Patent ID: 7824260

Claim:
A gaming machine comprising: a display unit having a plurality of mutually adjacent, same shape display regions each being adapted to display one of a plurality of types of symbols; a draw control unit determining a symbol to be displayed in each of said plurality of display regions at each game; and wherein at each game, in a case that a predetermined number or more of mutually adjacent ones of said plurality of display regions satisfy a predetermined grouping condition, said draw control unit groups the display regions satisfying the grouping condition into a re-drawing group and determines number of following games, and at each of said determined number of following games, said draw control unit: (a) determines for each of one or a plurality of re-drawing groups grouped at previous games, a random symbol that is to be displayed in common in all of those display regions grouped into said each re-drawing group, from predefined special symbols among said plurality of types of symbols; (b) determines for each of those display regions that are not grouped into any of said one or a plurality of re-drawing groups, a random symbol that is to be displayed in said each display region, from said plurality of types of symbols; (c) groups into a new re-drawing group, said predetermined number or more of mutually adjacent display regions not having been grouped into any of said one or plurality of re-drawing groups but satisfying the grouping condition, and (d) consolidates one re-drawing group and another re-drawing group into a new re-drawing group in a case that the display regions grouped into said one re-drawing and the display regions grouped into said another re-drawing group satisfy said grouping condition; and wherein said grouping condition is satisfied where any of said predefined special symbols is displayed in common in all of said predetermined number or more of mutually adjacent display regions, and said predetermined number is equal to or more than two.