Patent ID: 8616953

Claim:
A processor-based gaming machine adapted for accepting a wager, playing a game based on the wager and granting a payout based on a result of the game, comprising: an exterior housing arranged to contain a plurality of internal gaming machine components therein; a master gaming controller in communication with at least one of said plurality of internal gaming machine components and adapted to execute or control one or more aspects of said wager based game; a display device in communication with said master gaming controller and adapted to present a plurality of simulated rotating reels, said display device including a viewing window and said plurality of simulated rotating reels including a set of reel stops, wherein said set of reel stops includes a first subset of reel stops comprising visible reel symbols and a second subset of reel stops comprising blank regions; and a simulated reel configurator in communication with at least one of said master gaming controller and said display device, wherein said simulated reel configurator is adapted to facilitate the display of said plurality of simulated rotating reels through said viewing window of said display device, and wherein said simulated reel configurator is adapted to configure at least one of said plurality of simulated rotating reels such that one or more visible reel symbols within said first subset of reel stops are stretched to change the size of the one or more visible reel symbols such that the one or more visible reel symbols are expanded into one or more blank regions of said second subset of reel stops adjacent thereto, thereby creating expanded reel symbols and reducing the amount of blank space occupied by the blank regions within said second subset of reel stops that may be seen by a player through said viewing window when movement of said at least one of said plurality of simulated rotating reels has stopped.