Patent ID: 8662991

Claim:
A method of operating a computerized reel-based gaming system, the gaming system including one or more gaming machines, each gaming machine having at least one input device, at least one processor, and at least one slot machine reel, the method comprising: responsive to a spin of the reels, automated obtaining a result of matching between the spin output corresponding to a cash-back combination and a winning cash-back combination, thus, in case of a mismatch, giving rise to a non-winning event; automated assessing by a processor a number of consecutive non-winning events with respect to said winning cash-back combination; and automated initiating a cash-back award to a gaming machine once the number of consecutive non-winning events for said gaming machine reaches a cash-back triggering number corresponding to said winning cash-back combination, wherein the method operates with at least one of the following configurations: the cash-back combination of symbols is configured differently from a combination of symbols configured in a basic operation of the reel game; and the cash-back winning combination is configured differently from the winning combination configured in the basic operation of the reel game.