Patent ID: 9202336
Filing Date: 2015-12-01
Classification: G07F

Abstract:
1. In a gaming system having one or more electronic gaming devices for play by players, and a game server in communication with the electronic gaming devices, the game server and electronic gaming devices being configured to implement a method for awarding promotional awards and at least one jackpot, said method comprising: configuring a group of players for a promotional award; configuring eligibility within the group for the promotional award, wherein eligible players within the group are further divided into predefined sub-groups based on tiered rankings of the eligible players; configuring an award initial trigger criteria, an occurrence of which identifies the one or more gaming devices associated with the group eligible for the promotional award; configuring award entitlement criteria for the configured group; detecting satisfaction of the initial award trigger criteria based upon the play of the one or more gaming devices of at least the configured group; determining when one player of the configured group of players hits said at least one jackpot; and in response to determining that said at least one jackpot has been hit and as a result of detection of the initial award trigger and satisfaction of the award entitlement criteria, issuing a promotional award to each eligible player in the configured group by randomly selecting an eligible player from the configured group, awarding the selected player at a gaming location associated with the selected player, and repeating said randomly selecting and said awarding until each eligible player in the configured group has been awarded, wherein respective values of the promotional awards awarded to eligible players having a higher tiered ranking are higher than respective values of promotional awards awarded to eligible players having a lower tiered ranking.