Patent ID: 8342958

Claim:
A gaming system comprising: a plurality of gaming devices, and at least one central controller configured to operate with the plurality of the gaming devices to: (a) maintain a plurality of progressive awards, (b) for each of a plurality of players, if a progressive event point accumulation event occurs, accumulate a quantity of progressive event points for that player, and (c) after an occurrence of a triggering event: (i) select one of the players to win one of the progressive awards, the selection being based on a designated wager placed by the selected player, (ii) assign the selected player to one of a plurality of progressive event tiers based on the quantity of progressive event points accumulated for the selected player, each one of the progressive awards associated with a probability of being provided for the assigned progressive event tier, (iii) randomly select at least one of the progressive awards in accordance with the probabilities associated with the assigned progressive event tier, and (iv) cause the at least one randomly selected progressive award to be provided to the selected player.