Patent ID: 8246451

Claim:
A method for awarding a bonus promotion using celebration pay, wherein the celebration pay includes a portion of a bonus pool that is divided among non-winning gaming devices comprising: identifying, by a bonus controller communicatively coupled to a plurality of gaming machines, a first subset of said plurality of gaming machines eligible to participate in the celebration pay; selecting by the bonus controller one of the gaming machines within the first subset of gaming machines as a winning gaming machine; dividing a bonus pool into a winning payout, a reserve, and a remainder, the bonus pool is used to pay bonuses payable according to rules that are independent of the individual gaming machines; paying the winning gaming machine the winning payout from the bonus pool; determining a second subset of the gaming machines as celebration machines wherein the second subset of gaming machines is selected from the first subset of gaming machines; determining a celebration amount by dividing the remainder from the bonus pool among each of the celebration machines; comparing the celebration amount to a minimum threshold; determining by each of the celebration machines whether it is still eligible for celebration pay; returning the celebration amount to the bonus pool for each celebration machine that determines it is no longer eligible to receive celebration pay; paying the celebration amount to each of the celebration machines that are still eligible for celebration pay and if the celebration amount is above the minimum threshold by sending a first message to each of the celebration machines, the message including the celebration amount; and receiving a second message from each of the celebration machines indicating that the celebration amount was paid to the celebration machine or returning an excess of a total celebration amount to the bonus pool if the total celebration amount paid is determined to be less than expected.