1. A system in use with a plurality of gaming machines playable by a plurality of players, each of the gaming machines including an input device including an acceptor device which accepts physical media associated with a monetary value to establish a credit balance, and a gaming controller configured to receive a signal from the input device indicating a wager being placed by a respective player and responsively initiate a game, the system comprising: a database, the database including: a plurality of total award amounts, each total award amount being associated with a corresponding number of players; and at least one trigger condition, the trigger condition associated with a predetermined, tracked gaming activity; and a system controller configured to: track the gaming activity of a player; detect the trigger condition as a function of the tracked gaming activity; and in response to the trigger condition; determine a number of current players playing the plurality of gaming machines at the time of the triggering condition; select a single predetermined total award amount from the plurality of total award amounts as a function of the number of current players playing the plurality of gaming machines; and provide a community player award to each of the number of current players as a function of the selected single predetermined total award such that a total amount of the community player awards being provided to the number of current players is equal to the single determined total award amount.