Patent ID: 7074127

Claim:
A gaming device comprising: a game operable upon a wager by a player; a plurality of reels in said game; a plurality of symbols on said reels, said symbols including at least two wild symbols including one of the wild symbols on each of two of said reels; a triggering event associated with a generation of one or more designated symbols on the reels; and a processor operable after said triggering event to: (a) cause a generation of a plurality of the symbols on the reels without an additional wager by the player, (b) provide the player any award associated with any winning combinations of generated symbols on said reels from said generation, (c) repeat (a) and (b) until one of said wild symbols is generated on one of said reels in said generation, and (d) if one of said wild symbols is generated on one of said reels in said generation, locking the position of the reel with said wild symbol for a designated number of further generations of symbols on a designated number of other reels, wherein (i) if a designated number of other wild symbols are generated on said reels in said designated number of further generations, unlocking the position of the reels with said wild symbol and returning to (a), and (ii) if a designated number of other wild symbols are not generated on said reels in said designated number of further generations, terminating any further generations of said reels until another wager is made in the game.