Patent ID: 8216060

Claim:
A gaming system comprising: a plurality of gaming machines; and a controller configured to communicate with said gaming machines, wherein the controller is programmed to: (a) identify a plurality of players at said gaming machines; (b) for each identified player, maintain a total of any wagers placed on said gaming machines during a bonus event accumulation period; (c) maintain a total of the wagers placed on all of the gaming machines during the bonus event accumulation period; (d) determine at designated intervals during the bonus event accumulation period if a bonus event will occur; and (e) if the bonus event is determined to occur: (i) determine which of the identified players were in an active state during a bonus event qualification period for said bonus event, (ii) select at least one of the identified players in the active state, wherein for each identified player in the active state, the probability of being selected is based on the total wagers placed during the bonus event accumulation period by that player relative to the total wagers placed for all of the identified players in the active state during the bonus event accumulation period, and (iii) cause a bonus award to be displayed and provided to the selected player.