JPH0675276B2 - Play media rental system with prepaid cards - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION <Industrial field of application> The present invention relates to a prepaid card which is given a value according to the amount of money prepaid, and in particular, the present invention relates to such a card. The present invention relates to a display system using a prepaid card applied to a game medium lending machine for lending a game medium such as a game medal.

<Prior Art> Prepaid cards are currently used for various purposes such as telephone cards. For example, when a telephone card is inserted into a public telephone, a call can be made according to the value of money (remaining frequency) at that time. Usually, this type of card has a printed surface on the front side and a magnetic recording surface with a magnetic coating on the back side, and in addition to the necessary information, advertisement characters and designs of the vendor are printed. .

<Problems to be solved by the invention> However, in such an advertisement by printing, since the advertisement on the card surface is only visible when the card holder uses the card, there is a function to call the attention of the card holder. It is scarce, and even after it is inserted into a public telephone, the card is taken into the machine, so the advertising function is not exhibited at all. And in recent years, a medal lending system has been proposed in which a prepaid card is inserted into a medal lending machine to lend out medals for a slot machine.This type of system is similar to a public telephone, There is a problem that the function is not fully exerted.

I have a problem.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and by a prepaid card having an excellent advertising function by recording advertisement presentation information on a prepaid card with a code and displaying an advertisement corresponding to the code when the card is used. The purpose is to provide a game media lending system.

<Means for Solving Problems> The present invention relates to a prepaid card provided with a monetary value, a play medium lending machine for releasing and renting out a number of play media according to the monetary value of the prepaid card, and this game. A play medium lending system using a prepaid card, which comprises a display electrically connected to a medium lending machine, wherein the prepaid card has a code recorded with advertisement designation information for code-designating an advertisement to be displayed on the display. The game medium lending machine further comprises a recording section, a card handling slot for receiving and returning a prepaid card, a card transport mechanism for loading and unloading the prepaid card into the card handling slot, and the advertisement designation. A memory in which display data of a plurality of advertisements code-specified by information is stored,
Information reading means for reading the advertisement designation information from the code recording portion of the prepaid card which is provided on the transport path of the card transport mechanism and carried in from the card handling port, and code designation by the advertisement designation information read by the information reading means Display control means for reading the display data of the advertisement to be displayed from the memory and displayed on the display.

<Operation> When the prepaid card is inserted into the card handling slot of the game media lending machine, after the advertisement designation information is read from the code recording section of the prepaid card, the display data of the advertisement code-designated by this advertisement designation information is displayed. The advertisement is read from the memory and the advertisement is displayed on the display.

With this display, the cardholder's attention is called up, and even if the card is taken into the game media lending machine, the advertisement is carried out during that time, so the advertising function is fully exerted.

<Embodiment> The drawings show an example in which the game medium lending system using a prepaid card according to the present invention is applied to a medal lending machine such as a slot machine.

FIG. 1 shows an installation situation of a medal lending machine according to the present invention, in which a thin medal lending machine 1 is arranged at an intermediate position between two slot machines 2a, 2b.

The slot machines 2a and 2b are equipped with three reels 3A to 3C each having a plurality of symbols on the peripheral surface, and 3 after the medal is inserted.
When the individual reels 3A to 3C are simultaneously rotated and stopped, the winning or losing of the game is decided depending on what kind of symbol combination is generated on the stop line.

The medal lending machine 1 is for lending medals for this game, and as shown in FIG. 2, a display device 5, a medal supply port 6, a medal ejection port 7, a card handling port 8, on the front of the machine body 4, Illuminated selection button switch 9, amount display 10 and the like are arranged.

The display 5 is for displaying advertisements, which will be described later, and in addition to the CRT used in this embodiment, an electronic display board in which light emitting diodes, light bulbs and the like are arranged, a liquid crystal or the like can be adopted.

As shown in FIG. 3, the medal supply port 6 is for opening the door plate 11 and supplying the lending medals to the medal sending device 12 inside the machine body 4. This medal sending device 12 is provided with a hopper 13 and an auxiliary hopper 14 for storing medals,
A medal sending mechanism (not shown) is activated based on a command from a control circuit 37 described later, and a predetermined number of medals in the hopper 13 are discharged to the medal discharge port 7. In the figure, 15 is a hopper motor that drives the medal sending mechanism.

The card handling port 8 is a part that accepts insertion of a prepaid card. The amount display 10 displays the amount value (current value) of the prepaid card. The selection button switch 9 is for selecting the number (amount) of medals to be rented.

4 and 5 show the structure of the prepaid card 16 used in this embodiment.

The prepaid card 16 of the illustrated example has a printing surface 17 on the surface,
A magnetic recording surface 18 made of a magnetic material coating film is provided on the back surface. In addition to the necessary information, the printing surface 17 is printed with characters and designs for advertisement of the trader. The printing surface 17 has a perforation recording section 19 in which the remaining monetary value is visibly recorded, and a code recording section in which advertisement designation information regarding advertisement display is recorded.
20 are provided, and holes 21 are formed in the punching recording unit 19 at positions where the remaining monetary value is shown.

