Patent ID: 7607976

Claim:
A gaming system comprising a controller; a plurality of gaming machines in communication with the controller, each gaming machine including a primary game operable upon a wager placed by a player; an accumulated wager pool maintained by the controller, said accumulated wager pool based at least in part on the wagers placed on the primary games of the gaming machines; and a plurality of bonus awards, each bonus award configured to be displayed and provided to the player of one of the gaming machines selected by the controller based on the accumulated wager pool and independent of any event in or of any play of any of the primary games of the gaming machines, said bonus award selected from said plurality of bonus awards by said selected gaming machine independent of the accumulated wager pool; wherein the controller is programmed to: (a) for each gaming machine, maintain a total of the wagers placed on the primary game of said gaming machine during a bonus event accumulation period for the bonus award; (b) maintain the accumulated wager pool including a total of the wagers on the primary games of all of gaming machines during the bonus event accumulation period for the bonus award; (c) determine at designated intervals during the bonus event accumulation period if a bonus event will occur; and (d) if the bonus event is determined to occur: (i) determine which of the gaming machines were in an active state during a bonus event qualification period for said bonus event, and (ii) select at least one of the gaming machines in the active state.