Gaming machine allowing a player to defer receiving a predetermined award and providing an award corresponding to the number of times deferred

A gaming machine, comprising:

• a memory storing a portion of credits bet in a game and a plurality of levels of awards;
• an input device for accepting selection by a player between reception and reservation of an award and for transmitting a signal indicating the selection;
• a counter for storing a number of times that the input device has accepted the selection of reservation of the award;
• and
• a controller configured with logic to:
• (a) start a game;
• (b) when the portion of credits has reached a predetermined threshold, randomly determine whether to provide the player a jackpot award;
• (c) when the jackpot award has been determined to be provided, receive the signal indicating the selection via the input device;
• (d) when a signal indicating the selection of reservation has been received, cause the counter to increase the stored number of times;
• and
• (e) when a signal indicating the selection of reception has been received, pay the player in accordance with a level of award correlated with the number of times among the plurality of levels of awards stored in the memory.

A gaming machine, comprising:

• a memory storing a portion of credits bet in a game and a plurality of levels of awards;
• an input device for accepting selection by a player between reception and reservation of an award and for transmitting a signal indicating the selection;
• a counter for storing a number of times that the input device has accepted the selection of reservation of the award;
• and
• a controller configured with logic to:
• (a) start a game;
• (b) when the portion of credits has reached a predetermined threshold, determine whether to provide the player a jackpot award in accordance with the number of times stored in the counter;
• (c) when the jackpot award has been determined to be provided, receive the signal indicating the selection via the input device;
• (d) when a signal indicating the selection of reservation has been received, cause the counter to increase the stored number of times;
• and
• (e) when a signal indicating the selection of reception has been received, pay the player in accordance with a level of award correlated with the number of times among the plurality of levels of awards stored in the memory.

A gaming machine, comprising:

• a memory storing a plurality of levels of awards;
• an input device for accepting selection by a player between reception and reservation of an award and for transmitting a signal indicating the selection;
• a counter for storing a number of times that the input device has accepted the selection of reservation of the award;
• and
• a controller configured with logic to:
• (a) start a game;
• (b) randomly determine whether to provide the player a specific award of a predetermined game state;
• (c) when the specific award of the predetermined game state has been determined to be provided, receive the signal indicating the selection via the input device;
• (d) when a signal indicating the selection of reservation has been received, cause the counter to increase the stored number of times;
• and
• (e) when a signal indicating the selection of reception has been received, switch the game to the predetermined game state and pay the player in accordance with a level of award correlated with the number of times among the plurality of levels of awards stored in the memory.

A gaming machine, comprising:

• a memory storing a plurality of levels of awards;
• an input device for accepting selection by a player between reception and reservation of an award and for transmitting a signal indicating the selection;
• a counter for storing a number of times that the input device has accepted the selection of reservation of the award;
• and
• a controller configured with logic to:
• (a) start a basic game;
• (b) randomly determine whether to provide the player a specific award of a free game;
• (c) when the specific award of the free game has been determined to be provided, receive the signal indicating the selection via the input device;
• (d) when a signal indicating the selection of reservation has been received, cause the counter to increase the stored number of times;
• and
• (e) when a signal indicating the selection of reception has been received, switch the basic game to a free game and pay the player in accordance with a level of award correlated with the number of times among the plurality of levels of awards stored in the memory.