SHFL entertainment, Inc. (previously named Shuffle Master) was a manufacturer of

shuffling machine A shuffling machine is a machine for randomly shuffling packs of playing cards. Because standard shuffling techniques are seen as weak, and in order to avoid "inside jobs" where employees collaborate with gamblers by performing inadequate shu ...

s, table games,

slot machines A slot machine (American English), fruit machine (British English) or poker machine ( Australian English and New Zealand English) is a gambling machine that creates a game of chance for its customers. Slot machines are also known pejoratively ...

, and other casino products, based in

Paradise In religion, paradise is a place of exceptional happiness and delight. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical or eschatological or both, often compared to the miseries of human civilization: in parad ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...

. Founded in 1983, it was acquired by

Bally Technologies Bally Technologies, Inc. is an American manufacturer of slot machines and other gambling technology based in Enterprise, Nevada. It is owned by Light & Wonder. The company was founded in 1968 as Advanced Patent Technology. It eventually changed ...

in 2013. Bally was itself acquired the following year by Scientific Games, now

Light & Wonder Light & Wonder, Inc., formerly Scientific Games Corporation (SG), is an American corporation that provides gambling products and services. The company is headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada. Light & Wonder's gaming division provides products such ...

, which continues to use the Shuffle Master name as one of its core brands. The company designed Deck Mate, one of the primary card shuffling devices used in casinos. The company's table game products included Let It Ride, Three Card Poker,

Blackjack Switch Blackjack Switch is a casino gambling game invented by Geoff Hall and patented in 2009. It is based on blackjack, but differs in that two hands, rather than one, are dealt to each playing position, and the player is initially allowed to exchange ( ...

, and Casino War.

History

Shuffle Master was formed by John Breeding, a former truck driver, in 1983. Inspired by a newspaper article about

card counting Card counting is a blackjack strategy used to determine whether the player or the dealer has an advantage on the next hand. Card counters are advantage players who try to overcome the casino house edge by keeping a running count of high and low ...

in blackjack, he borrowed $30,000 to develop a mechanical shuffler that would allow every hand to be dealt from a fresh deck, nullifying the advantage of card counting, without losing valuable playing time. The device finally came to market in early 1992, and the company made its

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investme ...

later that year. Casinos were increasingly using multiple decks for blackjack, limiting the sales potential of Breeding's single-deck shuffler. To fuel demand for the shufflers, he developed a new single-deck game, Let It Ride. By 1995, Let It Ride was generating more revenue for Shuffle Master than its namesake device. In 1998, the company's headquarters moved from Minneapolis to the Las Vegas area. The firm expanded into the slot machine business in the late 1990s, developing games based on licensed properties like ''

The Honeymooners ''The Honeymooners'' is an American television sitcom which originally aired from 1955 to 1956, created by and starring Jackie Gleason, and based on a recurring comedy sketch of the same name that had been part of Gleason's variety show. It fo ...

'', ''

Press Your Luck ''Press Your Luck'' is an American television game show created by Bill Carruthers and Jan McCormack. It premiered on CBS daytime on September 19, 1983, and ended on September 26, 1986. The format is a retooling of an earlier Carruthers productio ...

'' and ''

Let's Make a Deal ''Let's Make a Deal'' (also known as ''LMAD'') is an American television musical comedy variety-game show that originated in the United States in 1963 and has since been produced in many countries throughout the world. The program was created an ...

'' and partnering with larger companies like IGT and Bally to manufacture and distribute them. The slots business failed to turn a profit, and Shuffle Master sold it to IGT in 2004 for $1.6 million. In February 2004, Shuffle Master bought most of the assets of BET Technology, a developer of table games including Casino War and Fortune Pai Gow. In 2006, the company returned to the slot machine field, buying Australian manufacturer Stargames Limited for $108 million. Among Stargames's products was Rapid Roulette, a roulette variant in which a dealer spins a physical roulette wheel, but wagers are placed and paid out on touchscreen terminals, increasing the pace of play. Gavin Isaacs, a former

executive, was named CEO in March 2011. In March 2012, Shuffle Master agreed to buy Ongame Network, a provider of services to

online poker Online poker is the game of poker played over the Internet. It has been partly responsible for a huge increase in the number of poker players worldwide. Christiansen Capital Advisors stated online poker revenues grew from $82.7 million in 2001 t ...

sites, from bwin.party Services for $26 to 39 million, but it pulled out of the deal months later due to declining market conditions in Europe and uncertainty about the legalization of online poker in the US. In October 2012, the company changed its name to SHFL entertainment, to reflect the diversity of its product offerings. In 2012 SHFL obtained the license to distribute Geoff Hall's blackjack variant, Free Bet Blackjack, worldwide excluding the UK and

. At the Global Gaming Expo conference in October 2012, SHFL debuted Mulligan Poker, a game developed by

Michael Shackleford Michael Shackleford, (May 23, 1965 in Pasadena, California, United States), also known as "The Wizard of Odds" (a title taken from Donald Angelini), is an American mathematician and an actuary. He is best known for his professional analysis o ...

and currently only offered online by casinos using IGT software. The game was set to be released in physical casinos in Kansas early in 2013. In July 2013, Bally Technologies agreed to acquire SHFL for about $1.3 billion. The acquisition was completed on November 25, 2013.

Market position

SHFL had a "virtual

monopoly A monopoly (from Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situation where a speci ...

" in the card shuffler business. ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

'' named the firm as one of the 200 Best Small Companies in America for at least five years in a row.

References

{{reflist, 30em Gambling companies of the United States Companies based in Paradise, Nevada Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq 1983 establishments in Nevada 2013 disestablishments in Nevada Gambling companies established in 1983 Gambling companies disestablished in 2013 Defunct gambling companies Defunct companies based in Nevada 2013 mergers and acquisitions