Patent ID: 8137188

Claim:
A gaming system comprising: a plurality of gaming machines, each gaming machine including: at least one display device, at least one input device, at least one processor, and at least one memory device which stores a plurality of instructions, which when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to operate with the at least one display device and the at least one input device to enable a player to play a game, wherein the game includes a plurality of outcomes that are each associated with an outcome probability; and a controller configured to communicate with the plurality of gaming machines, the controller including a plurality of progressive modules and programmed to: (a) maintain a plurality of progressive awards, wherein each progressive award is maintainable by one of the progressive modules, and each of the progressive awards is associated with a progressive award probability; (b) select one of the progressive awards, the selection occurring prior to selecting any of the outcomes to associate with the progressive award and the selection occurring independent of any determination to provide the progressive award; (c) determine if any of the outcome probabilities of any of the outcomes of the games of any of the gaming machines are equal or substantially equal to the progressive award probability of the selected progressive award; and (d) if any of the outcome probabilities of any of the outcomes of the games of any of the gaming machines are equal or substantially equal to the progressive award probability of the selected progressive award, without modifying or substantially modifying the progressive award probability of the selected progressive award: (i) select one of the gaming machines which includes at least one of the outcomes with one of the outcome probabilities that is equal or substantially equal to the progressive award probability of the selected progressive award, the selection of one of the gaming machines occurring prior to and independent of any determination to provide any of the progressive awards, (ii) associate the selected gaming machine with the progressive module which maintains the selected progressive award, (iii) select the outcome associated with the determined outcome probability that is equal or substantially equal to the progressive award probability of the selected progressive award, (iv) associate the selected outcome with the selected progressive award, and (v) if the selected outcome is generated by the selected gaming machine, cause the selected gaming machine to provide the selected progressive award to a player, wherein prior to the association of the selected outcome with the selected progressive award, if the selected outcome was generated by the selected gaming machine, the selected gaming machine would not provide the selected progressive award.