In the case of this embodiment, the code recording unit 20 is configured by sticking a sticking sheet on which a barcode is printed, and has a mechanism for designating the content of advertisement display by this barcode. For example, the advertisement display of company A, company B, and company C is prepared in advance, and the display data is stored in the medal lending machine 1, and the bar indicating which advertisement is displayed on the code recording unit 20 of each prepaid card 16. It is recorded by the code.

Of course, in addition to the amount information, various information necessary for card transactions is recorded on the magnetic recording surface 18 by a magnetic method.

Returning to FIG. 2, a card transport mechanism 22 as shown in FIG. 6 is provided inside the machine body 1 inside the card receiving port 8.

The card transport mechanism 22 of the illustrated example includes upper and lower transport belts 23, 24.
The prepaid card 16 is sandwiched between the two to carry in and out, and in the figure, 25, 26, 27 and 28 are rollers on which the conveyor belts 23 and 24 are stretched, and 29 is a conveyor motor for driving the belt.

A magnetic head 30, two optical heads 31 and 32, three position sensors 33 to 35, and a perforation mechanism 36 are arranged along the transport path.

The magnetic head 30 is for reading transaction information from the magnetic recording surface 18, the first optical head 31 is for reading advertisement specifying information by a bar code from the code recording unit 20, and the second optical head 32 is This is for reading the amount information by punching from the punching recording section 19.

The first position sensor 33 detects insertion of a prepaid card. The second position sensor 34 detects arrival of the prepaid card to the head group. The third position sensor 35 is a punching mechanism 36.
The arrival of the prepaid card to the.

The punching mechanism 36 is for punching at a predetermined position of the punching recording section 19, and a solenoid serves as a driving source of the punching mechanism 36.

FIG. 7 shows a control circuit incorporated in the medal lending machine 1.
37 is shown.

The control circuit 37 is mainly controlled by the CPU 38 of the microcomputer, and the sensor control circuit 39 and the magnetic head control circuit 4
0, optical head control circuit 41, 42, hopper motor control circuit 43,
Each control circuit such as a carry motor control circuit 44, a solenoid control circuit 45, and a display control circuit 46 is provided.

The sensor control circuit 39, the magnetic head control circuit 40, and the optical head control circuits 41 and 42 control the operations of the position sensors 33 to 35, the magnetic head 30, and the optical heads 31 and 32 along the card transport path. The hopper motor control circuit 43 controls driving of the hopper motor 15 in the medal sending mechanism, and the carry motor control circuit 44 controls driving of the carry motor 29 in the card carrying mechanism 22. The solenoid control circuit 45 controls driving of the solenoid in the punching mechanism 36. The display control circuit 46 controls the display operation of the display unit 5.

FIG. 8 shows a concrete circuit configuration of the display control circuit 46. A CPU 48, which is a control body, is connected to a ROM 48 for storing a program and a RAM 49 as a work area by a bus 47, and a CRT. CRT via interface 50
Is connected to the display device 5.

The display control circuit 46 includes a plurality of video memories 51 in which display data for displaying advertisements of respective companies are stored, and a graphic controller processor 52 for executing drawing processing on the display 5 at high speed. Has been. The graphic controller processor 52 reads display data for advertisement from the video memory 51 corresponding to the code read from the code recording unit 20 of the prepaid card 16,
The advertisement content is drawn on the display device 5 via the CRT interface 50.

FIG. 9 shows a control procedure by the CPU 38.

Now, when the prepaid card 16 is inserted into the card handling slot 8, the position sensor 33 detects this and step 1 in the same figure is performed.
The determination (indicated by "ST1" in the figure) becomes "YES", and in the next step 2, the carry motor 29 rotates in the forward direction to carry in the card by the carry mechanism 22 (step 2). While the card travels along the transport path, the magnetic head 30 sends transaction information from the magnetic recording surface 18, the optical head 31 receives advertisement specifying information (code) from the code recording unit 20, and the optical head 32 receives money from the punching recording unit 19. The information (remaining amount) is read and given to the CPU 38 (step 3).

The CPU 38 discriminates the authenticity of the card from the transaction information, and if the card is proper, step 4 becomes "YES". Also CP
The U38 judges the remaining amount of the card from the amount information, and if the remaining amount is not zero, step 5 "YES" is reached and the process proceeds to the next step 6.

If either of the determinations in steps 4 and 5 is "NO", the process proceeds to step 22, the transport motor 29 is rotated in the reverse direction, and the transport mechanism 22 returns the loaded card 16.

