Patent ID: 8753197

Claim:
A method of operating a gaming system, said gaming system including a server in communication with a plurality of gaming machines wherein each gaming machine includes a primary game configured to operate upon a wager placed by a player, said method comprising: (a) causing the server to execute a plurality of instructions to determine if a bonus event will occur; and (b) if the bonus event is determined to occur: (i) causing the server to execute the plurality of instructions to determine a quantity of said gaming machines to participate in the bonus event, said quantity being greater than one; (ii) for each gaming machine, causing the server to execute the plurality of instructions to 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 during the bonus event accumulation period, said determination of the probability to participate in the bonus event being independent of determining any awards in association with the bonus event; (iii) after determining the probability to participate in the bonus event for each gaming machine, for each of the determined quantity of said gaming machines to participate in the bonus event, causing the server to execute the plurality of instructions to select one of the gaming machines based on the determined probability to participate in the bonus event, wherein the selection of one of the gaming machines based on the determined probability to participate in the bonus event is independent of determining any awards in association with the bonus event and at least one of the gaming machines is configured to be selected a plurality of times even if said gaming machine was previously selected to participate in the bonus event; and (iv) causing at least one display device to display the bonus event at at least each of the selected gaming machines.