device is a gaming device.