Electronic gaming systems and methods

1. A gaming system, comprising:

a housing;

at least one display device supported by the housing;

a plurality of input devices supported by the housing;

at least one processor;

and at least one memory device that stores a plurality of instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to operate with the at least one display device and the plurality of input devices to:

establish a credit balance based at least in part on a monetary value associated with a physical item after an input device receives the physical item, the physical item being a ticket associated with the monetary value or currency;

(b) initiate play of a wagering game in response to actuation of a wager button, the wager button being associated with an amount of credit, the credit balance being decreasable by the amount of credit, the wagering game having a preset winning criteria of at least one of a game outcome in which a first symbol wins, a game outcome in which a second symbol wins, a game outcome in which no symbol wins, a game outcome in which the first and second symbol win;

(c) randomly determine and display a game outcome of an instance of play of the wagering game, wherein the game outcome includes the display of only a plurality of the first and second symbols in a depiction of virtual reels forming an array of multiple rows and multiple columns defining a plurality of cells therein; and

(d) determine an award outcome based on the amount and position of each of the randomly generated first and second symbols in the cells of the array of the game outcome, the credit balance being increasable by the determined award outcome.

2. A gaming system, comprising:

a game server in communication with a remote user device through a communication network, the remote user device including a housing and a display device, the remote user device being configured to communicate remote user input to the game server through the communication network;

the game server including at least one processor in communication with a random number generator;

and at least one memory device that stores a plurality of instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to operate with the remote user device to:

(a) establish a credit balance in the at least one memory device based at least in part on a monetary value;

(b) receive a remote user input from the remote user device through the communication network, the remote user input being determined by the game server to comprise a wager being placed on a selected game outcome, the wager button being associated with an amount of credit, the credit balance being decreasable by the amount of credit, the wagering game having a preset winning criteria of at least one of a game outcome in which a first symbol wins, a game outcome in which a second symbol wins, a game outcome in which no symbol wins, a game outcome in which the first and second symbol win;

(c) randomly determine and display a game outcome of an instance of play of the wagering game, wherein the game outcome includes the display of only a plurality of the first and second symbols in a depiction of virtual reels forming an array of multiple rows and multiple columns defining a plurality of cells therein; and

(d) determine an award outcome based on the amount and position of each of the randomly generated first and second symbols in the cells of the array of the game outcome, the credit balance being increasable by the determined award outcome.