Patent ID: 7785193

Claim:
A method of issuing a cashless instrument for redeeming at least a bonus award that supplements a primary award of a primary game effectively provided by a gaming machine, the method comprising: receiving cash and/or an indicia of credit for a wager on the primary game; converting the cash and/or the indicia of credit to primary credits used for the wager on the primary game effectively provided by the gaming machine; executing part of a play of the primary game on the gaming machine after receiving the cash and/or indicia of credit; detecting a bonus event as the result of the execution of the part of the play of the primary game; determining whether or not said bonus event has triggered a bonus award for play during the primary game; if it is determined that said bonus event has triggered a bonus award for play during the primary game, then storing bonus data indicative of said bonus award to a bonus data repository maintained separately from the primary credits used for the wager on the primary game; and issuing the cashless instrument based on the bonus data stored on the bonus data repository after the determination that said bonus event has triggered said bonus award for play during the primary game effectively provided by the gaming machine as the result of the execution of the part of the play on the gaming machine, wherein the cashless instrument includes a separable primary award portion and a separable bonus award portion that are separable from each other, wherein the separable primary award portion is redeemable for a primary award won for play of the primary game, and the separable bonus award portion is redeemable for said bonus award, thereby allowing said bonus award to be separately redeemed from the primary award by separating the separable bonus award portion from the separable primary award portion and submitting said bonus award portion in order to receive said bonus award after said bonus award is verified based on the bonus data stored in the bonus data repository and wherein the cashless instrument further comprises indicia for playing a secondary bonus game beyond the primary game comprising collecting multiple different cashless instruments of a bonus award awarded for part of the play of the primary game.