In steps 6 and 7, it is judged from the read code which advertisement specifying information, and for example, the code is A
If the advertisement display of the company is designated, step 6 becomes "YES", and the graphic controller processor 52 reads the display from the corresponding video memory 51 and displays the predetermined advertisement on the display 5 (step 8). If the reading code specifies the advertisement display of company B, step 7 is "YES".
If the read code specifies the advertisement display of company C, steps 7 and 8 are both "NO". Similarly, the graphics controller processor 52 has the corresponding video memory 51.
Then, the display data is read out and a predetermined advertisement is displayed on the display 5 (steps 9 and 10).

Thus, when the prepaid card is conveyed to the predetermined position, the position sensor 35 detects this and step 11 becomes "YES", and in step 12, the conveyance motor 29 stops driving and the carry-in operation is completed. Next, the CPU 38 turns on the selection button switch 9 according to the current value of the prepaid card, and waits for button operation (steps 13 and 14).

If any of the selection button switches 9 is pressed now, the step
When 14 is "YES", the process proceeds to step 15, and the CPU 38 calculates the balance. For example, when the prepaid card 16 currently has a value of 1000 yen and the medal for 500 yen is to be lent out, the remaining amount is 500 yen, and in step 16, the medal sending device 12 outputs the medal for 500 yen to the medal outlet 7. At the same time, the perforation mechanism 36 operates in step 17 to perforate the position where the remaining monetary value is 500 yen.

Next, in step 18, the carry motor 29 is rotated in the reverse direction to move the carry mechanism 22.
Takes out the prepaid card. When this card reaches the card handling port 8, the position sensor 33 detects this and step 19 becomes "YES", the driving of the carry motor 29 is stopped at the next step 20, and the advertisement display on the display 5 is carried out. Is cleared (step 21).

As shown in FIG. 10, the plurality of medal lending machines 1 having the above-described configuration are connected to a counting machine 54 via a bus 53, and the counting machine 54 is further connected to a host computer 56 via a bus 55. The aggregator 54 aggregates card transaction data from each medal lending machine 1 and gives it to the host computer 56. The host computer 56 inputs the data from the aggregator 54 and the card from the card vending machine 57 that releases the prepaid card 16. The release data is fetched and a predetermined management process is performed.

In the case of this embodiment, the CRT is provided as the display device 5 only on the medal lending machine 1, but the electric light is spread over other positions, for example, two slot machines 2a, 2b as shown in FIG. A second display 58 such as a display board may be provided, in which case the advertising function can be further enhanced.

<Effects of the Invention> As described above, according to the present invention, the advertisement specifying information is recorded in the code recording section of the prepaid card by a code, and a plurality of advertisements code-specified by the advertisement specifying information are displayed in the memory of the play medium lending machine. By storing the data, when the advertisement designation information is read by inserting the prepaid card, the display data of the advertisement code-designated by the advertisement designation information is read from the memory and displayed on the display unit. This advertisement display calls the cardholder's attention, and even if the card is taken into the machine, the advertisement is carried out during that time, so that the advertisement function can be fully exerted.

In addition, since the prepaid card only records the code as the advertisement designation information, the amount of data to be recorded is small, the information can be easily recorded by the bar code, and the memory contents can be freely set. By doing so, even if the same advertisement designation information is used, various advertisements can be displayed according to the type of the play machine, the place where the play machine is installed, and so on.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view showing the arrangement of a medal lending machine to which the present invention is applied, FIG. 2 is a front view showing the appearance of a medal lending machine, and FIG. 3 is an explanatory view showing the internal mechanism of the medal lending machine. FIG. 4 is a plan view showing the printing surface of the prepaid card, FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along line VV in FIG. 4, FIG. 6 is an explanatory view showing a card transport mechanism, and FIG. Block diagram showing the configuration, FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of the display control circuit, FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the control procedure of the CPU,
FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing the overall structure of a card transaction system including a medal lending machine, and FIG. 11 is a front view showing another embodiment of the present invention. 1 …… Medal lending machine, 5,58 …… Display unit 8 …… Card handling slot 16 …… Prepaid card 20 …… Code recording section, 31 …… Optical head 46 …… Display control circuit, 51 …… Video memory

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A prepaid card provided with a monetary value, a play medium lending machine for releasing and renting out a play medium of a number corresponding to the monetary value of the prepaid card, and a display electrically connected to the play medium lending machine. A play medium lending system using a prepaid card including a display device, wherein the prepaid card includes a code recording unit for recording advertisement specifying information for specifying a code of an advertisement to be displayed on the display device. The medium lending machine includes a card handling slot for receiving and returning a prepaid card, a card carrying mechanism for loading and unloading a prepaid card into and from the card handling slot, and a plurality of advertisements coded by the advertisement designating information. A memory for storing display data, and a card loaded from the card handling port provided on the transport path of the card transport mechanism. Information reading means for reading the advertisement designation information from the code recording portion of the prepaid card, and display data of the advertisement code-designated by the advertisement designation information read by the information reading means from the memory and displayed on the display. A play medium lending system using a prepaid card, comprising a display control means.