Server and game system

Abstract

A server is data-communicably connected to respective gaming machines and enables a mail transmission and reception among the gaming machines. Each of the gaming machines has an imaging unit that images a player and an input unit through which the player inputs his/her identification data item. The server has a storage and a rewriting unit rewriting the contents of the storage. When a specifying data item stored in the storage and associated with a player image data item resulting from an imaging by the imaging unit of any of the gaming machines is not identical to a specifying data item received from the gaming machine, the specifying data item stored in the storage is rewritten by the rewriting unit.

1 . A server that is data-communicably connected to respective gaming machines and enables a mail transmission and reception among the gaming machines, each of the gaming machines having an imaging unit that images a player and an input unit through which the player inputs his/her identification data item, 
 wherein the server comprises:    a storage that rewritably stores therein a player image data item resulting from an imaging by the imaging unit, a specifying data item that specifies each of the gaming machines, and the identification data item, in such a manner that these data items are associated with one another;    a first determination unit that determines, upon every imaging by the imaging unit, whether a player image data item resulting from the imaging has been stored in the storage or not;    a second determination unit that determines, when the first determination unit determines that the player image data item resulting from the imaging has been stored in the storage, whether or not a specifying data item associated with the player image data item in the storage is identical to a specifying data item received, upon every imaging by the imaging unit, from a gaming machine that has the imaging unit;    a rewriting unit that, when the second determination unit determines that the specifying data items are not identical, rewrites the specifying data item associated with the player image data item in the storage into the specifying data item received from the gaming machine;    a mail reception unit that receives from any of the gaming machines a mail addressed to an identification data item; and    a mail transmission unit that transmits the mail based on a specifying data item stored in the storage and associated with the identification data item to which the mail is addressed.    
   
   
       2 . A game system that includes gaming machines and a server data-communicably connected to the respective gaming machines, and enables a mail transmission and reception among the gaming machines, 
 wherein each of the gaming machines comprises:    a specifying data item storage that stores therein a specifying data item for specifying the gaming machine itself;    an imaging unit that images a player;    a player image data item generation unit that generates a player image data item based on a result of an imaging by the imaging unit;    an output unit that outputs the player image data item generated by the player image data item generation unit together with the specifying data item;    an input unit through which a player inputs his/her identification data item;    a mail preparation unit that prepares a mail addressed to an identification data item of another player; and    a mail transmission unit that transmits the mail prepared by the mail preparation unit,    wherein the server comprises:    a first reception unit that receives the player image data item and the specifying data item outputted from the output unit;    a second reception unit that receives the identification data item inputted through the input unit;    a storage that rewritably stores therein the player image data item, the specifying data item, and the identification data item, in such a manner that these data items are associated with one another;    a first determination unit that determines whether the player image data item received by the first reception unit has been stored in the storage or not;    a second determination unit that determines, when the first determination unit determines that the player image data item has been stored in the storage, whether or not a specifying data item associated with the player image data item in the storage is identical to the specifying data item received by the first reception unit together with the player image data item;    a rewriting unit that, when the second determination unit determines that the specifying data items are not identical, rewrites the specifying data item associated with the player image data item in the storage into the specifying data item received from the gaming machine;    a mail reception unit that receives from any of the gaming machines a mail addressed to an identification data item; and    a mail transmission unit that transmits the mail based on a specifying data item stored in the storage and associated with the identification data item to which the mail is addressed.    
   
   
       3 . A server that is data-communicably connected to a plurality of gaming machines each having a player imaging unit that images a player and a payout unit that pays out a game value based on a game result, and also data-communicably connected to a counter having a counting unit that counts the game value and a counting-person imaging unit that images a counting person, 
 wherein the server comprises:    a storage that stores therein a player image data item resulting from an imaging by the player imaging unit;    a retrieval unit that retrieves from the storage a player image data item that is identical to a counting-person image data item resulting from an imaging by the counting-person imaging unit; and    a first notification unit that notifies a result of retrieval made by the retrieval unit.    
   
   
       4 . The server according to  claim 3 , further comprising: 
 a payout amount data reception unit that receives an amount data item of the game value paid out by the payout unit;    a payout amount data storing unit that stores, into the storage, the payout amount data item received by the payout amount data reception unit, in such a manner that the payout amount data item is associated with a player image data item;    a counted amount data reception unit that receives an amount data item of the game value counted by the counting unit;    a comparison unit that compares the payout amount data item associated with the player image data item retrieved by the retrieval unit with the counted amount data item received by the counted amount data reception unit; and    a second notification unit that notifies a result of comparison made by the comparison unit.    
   
   
       5 . The server according to  claim 3 , wherein: 
 the storage stores therein a manager image data item regarding a manager of the gaming machines; and    the retrieval unit retrieves from the storage a manager image data item that is identical to a counting-person image data item resulting from an imaging by the counting-person imaging unit.    
   
   
       6 . A game system that includes a plurality of gaming machines each paying out a game value based on a game result, a counter counting the game value, and a server data-communicably connected to the respective gaming machines and the counter, 
 wherein each of the gaming machines comprises:    a player imaging unit that images a player;    a player image data item generation unit that generates a player image data item based on a result of an imaging by the player imaging unit; and    a player image data item transmission unit that transmits, to the server, the player image data item generated by the player image data item generation unit,    wherein the counter comprises:    a counting-person imaging unit that images a counting person;    a counting-person image data item generation unit that generates a counting-person image data item based on a result of an imaging by the counting-person imaging unit; and    a counting-person image data item transmission unit that transmits, to the server, the counting-person image data item generated by the counting-person image data item generation unit,    wherein the server comprises:    a player image data item reception unit that receives the player image data item transmitted by the player image data item transmission unit;    a storage that stores therein the player image data item received by the player image data item reception unit;    a counting-person image data item reception unit that receives the counting-person image data item transmitted by the counting-person image data item transmission unit;    a retrieval unit that retrieves from the storage a player image data item that is identical to the counting-person image data item received by the counting-person image data item reception unit; and    a notification unit that notifies a result of retrieval made by the retrieval unit.    
   
   
       7 . The game system according to  claim 6 , wherein the player imaging unit images a player at predetermined intervals.