Coins Thrown Onto the Reels, Then Turned Over A Prize Reveal That Waits for the Player to Press Again

This application covers a spinning reel gaming system in which the machine adds extra symbols to an outcome after the symbols have already been chosen, then holds back what those extra symbols are worth until a separate condition is satisfied. In the worked example the added symbols are golden coins, thrown onto the reels by an animated character, and the condition is the player pressing the play button again, at which point the coins turn over to reveal what is underneath. It was filed by Aristocrat Technologies Australia Pty Limited and continues a divisional line that began with an Australian application filed in 2018. The mechanism is distinct from the hold and spin bonus rounds that dominate the rest of Aristocrat’s filings in this batch.

The Problem

The background in this specification is unusually brief, and the brevity is informative. It describes a spinning reel game at its most basic: symbols are selected for display at the symbol display positions, the game controller evaluates them for winning combinations, and a prize is awarded for each combination found. It then closes with a single sentence. A need exists for alternative gaming systems.

That is a candid statement of the real pressure in this industry. The mathematics of a reel game are fixed by regulation, and a machine that plays like the one beside it will not earn its floor space. What is being solved is not a technical fault but an entertainment problem, and the specification does not pretend otherwise.

The particular limitation being worked around is the timing of information. In a standard reel game everything resolves in one motion: the reels stop, the symbols are visible, the combinations are evaluated and the credit is paid. The player’s only input is the decision to spin, and once that decision is made the outcome unfolds without them. A game built that way can only be as engaging as a single moment of anticipation allows, which uses very little of what a modern video reel machine can display.

What This Invention Does

Claim 1 defines a gaming system with a display device, an input device and a game controller holding a symbol set and instructions. The controller selects symbols from the set for display, then performs two separate modification steps that are the heart of the claim.

First, in response to determining that a symbol modification condition is met, it modifies at least one of the selected symbols to include at least one prize awarding symbol. This is an insertion step: symbols already chosen are altered to carry something extra. In the described embodiment a prize awarding symbol determiner checks the selected symbols, and a display controller runs an animation in which a leprechaun throws golden coins from an upper portion of the display down onto the reels spinning on the lower portion. The reels stop once the coins have landed at their display positions, so the coins appear to arrive from outside the reel strip rather than to have been part of it.

Second, in response to determining that a designated condition is met, the controller modifies the prize awarding symbol to reveal at least one award. This reveal step is deliberately decoupled from the first. The award can be a wild symbol, a credit prize, a bonus prize, or a named jackpot at mini, minor, major or grand level. In the described embodiment the designated condition is the player pressing the play button, watched by an input device monitor. Claim 2 offers a different trigger entirely: the condition is met when the wager amount is greater than a predefined threshold, which makes the reveal a function of stake size rather than of a further button press.

Only after both modification steps does the controller evaluate the plurality of symbols as modified to determine an award amount. The evaluation runs on the changed grid, not the original one.

The specification then adds a loop the dependent claims track. An award determiner checks whether any revealed award is a special award such as a bonus prize or a jackpot. If it is, the machine waits for the designated condition to be met again, and modifies that award to reveal another award. This repeats until no modified award is a special award. A single coin can therefore be turned over several times in succession, each turn potentially producing something else.

Key Features

• Symbols altered after selection. The claim modifies symbols already selected for display, rather than including prize awarding symbols in the original draw.
• A reveal held back from the landing. Placing the prize awarding symbol and disclosing its value are two separate claimed steps governed by two separate conditions.
• A player action as the gate. In the described embodiment the reveal is triggered by the player pressing play again, so the second half of the outcome is paced by the person at the machine.
• A wager threshold alternative. Claim 2 makes the designated condition a wager amount above a predefined threshold, tying the reveal to stake rather than to input.
• Coins that flip. Claim 3 identifies the prize awarding symbol as a coin and claim 4 has the controller modify it by flipping it, turning a coin toss into the reveal animation.
• Cascading re-reveals. Where a revealed award is a jackpot or bonus prize, meeting the condition again causes that award itself to be modified into another award, repeating until nothing special remains.
• Evaluation on the modified grid. The award amount is calculated from the symbols as modified, so inserted coins and revealed wilds both feed the final combination check.

Who Is Behind It

Aristocrat Technologies Australia Pty Limited is the local operating arm of Aristocrat Leisure Limited, founded in 1953 and now one of the largest suppliers of gaming machines and casino systems in the world. It is based in North Ryde in Sydney and publishes its corporate details on its official website. The Australian filings in this family are prosecuted through the Melbourne office of patent attorneys Griffith Hack.

Three inventors are named: Billy Tam, Liam Sanders and Alex Sidoti. The inventor group is entirely different from the teams behind Aristocrat’s hold and spin filings published in the same journal issue, which fits a mechanic operating on a different part of the game.

On the priority chain, the specification is explicit about the divisional lineage and silent about anything earlier. AU 2026202119 is a divisional of Australian application 2023270250, itself a divisional of Australian application 2018236750. Unlike some of Aristocrat’s other filings in this batch, this specification contains no claim to any foreign provisional or convention application. On the material available the priority is Australian, and the table below records it as such rather than inferring a foreign origin the document does not support.

Why It Matters

Splitting placement from reveal is a small change in software terms and a large one in how a game feels. It converts a passive result into a short sequence of discrete events, each requiring the player to act, and it lets a manufacturer build a whole presentation layer on top of an outcome the random number generator has already decided. The regulated payout percentage is untouched. What changes is the number of moments the player is asked to attend to.

That is why design work of this kind attracts attention beyond the industry. Australian state gambling regulators and researchers have looked closely at how machine features shape playing behaviour, and features that break one outcome into several staged reveals are a recognised part of that discussion. The claim tying the reveal to a wager above a predefined threshold is notable in this respect, because it makes access to the feature depend on how much is being bet.

Commercially, the filing says the mechanic is considered worth defending. Two divisionals deep, eight years after the original Australian application, is a deliberate maintenance of scope around an idea that presumably ships in product.

Related Concepts

• Slot machine – the spinning reel game format the claimed system modifies.
• Coin flipping – the physical action borrowed for the reveal animation in the dependent claims.
• Progressive jackpot – one class of award a flipped coin can uncover.
• Reinforcement – the behavioural concept behind staged, player triggered reveals.
• Liquor and Gaming NSW – the regulator in the applicant’s home state for machines of this type.
• AU 2026202119 on IP Australia – the official register record for this application.

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AU 2026202119 was published in the Australian Official Journal of Patents on 9 April 2026 and is open for public inspection. Patent applications represent inventions that are sought to be protected and do not necessarily reflect commercially available products.