Patent ID: 8408993

Claim:
A gaming system comprising: at least one input device; at least one display device; at least one processor; and at least one memory device which stores a plurality of instructions, which when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to operate with said at least one display device, and said at least one input device to: (a) enable a player to place a wager on a play of a primary game; (b) randomly generate a primary game outcome from a plurality of different primary game outcomes, at least one of the primary game outcomes associated with at least one bonus trigger condition and at least one, but not all, of the primary game outcomes associated with at least one progressive award increase condition for a progressive award; (c) automatically increase a value of the progressive award if the randomly generated primary game outcome corresponds to the at least one progressive award increase condition, an amount of said increase based on said randomly generated primary game outcome; (d) if the randomly generated primary game outcome corresponds to one of a plurality of different winning primary game outcomes: (i) provide the player an award associated with the randomly generated primary game outcome, and (ii) if the provided award associated with the randomly generated primary game outcome is the progressive award, reset the progressive award to an initial value; and (e) if the randomly generated primary game outcome corresponds to the at least one bonus trigger condition: (i) trigger a play of a bonus game, and (ii) for each triggered play of the bonus game: (A) randomly generate a bonus game outcome from a plurality of different bonus game outcomes, at least one of the bonus game outcomes associated with the at least one progressive award increase condition for the progressive award, (B) automatically increase the value of the progressive award if the randomly generated bonus game outcome corresponds to the at least one progressive award increase condition, the amount of said increase based on the randomly generated bonus game outcome, (C) provide the player any award associated with the randomly generated bonus game outcome, and (D) reset the progressive award to the initial value upon concluding play of the bonus game.