Patent ID: 8128479

Claim:
A method performed in a gambling game comprising: receiving a player code in a current gaming session for playing a first type of game, the first type of game comprising: playing a primary game, the primary game rotating and randomly stopping a plurality of physical or virtual reels displaying symbols of different types, winning combinations of symbols of the same type granting instant awards to the player, a plurality of the winning combinations of symbols of the same type granting one or more bonus units to the player associated with that type of symbol; the bonus units being used in a secondary game to achieve different bonus awards, the secondary game comprising accumulating bonus units associated with different types of symbols, wherein an accumulation of a predetermined number of bonus units associated with a particular type of symbol awards the player a particular bonus award, the bonus award value being based on a probability of an associated symbol of that particular type occurring in the primary game, such that there are a plurality of different bonus award values that may be won by the player, wherein each type of symbol on a reel that can be involved in a winning combination of symbols that grants one or more bonus units to the player is associated with a particular bonus award whose value is based on the probability of the symbol of that particular type occurring in the primary game, wherein the predetermined number of bonus units associated with a particular type of symbol that is needed to obtain the associated bonus award is the same for all the symbols, and wherein the different types of symbols on the reels do not all have the same probability of occurring for each primary game; extinguishing accumulated bonus units associated with a particular type of symbol only after the predetermined number of bonus units associated with that type of symbol necessary to win a bonus award have been accumulated; storing accumulated bonus units associated with the different types of symbols when the player terminates a playing session; using the player code to retrieve from a memory the accumulated bonus units from a previous gaming session; and conducting the first type of game using the accumulated bonus units from the previous gaming session.