Patent ID: 8216048

Claim:
Gaming apparatus, comprising: a plurality of gaming machines configured to provide respective players with a respective primary game and for providing primary game information to a gaming server, the gaming server being in communication with each of the gaming machines and responsive to the primary game information for providing a secondary game in which prizes are allocated to gaming machines selected from among the plurality of gaming machines, wherein the secondary game is configured to operate for a prize period at the end of which the prizes are allocated, and is repeated in successive prize periods, and wherein the secondary game is a keno-type game or a roulette-type game, wherein providing the secondary game includes, for each individual prize period: the gaming server configured to allocate symbols from a predetermined set of symbols among the plurality of gaming machines, wherein the allocation of symbols is specific to a current prize period, wherein the gaming server is configured to determine to allocate one or more symbols to a particular gaming machine based on activity at that gaming machine, wherein the number of symbols allocated to each respective gaming machine during a draw period is determined in dependence upon played credit at that gaming machine passing progressive thresholds with more unique symbols being allocated to each gaming machine, up to a predetermined maximum, as a result of increasingly higher levels of the played credit; each gaming machine being configured to respectively display its allocated one or more symbols wherein each gaming machine includes a respective screen configured to display its allocated one or more symbols; the gaming server configured to perform a randomized selection process thereby to select a plurality of symbols from the predetermined set of symbols; the gaming server configured to determine identity between symbols allocated to each gaming machine and symbols selected by the gaming server; and the gaming server configured to allocate the prizes among the gaming machines based on the identity between symbols allocated to each gaming machine and the symbols selected by the gaming server, such that the probability of a prize being allocated to a gaming machine in respect of a given prize period is related to the level of played credit at that gaming machine during the given prize period.