Patent ID: 11935364
Assignee: IGT
Field: Control (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 7:
8. The method of claim 2, wherein the gaming system comprises multiple gaming machines, wherein a plurality of user devices comprises a portable communication device of a player member, wherein the predetermined sequence of characters comprises a group name, wherein one of the player members in the multi-player group plays in a different gaming session on different gaming machines, wherein notifying the user device comprises sending the award sharing message to the portable communication device of a corresponding player member, and further comprising:
when an amount of money expended on gaming sessions on the gaming machines is at least a predetermined amount, permitting, by the processor of the gaming system, each of the corresponding player members to withdraw the corresponding player member's allocable share of the winning outcome from an account of each of the corresponding player members; and
when an amount of money expended on gaming sessions on the gaming machines is less than the at least a predetermined amount, not permitting, by the processor of the gaming system, each of the corresponding player members to withdraw the corresponding player member's allocable share of the winning outcome from the account of each of the corresponding player members; and wherein the predetermined event occurs when a predetermined amount of money is used by the player members of the multi-player group to play games on gaming machines.