Patent ID: 7704138

Claim:
A system for wagering comprising: a vending device that accepts a sales price from a current user and assigns a multi-level wagering account having a play value initially equal to or slightly less than equal to the sales price to the current user; one or more gaming machines wherein at least a portion of the play value from the multi-level wagering account may be used to purchase a play; a processor communicably coupled to the vending device and the one or more gaming machines that distributes the entire sales price accepted from the current user to a specified number of previous users and an operator of the system in accordance with a payout formula, which is not based on a play of any user, by increasing the play value of one or more multi-level wagering accounts of the specified previous users, increases the play value of the multi-level wagering account of the current user based on the sales price accepted from a specified number of subsequent users in accordance with the payout formula and decreases the play value of the multi-level wagering account of the current user based on the plays purchased by the current user at the one or more gaming machines; and a data storage device communicably coupled to the processor that stores the play value of each multi-level wagering account.