Virtual roulette game

Abstract

A virtual roulette game is provided. An example system models virtual roulette wheel operation and generates a repeating sequence of numbers associated with a rotating roulette wheel. Each roulette number is shown, in turn, across multiple individual player displays, effectively turning the collective displays into a view of the rotating virtual roulette wheel. A player may place many types of wagers on where a number or virtual roulette ball will end up. In one implementation, a player may be designated as the virtual roulette ball. The system may allow multiple virtual roulette balls to change odds or enable additional bets. Color-coded roulette balls may also provide rolled die outcome, so that roulette and dice games may be played simultaneously on the same setup. The player stations of multiple electronic game tables and multiple remote video displays may be collectively coupled to become a single virtual roulette wheel.

1 . A method, comprising:
 modeling virtual roulette wheel operation including generating a dynamically repeating sequence of numbers associated with a virtual roulette wheel;   designating player stations;   displaying a different part of the dynamically repeating sequence of numbers at each of the designated player stations; and   moving the different parts of the dynamically repeating sequence of numbers across the player stations in a sequence.   
     
     
         2 . The method as recited in  claim 1 , further comprising:
 determining an order of the designated players stations that corresponds to an order of the dynamically repeating sequence of numbers; and   displaying the different parts of the dynamically repeating sequence of numbers on each of the designated player stations in the order.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein each designated player station shows one of:
 one number from the dynamically repeating sequence of numbers at a time;   two or more number from the dynamically repeating sequence of numbers at a time.   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising triggering a payout based on the virtual roulette wheel operation, including one of:
 triggering a payout when, through the virtual roulette wheel operation, a virtual ball of the virtual roulette wheel operation becomes associated with one of the numbers wagered upon;   triggering a payout when, through the virtual roulette wheel operation, a number wagered upon becomes associated with a player station submitting the wager;   triggering a payout for an individual player station when, through the virtual roulette wheel operation, a virtual ball of the virtual roulette wheel operation becomes associated with one of the numbers, and the number becomes associated with the individual player station.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the player stations are one of:
 located at the same electronic game table;   located at different electronic game tables;   located at a mix of electronic game tables and remote video displays;   located in the same room; and   located in different rooms.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising displaying the entire virtual roulette wheel on a community display. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising displaying a deceleration of the virtual roulette wheel by reducing a speed at which the dynamically repeating sequence of numbers is displayed. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 accepting a wager from a designated player station; and   when the virtual roulette wheel operation triggers a payout, calculating the payout based on the wager.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the wager comprises one of:
 a wager that a virtual roulette ball will land on a selected roulette number;   a wager that a red roulette color or a black roulette color will come to rest on a selected player station;   a wager that a selected number will come to rest on a selected player station;   a wager that a selected number will come to rest on a selected neighboring player station;   a wager that a selected number will come to rest on one of the player stations on a single electronic game table;   a wager that the virtual roulette ball will come to rest at a selected player station;   a wager designating one of the player stations to function as a virtual roulette ball.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said modeling virtual roulette wheel operation includes deriving virtual roulette wheel and virtual roulette ball behaviors from a physical roulette wheel. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising displaying all the numbers of the dynamically repeating sequence of numbers of the entire virtual roulette wheel across multiple designated player stations at multiple electronic game tables. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising replacing the dynamically repeating sequence of numbers with a dynamically repeating sequence of symbols. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising using multiple virtual roulette balls to change odds of winning a roulette round. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , further comprising color-coding each of multiple roulette balls, and accepting separate wagers on each color-coded roulette ball. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein a selected number of color-coded virtual roulette balls also function as or are displayed as one or more correspondingly color-coded virtual dice, to provide simultaneous roulette outcomes and die roll results. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein a player station can select whether to play a roulette game that uses the virtual roulette balls or a game that uses the virtual dice. 
     
     
         17 . A system, comprising:
 a processor;   a memory;   player stations, each player station having a video display;   a modeling engine for simulating operation of a virtual roulette wheel, including logic for generating a dynamically repeating sequence of numbers associated with a virtual roulette wheel;   a display engine for
 showing, at each given time, a different part of the dynamically repeating sequence of numbers at each of the player stations; and 
 animating movement of the dynamically repeating sequence of numbers in a temporal sequence across the player stations. 
   
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 17 , further comprising:
 a wager manager to accept wagers from one or more of the player stations, each wager based on an operation of the virtual roulette wheel.   
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 18 , wherein the wager comprises one of:
 a wager that a virtual roulette ball will land on a selected roulette number;   a wager that a red roulette color or a black roulette color will come to rest on a selected player station;   a wager that a selected number will come to rest on a selected player station;   a wager that a selected number will come to rest on a selected neighboring player station;   a wager that a selected number will come to rest on one of the player stations on a single electronic game table;   a wager that the virtual roulette ball will come to rest at a selected player station;   a wager designating one of the player stations to function as a virtual roulette ball.   
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 17 , further comprising enabling multiple simultaneous wagers, including:
 enabling wagering associated with multiple virtual roulette balls;   enabling wagering associated with multiple virtual roulette balls, wherein each virtual roulette ball also provides a die or a dice outcome;   enabling simultaneous wagering on a simultaneous virtual roulette game and virtual dice game.