Background non-paying symbols for electronic pull-tab games

A pull-tab gaming system comprising:

• a wagering system that generates an electronic pull-tab deck including a plurality of electronic pull-tab tickets, wherein the electronic pull-tab deck includes a plurality of winning electronic pull-tab tickets having a non-zero prize value and a plurality of non-winning electronic pull-tab tickets having a zero prize value;
• a plurality of gaming clients communicatively coupled to the wagering system, wherein each gaming client includes a processor, a memory, and a local counter;
• a game play instruction received by a user interface associated with a gaming client, which causes the gaming client to generate an electronic pull-tab request from the wagering system;
• a non-winning electronic pull-tab ticket transmitted from the wagering system to the gaming client in response to the electronic pull-tab request, wherein the non-winning electronic pull-tab ticket includes a non-paying symbol metadata type that is identified by the gaming client;
• the gaming client incrementing the local counter in response to the identified non-paying symbol metadata type;
• the gaming client displaying, at the user interface, a background animation symbol that changes from a first state to a second state based on the integer value of the local counter;
• wherein the gaming client executes a finite state machine that governs transitions of the background animation symbol from the first state to the second state based on the local counter value;
• wherein the gaming client associates a plurality of different states for the background animation that depend on the integer value of the local counter for the non-paying symbols;
• a winning electronic pull-tab ticket transmitted from the wagering system to the gaming client in response to a second electronic pull-tab request, wherein the winning electronic pull-tab ticket includes a final awarded prize;
• the gaming client displaying, at the user interface, a plurality of payline symbols associated with a first graphical representation during a first graphical representation state, wherein the final awarded prize is not revealed by the first graphical representation;
• the gaming client displaying, at the user interface, an animation that transitions the gaming client from the first graphical representation state to an intermediate graphical representation state that includes the background animation symbol, in which the final awarded prize is not revealed in the intermediate graphical representation state;
• and
• the gaming client transitioning from the intermediate graphical representation state to final prize state when the user interface displays a final graphical representation after the intermediate graphical representation, wherein the final graphical representation includes the plurality of payline symbols, the final awarded prize, and the background animation symbol.

A pull-tab gaming system comprising:

• a wagering system that generates an electronic pull-tab deck including a plurality of electronic pull-tab tickets, wherein the electronic pull-tab deck includes a plurality of winning electronic pull-tab tickets having a non-zero prize value and a plurality of non-winning electronic pull-tab tickets having a zero prize value;
• a plurality of gaming clients communicatively coupled to the wagering system, wherein each gaming client includes a processor, a memory, and a local counter;
• a game play instruction received by a user interface associated with a gaming client, which causes the gaming client to generate an electronic pull-tab request from the wagering system;
• a non-winning electronic pull-tab ticket transmitted from the wagering system to the gaming client in response to the electronic pull-tab request, wherein the non-winning electronic pull-tab ticket includes a non-paying symbol metadata type that is identified by the gaming client;
• the gaming client incrementing the local counter in response to the identified non-paying symbol metadata type;
• the gaming client displaying, at the user interface, a background animation symbol that changes from a first state to a second state based on the integer value of the local counter;
• wherein the gaming client associates a plurality of different states for the background animation that depend on the integer value of the local counter for the non-paying symbols;
• a second non-winning electronic pull-tab ticket transmitted from the wagering system to the gaming client in response to a second ticket request, the gaming client identifying one or more non-paying symbols associated with the second non-winning electronic pull-tab ticket;
• and
• the gaming client displaying, at the user interface, the background animation symbol further changes from a second state to a third state as the integer value of the local counter increases.