Inspiration comes from many sources but most often comes from people or places you see every day. Casino employees are some of the most creative people in the hospitality industry, using that creativity most often to please and delight customers, co-workers and supervisors. But in this case, casino workers have channeled that imagination into new games that would appeal to the players – the people they interact with every day. In this article, you'll read about three examples of this inspiration. While these games are no doubt fascinating and fun to play, this article will also demonstrate the painstaking steps that need to be taken to make the game a success. None of the games featured here has made the great leap into instant success, but should they achieve that notoriety, the rewards are many. So while it's hard work to develop a game that becomes a success, the challenge can be a reward in and of itself. Best Of Both Worlds Table-Slots combines the two player favorites in a win-win for operators Unlike many game inventors, Joe Trucksess reached the self-actualization stage. His brainchild, Table-Slots, completed the longshot ascent up the dream ladder—from idea to prototype to Casino Control Commission approval and finally onto the floor where he worked at the Tropicana. Trucksess' idea worked well both here and at the Grand Casino in Biloxi two summers ago before being taken from the floor in favor of slightly more profitable games. Ultimately selling the game to entities with supposedly more powerful marketing abilities, Trucksess enjoyed the experience. He saw people playing a game that was born in his head. "This venture taught me just how much I was capable of accomplishing," says Trucksess, a day-one veteran of Atlantic City via Resorts, Playboy and the Tropicana, where he remains a pit boss. "I believed then and I believe now that Table-Slots had the potential to be a long-term winner. I still think someone will come up with an idea similar to this and be very successful. I just didn't have any more time to put into it. You need a network of contacts and a powerful company behind you which already has an existing relationship with many properties. This was too much for one person to do with limited capital but I'm glad I pursued it." Table-Slots merges the strategy of table games with the simplicity of slots. The game is played on a table with card values denoted by fruit symbols seen in slot machines. Similarities existed between the games. A series of triple bars, for example, produced a $50,000 bonus. Players would bet on simultaneous three, four and five card hands. They combined their own hands with community cards to form the best combinations. "At the beginning of Atlantic City gaming, table games were king," Trucksess says. "They represented about 75 percent of the casino's profit. When the slots turned that percentage around, I thought it would be natural to come up with a game to bring the table players back. Table-Slots was a hybrid game. It let players physically touch the cards, which was important. There were three games going at once, so one set of cards would not dictate the entire hand, but the jackpot is the big attraction for slot players." Trucksess lured table-game players back via the slots and nurtured the vision of a financial grand slam. Proprietary games like Let It Ride and Caribbean Stud testified to the popularity of cards. Slot mania indicated fruit symbols would work on those cards. While he got close enough to at least imagine untold riches the greater payoff came in the form of personal enrichment and growth. "My game has a good hold, approximately 20 percent," Trucksess says. "But it was 20 percent of, say, $3,000 while blackjack had approximately a 14 percent hold of $5,000. Over the long run, blackjack could not be displaced. But I saw people play it and you realize that if you have an idea, you own it and it catches fire, the profits are extraordinary." Trucksess says he would do this again on different terms. The marketing, patent-seeking process, video production and necessity of investors lead him to believe this works with the right muscle behind it. For individuals, success is a longshot. Yet Trucksess progressed further than most. Fantasy Becomes Reality Former football coach and casino exec has million-dollar plan Lou Paludi blends a pigskin passion, extensive human-resource career and a marketing hunch into a unique invention. The West Atlantic City native has patented Fantasy Football Slots, the first sports-themed slot machine now working its way through the prototype and approval process. The game operates like video poker with a twist provided by non-identical sequential images, another patented element of the innovation. Lucrative benefits await anyone capable of cornering a sporting machine in the Atlantic City market. It appears fitting for Paludi, a local coaching legend, to develop this game. Paludi guided Holy Spirit High School to a whopping five state championships. One of his quarterbacks, Terry Bradway, became the general manager of the New York Jets. Paludi also served as an offensive coordinator for Temple University and is a member of the National Collegiate Hall of Fame. To authenticate the game, he incorporates real-life probability