Non-rectangular and/or non-orthogonal arrangement of gambling elements in a gaming apparatus

In a gaming apparatus including a play field having an arrangement of multiple symbol carrying elements positionally organized to display gaming proposition outcomes at windows/locations disposed along one or more paylines, a player input interface, means responsive to the player input interface for causing the elements to present a random display of the symbols carried thereby, and means for comparing the symbols displayed along the paylines to a pay table to determine and award earned winnings to the player, an improved play field arrangement comprising:

• a plurality of individually driven real or virtual symbol carrying elements for displaying at corresponding display windows/locations a single symbol, or a lack thereof, per gaming proposition, said windows/locations being arranged in a non-orthogonal array;
• and
• a plurality of individually selectable paylines respectively intersecting different combinations of said windows/locations;
• whereby depending upon his selection of one or more of said paylines, a player can influence the probability of payout per proposition.