Patent ID: 7892093

Claim:
A gaming system comprising: a plurality of gaming machines, each gaming machine including: 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 the at least one display device and the at least one input device to: (a) enable a player to place a wager to play a wagering game, and (b) for the play of the wagering game: (i) randomly generate a wagering game outcome, (ii) determine any wagering game award associated with the randomly generated wagering game outcome, (iii) display any determined wagering game award, and (iv) provide any determined wagering game award; and a controller in communication with said gaming machines, wherein the controller is programmed to determine if a bonus event will occur, and if the controller determines that the bonus event will occur, said controller is programmed to: (a) determine a quantity of said gaming machines to participate in the bonus event, said quantity being greater than one; (b) determine which of the gaming machines were in an active state during a bonus event qualification period for said bonus event; (c) for each gaming machine in the active state, determine a probability to participate in the bonus event based on the total wagers placed during a bonus event accumulation period for said gaming machine relative to the total wagers placed for all gaming machines in the active state during the bonus event accumulation period; (d) for each of the determined quantity of said gaming machines to participate in the bonus event, select one of the gaming machines in the active state based on the determined probability to participate in the bonus event, wherein at least one of the gaming machines is eligible to be selected a plurality of times even if said gaming machine was previously selected to participate in the bonus event; and (e) for each of the gaming machines selected to participate in the bonus event: (i) cause a determination of a bonus event award, said determination being independent of any of the wagering game outcomes generated in any of the plays of any of the wagering games of any of the gaming machines, (ii) cause a display of the determined bonus event award, and (iii) cause the determined bonus event award to be provided to the player of said gaming machine.