Patent ID: 7841936

Claim:
A method of operating a gaming system including a plurality of instructions, the method comprising: (a) causing at least one processor to execute the plurality of instructions to enable a player to place a wager on a play of a game; (b) causing at least one display device to display, in association with the play of the game, a plurality of different wheels, each of the wheels having a plurality of symbols including a discontinue symbol; (c) causing the at least one processor to execute the plurality of instructions to determine an active group of the wheels, the active group including a plurality of the wheels; (d) causing the at least one processor to execute the plurality of instructions to spin all of the wheels of the active group; (e) causing the at least one processor to execute the plurality of instructions to stop all of the wheels of the active group, wherein all of the wheels of the active group are stopped prior to any subsequent spinning of any of the wheels of the active group; (f) after all of the wheels of the active group have spun and stopped: (i) causing the at least one display device to indicate at least one of the symbols on each of the stopped wheels of the active group; (ii) causing the at least one processor to execute the plurality of instructions to determine whether to provide an award to the player, wherein the determination is based on each of the symbols indicated on each of the stopped wheels of the active group; (iii) if the determination is to provide the award to the player, causing the determined award to be provided to the player; and (iv) after determining whether to provide the award to the player: (A) in response to none of the discontinue symbols being indicated on any one of the stopped wheels of the active group, causing the at least one processor to execute the plurality of instructions to repeat (d) to (f) for all of the wheels of the active group, (B) in response to one of the discontinue symbols being indicated on at least one, but less than all, of the stopped wheels of the active group: (1) causing the at least one processor to execute the plurality of instructions to deactivate each wheel which is associated with the indicated discontinue symbol from the active group, and (2) causing the at least one processor to execute the plurality of instructions to repeat (d) to (f) for each wheel which is not deactivated from the active group, and (C) in response to one of the discontinue symbols being indicated on all of the stopped wheels of the active group, causing the at least one processor to execute the plurality of instructions to deactivate all of the wheels of the active group.