Roulette apparatus and roulette gaming machine

Abstract

A roulette apparatus includes: a roulette wheel having a rolling region where a ball rolls; and a ball reception member provided contiguously to the rolling region to receive the ball. The ball reception member includes: a plurality of reception portions that receives the ball in one of the reception portions; and a plurality of separation walls that separates the reception portions from one another, wherein the ball reception member is formed separately from the roulette wheel and removably attached to the roulette wheel.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO THE RELATED APPLICATION(S) [0001] The present application is based upon and claims a priority from a prior Japanese Patent Applications of: 1) No. 2004-236595 filed on Aug. 16, 2004; 2) No. 2004-242750 filed on Aug. 23, 2004; and 3) No. 2004-242761 filed on Aug. 23, 2004, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1. Field of the Invention [0003] The present invention relates to a roulette apparatus allowing a ball to roll thereon and having a plurality of ball reception members separated from one another and for receiving the rolling ball at predetermined timing, and relates to a roulette gaming machine that performs a game in which a ball is rolled on the roulette wheel. [0004] 2. Description of the Related Art [0005] In a so-called medal game such as a roulette gaming machine using a roulette wheel, medals are used as game media. The medal game is a game in which a player purchases or borrows a pluralit...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0010] In the roulette wheel disclosed in JP-A-8-229191, however, the rotatable wheel and the ball reception members are formed integrally. The ball reception members have to be separated in accordance with the symbols (numbers) so that the rolling ball is received in one of the ball reception members. It is therefore necessary to form a large number of partition walls for partitioning the reception regions. Accordingly, the rotatable wheel has to be molded in accordance with its complicated shape, so that the manufacturing cost increases.

[0018] (1) A roulette wheel in which ball reception members are formed separately and provided removably so that the roulette wheel can be molded easily in spite of its complicated shape with separation walls for defining reception portions for receiving a ball, while the separation walls which are easy to be worn can be repaired by replacing only the ball reception members with new ones, so that the maintenance work can be performed easily and efficiently.

[0019] (2) A roulette apparatus in which the compressed air discharged to a ball allows the ball to roll repeatedly without recovering the ball from the roulette wheel, so that any complicated mechanism such as a movable portion for recovering the ball or a launcher for launching the ball is not required, the maintenance work becomes easy and the equipment cost can be reduced.

[0020] (3) A roulette apparatus in which the discharge direction of the air can be changed over between different directions so as to bring the ball into a wide variety of rolling states and thereby prevent players from being bored.

[0021] (4) A roulette apparatus and a roulette gaming machine using the roulette apparatus, in which a roulette wheel is illuminated in various modes in accordance with the progress of a game so that novel stage effects using the illumination of the roulette wheel can be exhibited, and players' feeling of expectance or players' feeling of tension with a result of a lottery can be enhanced, while persons even in the distance are informed of the current state of progress of the game so that the convenience of gaming can be improved.

Problems solved by technology

Accordingly, the rotatable wheel has to be molded in accordance with its complicated shape, so that the manufacturing cost increases.

In addition, the partition walls for partitioning the reception regions are members that are worn very easily due to collision with the ball.

That is, due to repeated collision with the ball with long-term use, there may occur irregularities in the surfaces of the partition walls, or painting applied thereto may peel off.

Accordingly, the maintenance is inefficient, and a roulette wheel having a novel structure to solve such a problem has been desired.

Accordingly, the cost is increased, and it is highly likely that a game may be stopped due to a failure or the like in the movable portion.

Further, the maintenance work of the equipment becomes troublesome.

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