The virtual location of a player in a location-based game is determined from the real-world location of the player's client device. The location-based game provides the player access to one or more chat room based on their location. To determine the locations of chat room, a server analyzes player locations in a geographic region, clusters player locations to identify centroids, and adjusts the clusters based on constraints. The server selects chat room locations (e.g., at points of interest) to more evenly balance the number of players in each chat room while complying with one or more restraints on the size of the geographic area served by each chat room.

Systems and methods for updating content of a mobile video game allow for mobile communication devices to receive updated content for video games that operate on the devices. The updates may be promotional in nature, and may be pre-selected based on the device type, service, or service provider. The game may contain instructions that cause the mobile communication device to contact an interface and/or server to receive updated content. After the updated content is received by the mobile communication device, the content may be displayed in-game. The user of the mobile communication device may be provided with one or more options that affect the frequency or ability to receive or display updated content. In addition, the server may track what content has already been received by the mobile communication device.

A method of and system for handling latency issues encountered in producing real-time entertainment such as games of skill synchronized with live or taped televised events is described herein. There are multiple situations that are dealt with regarding latencies in receiving a television signal with respect to real-time entertainment based on the unfolding games played along with the telecasts. Systemic delays, arbitrarily imposed delays of a broadcast signal and variances in the precise broadcast times of taped television programs have to be equalized so as to provide fair entertainment.

A method of and system for handling latency issues encountered in producing real-time entertainment such as games of skill synchronized with live or taped televised events is described herein. There are multiple situations that are dealt with regarding latencies in receiving a television signal with respect to real-time entertainment based on the unfolding games played along with the telecasts. Systemic delays, arbitrarily imposed delays of a broadcast signal and variances in the precise broadcast times of taped television programs have to be equalized so as to provide fair entertainment.

A method of and system for handling latency issues encountered in producing real-time entertainment such as games of skill synchronized with live or taped televised events is described herein. There are multiple situations that are dealt with regarding latencies in receiving a television signal with respect to real-time entertainment based on the unfolding games played along with the telecasts. Systemic delays, arbitrarily imposed delays of a broadcast signal and variances in the precise broadcast times of taped television programs have to be equalized so as to provide fair entertainment.

A method of and system for handling latency issues encountered in producing real-time entertainment such as games of skill synchronized with live or taped televised events is described herein. There are multiple situations that are dealt with regarding latencies in receiving a television signal with respect to real-time entertainment based on the unfolding games played along with the telecasts. Systemic delays, arbitrarily imposed delays of a broadcast signal and variances in the precise broadcast times of taped television programs have to be equalized so as to provide fair entertainment.

In one embodiment, a system and method for controlling mobile gaming on a vessel may have a plurality of mobile gaming devices, a location server operable to track a device position of each of the plurality of mobile gaming devices and track a vessel position of the vessel, and a mobile gaming management server configured to communicate with the location server and a gaming server, the mobile gaming management server operable to individually control whether each of the plurality of mobile gaming devices is permitted to play a game of chance based on the device position and the vessel position.

Handheld location based games are provided in which a user's physical location correlates to the virtual location of a virtual character on a virtual playfield. Augmented Reality (AR) systems are provided in which video game indicia are overlaid onto a user's physical environment. A landscape detector is provided that may obtain information about the user's landscape, in addition to the user's location, in order to provide overlaying information to an AR head-mounted display and control information to non-user controlled video game characters.

Systems and methods of multi-participant interactive experiences are disclosed. Participants located location can interact with one another and share gaming, educational and other experiences. The system includes a coordination node to coordinate experiences between participants and one or more of interactive nodes. At each interactive node there is a main display that shows shared information to each of the participants and to other viewers. Each of the participants also uses a personal controller such as a smart phone which has a personal display. Information that is specific to the participant can be displayed on the personal controller.

A gaming system, comprising a site server configured to provide game instances to local gaming devices in communication with the site server, a monitor for displaying video information related to the game instances, a central server configured to provide information about the availability of a game to players using local gaming devices in proximity of the site server, provide information about the availability of the game to one of the mobile telephones over the wide-area wireless network, receive, from the one or more mobile telephones, an indication of a selected game offered by the central server, and relay game instances between the site server and the one or more mobile telephones as the selected game is being played by players using the local gaming devices and players using the one or more mobile telephones via the wide-area wireless network.