Patent ID: 8272960

Claim:
A gaming system comprising: at least one gaming machine in data communication with at least one system control resource configured to control the provision of at least first and second services to components of the gaming system, each of said services being implemented by way of one or more software processes running on one or more data processing resources of the gaming system, the at least one system control resource being further configured to dynamically allocate said software processes amongst the data processing resources of the gaming system; wherein the first service is a jackpot process configured to trigger an award of a jackpot prize and the second service is a game process configured to determine an outcome of one or more primary games playable on said at least one gaming machine, wherein the outcome is used to determine whether a primary award is made at said at least one gaming machine; and wherein the jackpot prize is made available to be won at the at least one gaming machine only when there is message communication between the jackpot process and the game process that authorizes eligibility of the jackpot prize at the at least one gaming machine, wherein, once eligibility of the jackpot prize is authorized, the primary award and the jackpot prize are both available during subsequent game play.