I am trying to create a penalty for when a player gets an answer wrong three times in a row. I have a player.penalty variable that I am incrementing by 1 for every wrong answer, and I am setting my participant.penalty variable to the player.penalty. For some reason, the players penalty will not go above 1. I think that I am missing just one small thing, because I have been able to utilize participant fields before, but I do not remember how. 

Here is my code for the page where penalty is checked: 
class AddNumbers(Page):
    form_model = "player"
    form_fields = ["number_entered"]
    timer_text = "Time left in counting game:"
    get_timeout_seconds = get_timeout_seconds

    @staticmethod
    def is_displayed(player: Player):
        return get_timeout_seconds(player) > 0 and player.goal_complete == False and player.game_done == False
    
    @staticmethod
    def vars_for_template(player: Player):
        participant = player.participant
        the_matrix_and_zeros = table_creation(player)
        matrix_and_zeros = [the_matrix_and_zeros[i] for i in range(len(the_matrix_and_zeros))]
        matrix_table = matrix_and_zeros[0]
        #print("participant goal set: ", participant.goal_set)
        player.goal_set = participant.goal_set
        print("player goal set: ", player.goal_set)
        print("participant goal complete: ", participant.goal_complete)
        player.goal_complete = participant.goal_complete
        print("player goal complete: ", player.goal_complete)
        if player.goal_set == True and player.goal_complete == False:
            player.goal_left = participant.goal_left
            print("goal left: ", player.goal_left)
            player.goal_set = participant.goal_set
            print("goal set:", player.goal_set)
            if player.goal_left > 0 and player.goal_set == True:
                goal = participant.goal_left
                return {
                    "matrix_table": matrix_table,
                    "goal": goal
                }
            else:
                return {
                    "matrix_table": matrix_table
                }
        else:
            return {
                "matrix_table": matrix_table
            }
    
    @staticmethod
    def before_next_page(player: Player, timeout_happened):
        participant = player.participant
        player.answered = True
        participant.answered = player.answered
        if player.zeros_actual == player.number_entered:
            player.penalty == 0
            participant.penalty = player.penalty
            player.payoff += C.payment_per_correct_answer
            player.goal_left -= 1
            participant.goal_left = player.goal_left
            print("participant goal left: ", participant.goal_left)
            player.correct_answer = True
            participant.correct_answer = player.correct_answer
            print("participant correct answer: ", participant.correct_answer)
            if player.goal_left <= 0 and player.goal_set == True:
                print("goal is complete!")
                player.goal_complete = True
                participant.goal_complete = player.goal_complete
            else:
                return
        else:
            player.correct_answer = False
            participant.correct_answer = player.correct_answer
            player.penalty += 1
            participant.penalty = player.penalty

            if player.penalty == 3:
                player.payoff -= C.payment_per_correct_answer
            
            if player.payoff < 0:
                player.payoff = 0
            
            print("player penalty: ", player.penalty)
            print("penalty: ", participant.penalty)
            print("participant correct answer: ", participant.correct_answer)
            
Near the end of the code I gave is where you will find where I am setting the players penalty. If anyone has an idea on how to fix this issue, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you.