A game of chance involving a progression of events is conducted on one or
more gaming machines. After receiving a wager from a player at a gaming
machine, play of the game is initiated. If the game is paused, the status
of the paused game is stored at a central database linked to and remote
from the gaming machine. This game status is associated with a personal
identifier of the player. To continue play of the game beginning from a
point at which the game was paused, the personal identifier is provided
to the central database via the same or another gaming machine and the
game status associated with the personal identifier is retrieved from the
central database.