WMS awarded patent for new video poker concept

WMS Gaming has been assigned a patent (8,613,648) developed by Dion K. Aoki, Allon G. Englman and Joel R. Jaffe for a “…multi-game video poker machine and system with asymmetrically accessible customization features.”

Now a wholly owned subsidiary of Scientific Games, WMS first filed its application in November 2, 2011; the award of the patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office took place on December 24, 2013.

Allon Englman is the vice-president and design chief at WMS; Joel Jaffe is the senior director of games, and Dion Aoki is a game designer for the company.

Documents supporting the application describe the game concept as:

“A gaming system with asymmetric customization capabilities and a method of enabling asymmetric customization of a wagering game.

“A plurality of selectable game-play features are provided for utilization during the wagering game. Players accessing the game-play features are unequally limited as to which features are available for modification, depending on means of access.

“All features, however, are available for game-play, regardless of means of access.”