Gaming machine and system with integrated public address

A gaming machine system comprising:

• a group of gaming machines each including a controller, a display system coupled to the controller, a player interface system coupled to the controller, and an audio system coupled to the controller and including a plurality of audio speakers driven with audio amplifier circuitry coupled to the plurality of audio speakers for playing game audio events;
• a tournament controller coupled to the plurality of gaming machines over a network;
• and
• a group public address system comprising a microphone, a microphone amplifier coupled to the microphone, and an audio signal distribution module operable to receive a first audio signal from the microphone and transmit a version of the first audio signal to a plurality of gaming machine audio systems;
• and
• in each gaming machine audio system, a mixer operable to receive the version of the first audio signal and mix it with a second audio signal produced in the gaming machine, and feed a resulting mixed signal to the audio amplifier circuitry.