Patent ID: 11922776
Assignee: ARISTOCRAT TECHNOLOGIES AUSTRALIA PTY LIMITED
Field: Control (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 14:
15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising a plurality of reel strips associated a first symbol set and a second symbol set, and instructions, for controlling a level of return-to-player in a gaming system including a plurality of gaming devices, each being operable to display a plurality of columns, each of the plurality of columns having a plurality of symbol positions, each of the symbol positions having a background, and a server comprising at least one processor, the instructions, which, when executed in a game instance, cause the at least one processor to perform the steps of:
determining at the at least one processor a threshold based on a number of symbol positions for each of the plurality of columns having symbols from the first symbol set;
determining which of the plurality of reel strips to select symbols from for each of the plurality of columns based on the threshold determined to control a probability of activation of the background when the first symbol set is selected for overlaying the background;
animating at a first gaming device of the plurality of gaming device a plurality of symbols being selected from the plurality of reel strips determined for the plurality of columns, based on a random value obtained from a random number generator;
upon a first symbol position in a first column animating one or more symbols from the first symbol set, animating an activation of a respective background of the first symbol position to retain the respective background for a subsequent game instance;
upon all backgrounds in the first column having been activated, animating a first award associated with the first column being presented at the first gaming device; and
controlling the first gaming device to animate a second award being presented for a winning combination evaluated based on the plurality of symbols displayed and the first award.