Patent ID: 7682248

Claim:
A gaming system comprising: at least one central controller programmed to maintain a plurality of progressive awards which increment based, at least in part, on a plurality of wagers placed on a plurality of plays of a plurality of wagering games; and a plurality of gaming machines, each gaming machine configured to communicate with the at least one central controller, each gaming machine including: at least one display device; at least one gaming machine processor; at least one input device; and at least one memory device which stores a plurality of instructions, which when executed by said at least one gaming machine processor after an occurrence of a random triggering event, cause said at least one gaming machine processor to operate with said at least one input device and said at least one display device to control a play of a secondary game by: (i) causing the at least one display device to display an indication of the plurality of progressive awards and a plurality of game components, (ii) maintaining a plurality of supplemental awards, each of the supplemental awards being greater than zero, (iii) for each one of the progressive awards, associating said progressive award with a separate one of the maintained supplemental awards, (iv) for each of a plurality of the maintained supplemental awards, associating said supplemental award with a separate one of a plurality of the game components, (v) causing a selection of one of the progressive awards and one of the game components, (vi) determining whether to provide the selected progressive award to a player, wherein the determination is based, at least in part, on the selected game component, (vii) if the determination is to provide the selected progressive award, providing the selected progressive award and the supplemental award associated with the selected progressive award to the player, (viii) if the determination is not to provide the selected progressive award, modifying the supplemental award associated with the selected progressive award, wherein said modification is based on the supplemental award associated with the selected game component, (ix) determining whether an ending condition occurs, and (x) if the ending condition does not occur, repeating (v) to (ix) until the ending condition occurs.