Multi-round game having a progressive jackpot

A gaming system for operating a progressive jackpot of a multi-round game, the system comprising:

• a terminal for accepting a player's compulsory bet before the beginning of a sequence of rounds, and for accepting the player's retirement at the end of any of the rounds;
• an outcome selector for selecting one of a plurality of potential outcomes for each of the rounds;
• an outcome analyzer for determining whether the selected outcome ends the sequence, earns the player a reward, or earns the player the jackpot in accordance with rules of the game;
• an earned credits controller for incrementing the player's earned credits by the earned reward, for providing the player's earned credits to an account controller upon the retirement of the player, for resetting the player's earned credits after providing the earned credits to the account controller, for providing the player's earned credits to a progressive jackpot controller upon the end of the sequence, and for resetting the player's earned credits after providing the earned credits to the progressive jackpot controller;
• the account controller for incrementing the player's earned credits provided by the earned credits controller and for incrementing the player's credit balance by the earned jackpot provided by the progressive jackpot controller;
• and
• the progressive jackpot controller for incrementing the jackpot by at least some of the player's earned credits provided by the earned credits controller and for resetting the jackpot after providing the earned jackpot to the earned credits controller.

A player-activated terminal for the entry of game-related decisions, the terminal comprising:

• a keyboard of at least one key;
• a game controller for enabling a keyboard display controller upon determining that a game-related decision is required from a player in accordance with rules of the game;
• the keyboard display controller for randomly selecting one of at least two distinct keyboard layouts, each of the layouts assigning a label defining a distinct game-related option to each of the at least one key, the label assigned by the layouts to at least one of the at least one key does not define a same one of the game-related options;
• a display screen for displaying the selected layout;
• a sensor for detecting an activation of a labeled one of the at least one key;
• and
• an interpreter for identifying the game-related option defined by the label of the activated key and for providing the identified option to the game controller for processing in accordance with the rules of the game.

A gaming system for operating a progressive jackpot of a multi-round game, the system comprising:

• a terminal for accepting a player's compulsory bet before the beginning of a sequence of rounds, and for accepting the player's retirement at the end of any of the rounds;
• an outcome selector for selecting one of a plurality of potential outcomes for each of the rounds;
• an outcome analyzer for determining whether the selected outcome earns the player a reward, earns the player the jackpot, or ends the sequence in accordance with rules of the game;
• an earned credits controller for incrementing the player's earned credits by the earned reward, for incrementing the player's earned credits by the earned jackpot provided by a progressive jackpot controller, for providing the player's earned credits to an account controller upon the retirement of the player, for resetting the retired player's earned credits after providing the earned credits to the account controller, and for resetting the player's earned credits upon the end of the sequence;
• the account controller for incrementing the player's earned credits provided by the earned credits controller;
• and
• the progressive jackpot controller for incrementing the jackpot by at least some of the player's earned credits provided by the earned credits controller, for incrementing the jackpot by the reward if the player is retired, and for resetting the jackpot after providing the earned jackpot to the earned credits controller.

A gaming system for operating a pool of a multi-round, multi-player game, the system comprising:

• terminals for accepting players' compulsory bets before the beginning of a sequence of rounds, and for accepting the players' retirement at the end of any of the rounds;
• an outcome selector for selecting one of a plurality of potential outcomes for each of the rounds;
• an outcome analyzer for determining whether the selected outcome earns the players a reward or ends the sequence in accordance with rules of the game;
• an earned credits controller for incrementing each of the players' earned credits by the earned reward, for providing each of the retired players' earned credits to an account controller upon the retirement, for resetting each of the retired players' earned credits after providing the earned credits to the account controller, and for resetting the unretired players' earned credits upon the end of the sequence;
• a pool credit controller for incrementing a pool by the reward for each of the retired players, for providing at least some of the pool to the account controller upon the retirement, for resetting the pool after providing the pool to the account controller;
• and
• the account controller for incrementing the players' earned credits provided by the earned credits controller and for incrementing the credit balance of each of the players upon the retirement by an equal share of the pool provided by the pool credit controller.