The present invention provides a system, method, and article of manufacture for providing a progressive prize awarding and redeeming scheme in an intermittently accessed network gaming system. A host server of a network system transmits a beginning prize credit value and an increment rate which are received by a game apparatus connected to the network system. Periodically, a current progressive prize credit value is calculated based on the beginning prize credit value and the increment rate and is displayed to the user. At the end of the game, the current progressive prize credit value is transmitted from the game apparatus of the user to the host server for redemption purposes.