The Essentials of Casino Game Design

The Essentials of Casino Game Design is the only handbook in existence in which the real-world techniques of creating casino games are revealed and explained in detail.

Author Dan Lubin cracked the game-developer code with EZ Pai Gow, which garnered hundreds of installs in U.S. casinos. He then worked as a designer and manager for the world's largest independent distributor of table games, where he evaluated, acquired, and helped develop some of today's most popular pit games and side bets.

Aside from an in-depth and comprehensive discussion on discovering the must-have "humdinger," The Essentials of Casino Game Design covers all the hot-button areas of this process:

• how much you can make and what it will cost
• patent protection
• strategy determination and the "Poker-Eye Effect"
• game protection
• developing a successful side bet
• technical writing and the regulatory-approval process
• the independent mathematician and Gaming-approval math labs
• distributor negotiation and contract considerations

Plus, the extensive section on marketing a new game provides "rack-card" examples with abbreviated basic strategies for more than 20 of the new breed of table games, including Blackjack Switch, Freebet Blackjack, and Ultimate Texas Hold 'em.

The journey from the cocktail napkin to the casino floor is fraught with pitfalls and potholes. It's a long-odds endeavor that requires acumen, persistence, and capital, but also yields the possibility of a monster payoff. The Essentials of Casino Game Design maps out the path that will save you time and money in the pursuit of this elusive, but attainable, pot of gold.