Patent ID: 9536393
Date: 2017-01-03
CPC Classifications: G07F

Claim:
1. A method of running a feature on a gaming system comprising a plurality of gaming consoles linked by a communication network, each of said gaming consoles having a credit input mechanism configured to permit player interaction to receive a credit input in the form of a physical item representing a monetary value for establishing a credit balance, the credit balance being increasable and decreasable based at least on wagering activity, and each of said gaming consoles having a hardware credit meter, said hardware credit meter being configured to monitor the credit input having been provided by the credit input mechanism receiving the physical item, the method comprising: running a plurality of elimination rounds of the feature in view of termination criteria to determine a single winner of a jackpot prize, each elimination round comprising: determining a set of participating gaming consoles for the respective elimination round; displaying a group of options on each of the participating gaming consoles; receiving selections of options from the displayed group of options in accordance with selections entered by players at the participating gaming consoles; determining for each of the options in the received selections (1) an entry fee for the respective option during the respective elimination round and (2) a probability of the respective option being a winning option for the respective elimination round; deducting the determined entry fees for the selected options for each round from the hardware credit meter of the respective participating gaming consoles that provided the received selections; choosing the winning option for the respective elimination from among the group of options based on the determined probability for each of the options being the winning option for the respective elimination round; eliminating consoles from the set of participating gaming consoles unless the winning option was selected at the respective console to obtain a set of remaining gaming consoles; when the termination criteria are met, selecting the single winner from one or more players at gaming consoles that are still in the set of remaining gaming consoles, and awarding the jackpot prize to the selected single winner; and wherein the termination criteria are not met, commencing a further elimination round, wherein said further elimination round, comprises displaying the group of options on each of the remaining gaming consoles; and adjusting the probability of each respective option such that the probability of each respective option being the winning option differs among the plurality of elimination rounds.