Patent ID: 8357035

Claim:
A theme reservation system for reserving one of a first plurality of commonly themed wagering game instances, the game instances of the first plurality having limited availability for activation on a gaming machine, the first plurality being shared for concurrent play among a second plurality of gaming machines, the theme reservation system comprising: one or more display devices; one or more input devices; one or more processors; and one or more memory devices storing instructions that, when executed by at least one of the one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to operate with at least one of the one or more display devices and at least one of the one or more input devices to: receive, via at least one of the one or more input devices, a request from a player to reserve a currently unavailable game instance of the first plurality; generate a reservation linked to the player for the requested game instance, the reservation including one or more reservation parameters, wherein the reservation reserves a subsequently available game instance of the first plurality according to the one or more reservation parameters, and wherein the gaming machines of the second plurality are available for game play while the reservation is pending; activate the reserved game instance at a gaming machine of the second plurality in response to the player accessing the gaming machine while the reserved game instance is available; and display, via at least one of the one or more display devices, the themed wagering game for the player at the gaming machine.