Patent ID: 8585494

Claim:
A wagering game system comprising: a wide-area central gaming controller; and a communication system configured to communicatively couple the wide-area central gaming controller to one or more local central gaming controllers, wherein the wide-area central gaming controller is operatively configured to: (i) determine a threshold trigger for awarding a wide-area award, the threshold trigger relating to a cumulative wager contribution; (ii) divide the cumulative wager contribution required to satisfy the threshold trigger into a plurality of blocks of threshold units, each threshold unit relating to a wagering contribution, with only one of the plurality of blocks of threshold units having a target threshold unit associated with a satisfaction of the threshold trigger; (iii) distribute a block of threshold units selected from the plurality of blocks of threshold units to one of the one or more local central gaming controllers; (iv) subtract the distributed block of threshold units from the plurality of blocks of threshold units; (v) distribute to at least one of the one or more local central gaming controllers blocks of threshold units, selected from remaining ones of the plurality of blocks of threshold units, until a distributed block of threshold units is determined to comprise the target threshold unit; and (vi) reset the wide-area award to a reset value following distribution of the one block of threshold units comprising the target threshold unit.