Mystery gambling machine boards

[Stonent]

I took a trip to Tanner Electronics again in search of the usual something that I know I can't live without until I see it and again they didn't disappoint.  They had a box of mystery boards (which they normally do) but these were one dollar each.
Just described as mystery board with optocouplers.

I dug through the bin in search of any clues as to what they came from and one of them said "Royal Casino" and the other said "Vegas" on a sticker.

All boards in the bin were identical marked "BRU V5" and "Confidential Data Systems Inc"

From the names Royal Casino and Vegas I assumed they were some kind of gambling machine or similar board. 

Searches for Confidential Data Systems Inc found several hits that indicated they were based in Hollywood, Florida but not a whole lot more.  When I combined the search with terms related to games, I found a lawsuit filed against them by Maverick Manufacturing LLC for breach of contract.  No details on the case but Maverick Manufacturing LLC seems to be now operating under the name Big Daddy Games which make video gambling systems.  http://www.maverickmfg.com

There are a few interesting things on the board.  The main one, I think is the uPSD3234a chip which is an 8032 MCU with integrated 16 Macrocell CPLD. There is an L293 Motor driver and a connector marked motor.  There is an unpopulated area in the corner with a spot that seems to be marked for an antenna with a guard trace around it.  I suspect place for an off the shelf GSM or Wifi board with castellations on the side.  There's also a 4 pin connector marked "reader" and unpopulated areas for LEDs, a speaker, USB and one marked COMM and an LCD connector.

In the center is an ST Snaphat battery module, presumably on top of an RTC chip.

"Reader" makes me wonder if this might have been used for reading some kind of card like they have at some casinos where you load cash onto it and just slide it into the machine.

Any other theories or ideas?

Here's a photo album with more pictures.
http://imgur.com/a/jpgRk

[festercluck]

Sorry to resurrect, but I've got one of these boards too. I'm curious if you ever had any success with it. If we can't make it work, maybe we can make it better.

[DrGeoff]

Could be part of a linked jackpot system.
Earlier systems used pulses from each gaming machine linked to the jackpot system and this is used to generate the big jackpot display. The jackpot winner was selected according to random jackpot amount in cents.

[festercluck]

I know that the board seems to have headers for networking, a monitor, controls, speakers, and usb in there. I'm thinking this is it's mainbord.

[CopperCone]

those company names are just lol

principle lewis from american dad must run big daddy games 

[Kjelt]

Try to find out the url of their website they once had and than goto the "wayback machine" and look at their products from the past.

[mikef187]

I used to work on slot machines. They are a simply Linux computer and all the devices, screens, speakers, bill acceptor, loyalty card reader, printer, buttons, etc. are peripherals. They require a network connection to operate. They have no hard drive storage they boot via netboot and tftp the OS (including gaming software) from a server on power up.  The odds are changed as often as the casino wishes, and jackpots are awarded from a central server. When a clerk goes to verify the jackpot, she will use a backend terminal to view the jackpot amount and machine number before she can get the cash to disperse.

So enjoy your Linux computer.

[creatoranahilk]

it is quite intersting

EDIT: Removed spam quote.

[MarkT]

I am reminded of a quote from the "The Newtonian Casino", something along the lines of "why would anyone enter a casino _without_ having a microcontroller in their shoe?"