Patent ID: 8475276

Claim:
A gaming network comprising: a plurality of gaming machines, each of the gaming machines having a game client process and a promotional client process; a game server located remote from the gaming machines, and arranged to run a plurality of game server processes; a common data storage located remote from the gaming machines, said common data storage storing predefined trigger data; and wherein the game client process of each of the gaming machines communicates with a unique one of the game server processes via a communication network, such that each of the gaming machines receives an individual game service from the game server, wherein the game client process of each of the gaming machines communicates event data, resulting through play of a game, via the communication network to the common data storage for storage; and a promotional server configured to evaluate the event data and the predefined trigger data stored in the common data storage to determine whether a trigger condition has occurred to initiate a shared game service such that the promotional server communicates with the promotional client processes of one or more of the gaming machines via the communication network to implement the shared gaming services, wherein the promotional client process of each of the gaming machines is run intermittently when required by the promotional server to implement the shared gaming services, the promotional server being further configured to enable one player to interact with another player via their respective gaming machines.