Patent ID: 7351146

Claim:
A gaming device comprising: a processor; a plurality of reels controlled by the processor, said reels having a plurality of symbols; a plurality of different paylines associated with said reels, each payline associated with each of the reels; and at least one input device operable by a player on one or more occasions, wherein the processor is programmed to: (a) receive a single wager input as a result of a single one of the operations of the input device, the single wager input corresponding to a value of at least one whole credit; (b) activate a quantity of more than one of the paylines in response to the single wager input; (c) automatically apportion the value across the quantity of the paylines in response to the single wager input, the apportionment being performed by at least determining: (i) a first fraction of said value to be wagered on a first one of the activated paylines; and (ii) a second fraction of said value to be wagered on a second one of the activated paylines, the first fraction being different than the second fraction if the value wagered divided by the quantity of activated paylines results in a remainder as determined by the processor; (d) if any winning symbol combination occurs on the first activated payline, provide an award to the player based on a multiple of the first fraction of said value, and (e) if any winning symbol combination occurs on the second activated payline, provide an award to the player based on a multiple of the second fraction of said value.