New Non-Poker/BJ Games

I started this thread so as not to get the WPT Heads Up Poker thread completely de-railed:

Quote: Ibeatyouraces

I would like to see the day when a new card game comes out that has nothing to do with blackjack or poker though.

Dan is right on the "alien" comment and the only way to overcome that is to make the game extremely simple.......of course if you make it too simple, it won't engage players over the long term.....it is a very fine balance to teach players a new game "language" and keep a new game simple....oh and make it have a strategy that is engaging enough to keep them coming back to play.

The non BJ/Poker games exist and recent one's include MrSuit's "Money$uit 31" (a game based on the game of "31"), McDemon has Switch Match (uses a special deck of cards with a Domino influence), I have "High Side" (a comparative value game using cards & dice), Two Cards High (not sure how to describe this one), etc.......

Another problem is it is extremely difficult to get players to trust a non BJ, Poker or Bacc based game as every player views a new game as a "house game".....so if they can't intuitively figure out how to play or the math by themselves, they assume they are getting creamed.

With the old standards, they know the game is in the house's favor, but since the games have history, they know that the house edge is acceptable and there is either familiarity with the "language" of the game (i.e. poker, BJ , Bacc) and/or plenty of books, etc. that they can "trust" to help them play "correctly".

By the way to give credit where credit is due, I first heard "poker" described as a "language" from Pacman.....he knows a few things about this biz!

Under the Gun 31
Bonus Acey Deucey
Casino Backgammon
Three Dice Football
Card Sharks
Rupert's Island
Zero
Casino Tic-Tac-Toe

Thermos -

I'm not sure what point you're trying to make, so I'll make one:

How many of those games you listed survived?



I think the answer is...
None of them.

I was just throwing some wood on the fire, or some virgins in the volcano. You know, just to get the party started.

I don't think any of those games have survived, but I could be wrong.

Under The Gun 31....that one goes way back to like 2008-09 I believe.....and to DJ's point, they just don't seem to make it on the casino floor. That one was live in San Diego County somewhere.

So while many players indicate that they are ready for something totally new, non-poker or BJ, etc.....the reality is you are in the minority of table game players if that is what you are looking for......it is just a really hard nut to crack.

So we get twists on the old standards and only a select few of those make the grade.....this is a tough business for sure!!

SHFL has occasionally meandered off the beaten path, but it always ended up at a dead end.

We distributed a game back in 2007 called, regrettably enough, "Keep 'em Coming." It was sort of in the Card Sharks vein. We placed it in one casino and it came out after a month.

In 2001, we had the rights to a three-dice game called "Ricochet Dice," which was at the Fiesta in Henderson. It carved out a bit of a niche for a while but never caught on anywhere else.

I did play Casino Backgammon at MGM in Las Vegas and Under the Gun 31 at Pala in California.

Never say never, but for the most part it's an industry dominated by five specific product types:

1. Poker derivatives
2. Blackjack derivatives
3. Side bets
4. Mechanisms that eliminate commission on baccarat and pai gow poker
5. Progressive jackpot systems

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I believe the next big thing to hit the gaming market will be something totally new and it will not even involve dice, poker, slots, a current deck of playing cards, etc. It will be a whole new thing that will be introduced into the market that brings originality to gambling. Now the hard part is trying to figure out what that could be.

People are wise enough to build off of the concepts that currently populate the casinos. I could be wrong, but I think that is how most people on here have made a name for themselves. I also think there are a lot of people out there with really great, "outside the box" ideas that could revolutionize gaming, but the problem is trying to convince the gaming companies to stray away from all the things that the general public are familiar with in a casino.

Racing Card Derby is one that comes to mind. It has a few placements and seemed to get good reviews.