into the machine. Less than one punt return in 10, for example, results in a touchdown. Only about one kickoff return produces a score. In the modern pass-happy game, passing TDs often double the number of running scores. These probabilities, coupled with the payout structure for a machine, form the key components within the prototype. In this novel game, patrons have two cracks at a payout-producing score. A sequence of events "leads" to a moneymaking result. A passing score, for instance, features, from left-to-right, a quarterback poised, a receiver making a catch, then running and finally a referee signaling touchdown. After one spin, the player can hold the images he wants, and then select another turn to look for the score. Running sequences also lead to touchdowns. Extra points, two-point conversions, safeties and field goals are among the score-producing payouts. "There's nothing like it in the sports market now and I think this is a terrific game with a lot of fun," says Paludi, who has spent two years developing the project. "People are very passionate about football. Can you imagine around the Super Bowl going to the casino and playing football tournaments? Or how about the idea of selecting your colors, creating your own team and playing? This is a fast-moving game." Various research groups revealed football's icon status in America. Paludi's assessment reveals a hidden market within that distinction. "Women love football and they know a lot more about it than people think," Paludi says. "Women are slot players and big football fans. This is a natural slot game for them." Paludi was a chairman in the business division of Atlantic Cape Community College when it launched the Casino Career Institute. He served for five years before spending 10 more as vice-president of human resources for Showboat. Paludi also participates in the motivational speaking tour. Though the inventor's road from creation to implementation is always long, Paludi says an executive has promised to showcase the game once it's approved. The patent could logically extend to games involving fishing, cowboys and other ideas. Street Smarts Bling Bling has urban inspiration Jeff McGill hopes inspiration plus perspiration equals innovation. The former Bally's slot technician developed Bling Bling, a unique dice game, right from the street. He attached appropriate bells and whistles, drew the game on a napkin and took the idea to retired New York entrepreneur Joe Cassarino, whom he met through a mutual friend. The result? Cassarino added finance to the fantasy, investing more than $150,000 according to his own figures. Cassarino subsequently became a frontline spokesman and the day-to-day head of Gameologist Group, LLC, which he shares with McGill's family. Cassarino says distribution allegiances with D.P. Stud Inc. are not far off major plans for cell-phones. Games and lottery cards also are in serious discussion. Bling Bling may only be months away from debuting in Atlantic City. Regardless of Bling Bling's future, consider McGill's accomplishment of devising a concept idea worthy of six-figure capital support. Finding a backer with time and passion for the product was a significant bonus. "Jeff had a wonderful idea he took from an old urban game called C-Lo," Cassarino says. "That's pretty much what craps was before the casinos came in. Jeff took a game, put this great idea behind it and now he has something that would work splendidly in the casino or elsewhere. Jeff was in touch with a game that was hot in the 18-35-year age group and the term Bling Bling identifies with a new, young, affluent urban market. Bling Bling usually refers to jewelry. If you have something fancy, it's a Bling Bling. People are coming to see that young people love cool games." The Bling Bling name implies flash, cash and pizazz, all of which apply to this fast-moving game. McGill's brainchild combines elements of the big wheel, craps, parcheesi and backgammon. Three dice are used. The game begins with the dealer establishing a "point" based on a big wheel spin. Let's say that number was three. The dice roller continues throwing until obtaining doubles on the dice. If the doublets are higher than three, the shooter wins. Less than three results in a loss. Three would be a push and prolong the dice roll. Numerous side bets keep the game in constant motion. Prop-bet fantasies abound with any triple. An A-A-A or 6-6-6 pay a whopping 180-1, roughly six times the casino payout for high-lows, with of course, a much greater degree of difficulty. Cassarino says noted industry mathematician Stanley Ko tested the probabilities of Bling Bling and reported a house edge of nearly 3 percent, slightly above present-day craps, one of the player-friendly games. That could help bring the game inside casino parlors. Further information on Bling Bling is available at www.gameologistgroup.com.

By Dave Bontempo

Dave Bontempo is an award-winning sports writer and broadcaster who calls boxing matches all over the world. He has covered the Philadelphia Flyers in the playoffs, as well as numerous PGA, LPGA and Seniors Golf Tour events, and co-hosted the Casino Connection television program with Publisher Roger Gros.

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