Many schemes have been devised in the past to induce players to play slot machines including schemes such as specifying periods during which jackpot prizes are increased or bonus jackpots paid. Other schemes involve awarding an additional prize to a first player to achieve a predetermined combination on a poker machine after a given point in time. These methods, while effective, add to club overheads because of the need for additional staff to ensure that the scheme is operated smoothly. More recently, with the advent of poker machines linked through electrical networks it has been possible to automatically generate jackpot prizes on the basis of information received from the machines being played which are connected to the system and one such prior art arrangement, commonly known as "Cashcade", counts turnover (or games played) on all machines in the network, increments a prize value in accordance with the turnover (or number of games played) and pays a mystery jackpot prize when the count reaches some predetermined and randomly selected number. This arrangement has been in use in the State of New South Wales and in other jurisdictions for a considerable period of time, however, as with other aspects of slot machine games, players become bored with such arrangements and new and more innovative schemes become necessary in order to stimulate player interest.
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