Patent ID: 7892085

Claim:
An electronic bingo game comprising: a display; an interface capable of accepting instructions from a player to initiate play of the bingo game; a memory capable of storing a plurality of software instructions, one or more winning bingo patterns and pay table information corresponding to said one or more winning bingo patterns; a random number generator capable of randomly selecting indicia from a predefined range of indicia; a processor for controlling the display, the interface and the random number generator, wherein the processor implements the following software instructions: (a) generating a bingo card on the display, the bingo card having a plurality of spaces, including one or more covered spaces so as to form a hidden portion and an unhidden portion of the bingo card; (b) assigning indicia from the predefined range of indicia to each of the plurality of spaces on the bingo card; (c) until the occurrence of a game ending event, iteratively selecting indicia from the predefined range, comparing the selected indicia to the indicia assigned to the plurality of spaces on the bingo card and identifying each of the plurality of spaces for which a match occurs; (d) paying a first award to the player if the pattern of identified spaces on the unhidden portion of the bingo card corresponds to one of said one or more winning bingo patterns; (e) after the game ending event, offering a player an option to play one or more of said one or more covered spaces; (f) responsive to a player accepting the option to play one or more of said one or more covered spaces, revealing one or more of said one or more covered spaces contained in the hidden portion of the bingo card and paying a second award to the player if the pattern of identified spaces formed on the uncovered spaces on the bingo card corresponds to one of said one or more winning bingo patterns; and (g) responsive to a player declining the option to play one or more of said one or more covered spaces, ending the game.