Patent ID: 7470187

Claim:
A gaming device comprising: at least one input device configured to receive an input of a wager; a display device operable to display a game, said game including: (i) a termination variable, wherein said termination variable is divisible into a plurality of termination units, and (ii) a limit of accumulated termination units; a processor; and at least one memory device which stores a plurality of instructions executable by the processor to cause the processor to operate with said at least one input device and said display device to control a play of said game by: (a) generating and displaying zero, one or more award units, each award unit having a value greater than zero; (b) generating zero, one or more termination units for said termination variable; (c) accumulating any generated number of award units; and any generated number of termination units for said termination variable; (d) if the accumulated termination units for the termination variable does not reach the limit of accumulated termination units, enabling a player to exchange a number of said accumulated award units for a modification of the accumulated termination units for said termination variable; (e) repeating (a) to (d) until the accumulated termination units for the termination variable reaches the limit of accumulated termination units; and (f) when the accumulated termination units for the termination variable reaches the limit of accumulated termination units, providing an award to the player, wherein said provided award is based, at least in part, on the remaining number of accumulated award units.