Seeking advice: Best way to secure a casino trial of a new game?

First, I'm very grateful for all of the incredible wisdom and all of the experience that has been shared here. I'm realizing this is an incredibly small and tight community of odds crazed inventors and I never would have gotten as far as I have as quickly were it not for the resource this forum and its members have been. I wish I could still thank Dan Lubin for literally writing the book on this.

I've developed a new game (not a variant) and I have my provisional filed with the USPTO (former patent paralegal) and my math in to GLI for certification. I've designed my layout and am in the process of building a prototype physical table. The next major hurdle is finding a casino that will agree to trial the game for the NGCB. This is an area in which I have very little knowledge and even fewer connections. What is the best way to go about this? And what does one look for in a prospective casino? Would you trial with anyone willling or would you create a tiered list of candidates and approach in descending order? How would you structure this list?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Also, if you have any resources vis a vis people I should be talking to - industry insiders, lawyers, consultants, etc. I'm eager to move this game forward in the right way - I'd love to sidestep newbie landmines. Thanks in advance!

You would trial with anyone willing. Often times outside of Nevada, Tribal is often a good way in the door as they are not bound by a "field trial" requirement. A lot of places if the match checks out (has GLI), and they like they game, they can get it approved. Even Nevada has been loosening its field trial requirements lately for variants, although your example of a non-variant wouldn't qualify.

Once your game is ready, and assuming it is good enough to get someone's attention, it becomes a sales game. If you have no network you need to fix that, i.e. cold outreach in some form or another, going to trade shows, etc... It is a whole different ball game at that point though, because no matter how good your game is if you can't get it in front of decision makers its going to be a hard path.

My biggest advice I give to other is only spend money when you have to, and I find myself regretting it often when I don't listen to myself.

This topic is covered in my Game Inventors Corner.

Bottom line is take ANY field trial offer you get. I agree that it's easier with a tribal casino. Getting a field trial is a very high hurdle to jump over.