Patent ID: 9558621
Date: 2017-01-31
CPC Classifications: G07F

Claim:
1. A gaming network comprising: a plurality of gaming machines, each one of the gaming machines being configured to run a spinning reel game client process and a promotional client process, each one of the gaming machines having: a game server remote from the gaming machines, and having a game server controller configured to run a plurality of separate spinning reel game server processes, wherein each of the gaming machines receives an individual spinning reel game service from the game server via the communications interface, the spinning reel game client process configured to: a promotional server configured to determine whether to initiate a shared spinning reel game service based on the event data stored in the common data storage module and predefined trigger data, and to initiate the shared spinning reel gaming service for selected ones of the gaming machines; wherein the shared spinning reel gaming service includes play of a shared spinning reel game in which the plurality of gaming machines participate, the play of the shared spinning reel game being conducted substantially simultaneously with play of each individual spinning reel game on each of the respective plurality of gaming machines, wherein outcomes of each individual spinning reel game are independent of the remainder of the plurality of individual spinning reel games, and wherein outcomes of the shared spinning reel game are defined by respective outcomes of at least one reel from each of the selected ones of the gaming machines.