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Feature by Rob Wiser
'Baby, You're The Greatest!'
Shuffle Master, Inc. and IGT Take Players on the Ultimate Honeymoon

In recent years, gaming companies have sought inspiration from an endless variety of television shows and films to jazz up their slot machine themes. The Sturm und Drang of casino action is no longer limited to the cheers at the craps table or the generic bells and buzzers of the one-armed bandits: players are now treated to the shagadelic stylings of Austin Powers, the Showcase Showdowns of The Price Is Right, and the spinach-guzzling heroics of Popeye.

Now, perhaps the most popular and enduring television show of all time is on its way to a casino near you—“The Honeymooners,” the latest offering from Las Vegas-based Shuffle Master, Inc.

Devised in conjunction with leading slot-maker International Game Technology, this irresistible new game incorporates characters, vintage film clips, and music from the classic show. But most importantly for players, the gameplay is exciting and the bonus features are rich.

It’s the latest in a long line of winning products from Shuffle Master, which began not as a game designer, but as the inventor and supplier of the card shufflers that are now ubiquitous in modern-day casinos.

The company’s origins can be traced back to 1982, when John Breeding, a long-haul truck driver from Minnesota, dreamt up a gizmo that would automatically shuffle playing cards between hands. The idea was sparked by an article in the Wall Street Journal that discussed Atlantic City’s exasperation with card counters—blackjack players who’d been converted by the gospel of mathematician Edward Thorp, who published a seminal book entitled Beat the Dealer that explained in detail how blackjack was a “beatable” game. By keeping a running mental tally of which cards had been dealt, card counters could surmise on any given hand whether the count was “rich” in high-value cards, and increase or decrease his bet accordingly.

And much to the dismay of the casino bean-counters, you didn’t need to be Rain Man to come off like a wizard at the tables—with some practice and careful concentration, regular folks were suddenly able to inflict heavy losses on the casinos. Sure, they reserved the right to ban any players they chose to—and didn’t hesitate to politely “insist” that card counters took their action elsewhere—but it was a public relations nightmare, and the solution eventually offered by Breeding must have seemed heaven-sent to beleaguered execs.

But Breeding’s road to casino-industry revolution was a difficult one, beset by design flaws and financial setbacks. It was almost 10 years before Breeding and his fledgling company, Shuffle Master, Inc., got its first automatic card shuffler licensed by the state of Nevada.

Today, their shufflers are staples of nearly 400 casinos around the world, and have forever altered how card games are played. Different models are available, catering to single- or multiple-deck games. And as he developed his shufflers, Breeding also had the foresight to invent table games that would stimulate demand for his machines; to create a larger demand for his original single-deck shuffler, he came up with the idea for a table game based on five-card stud poker. Since its debut in 1993, Let It Ride has been one of the most popular casino “specialty” games.

In recent years, Shuffle Master has expanded its efforts into slot and video poker machines. Its first effort, Let It Ride Bonus Video, appeared in 1996. This success was followed by machines based on classic film and television themes, such as The Three Stooges and the wildly popular game shows Press Your Luck and Let’s Make A Deal. The games utilize the company’s proprietary PC-based operating system, which allows faster, cheaper game development and easier customization of hardware and software.

Meanwhile, the aces at Shuffle Master continue to bestow new and better shuffling systems upon a grateful casino industry. The “ACE” model took the process of randomizing and delivering single decks to an even higher level, while 2000 saw the introduction of the remarkable “King” model, the first multi-deck, continuous shuffler.

A Legend In The Making
The Honeymooners TV show preceded I Love Lucy by a year (now itself the subject of a popular IGT game), and its reruns have played concurrently with Lucy for over a quarter of a century. The longest-running situation comedy in the history of television, it began as a skit at the end of Jackie Gleason’s live comedy show Cavalcade of Stars, first appearing on Oct. 5 , 1951, on the now-extinct Dumont Network.

Before Gleason decided to develop it into its own series called The Honeymooners, other titles were considered. Ideas eventually tossed on the scrap heap included “The Lovers,” “The Couple next Door” and “The Beast” (which, let’s face it, just wouldn’t have the same appeal on the front of a slot machine).

Even the show’s aftermath is the stuff of TV legend. For more than 25 years after the show went off the air, there were a mere 39 episodes of the comedy in syndication, which were rerun week after week, year after year. (Just consider that the smash TV show du jour, Friends, has over 200 episodes already in the can!) The show’s early episodes, many of which were either too short or too long to be sold into syndication, had seemingly vanished, and were considered lost forever—this was, after all, long before the age of the VCR. For years, television warehouses and storage libraries searched for the episodes with no luck.

But in 1986, the show’s legions of fans rejoiced when it was announced that a treasure trove of lost episodes had been found. Despite the folklore surrounding this miraculous “discovery” in Jackie Gleason’s basement, the truth was much simpler (and considerably more ironic): Gleason knew all along where the episodes were, stashed in an air-conditioned vault in his Florida home. All it took was one phone call to Gleason himself for him to answer the mystery of the missing episodes, and for the ball to start rolling on their release to an eager public. A press conference was held in New York City, at which Gleason personally announced what was essentially a new era for America’s most beloved show.

Although the passage of years had taken its toll on the episodes (film emulsion deteriorates over time), modern technology enabled them to be reproduced to fit on today’s television screens. Today, most are broadcast on a regular basis throughout the U.S. and are available on videotape. Audiences are still delighted by the schemes and antics of bus driver Ralph Kramden (Jackie Gleason), his beleaguered but loving wife Alice (Audrey Meadows), and their friends Ed and Trixie Norton (Art Carney and Joyce Randolph).

Syndication, Casino-Style
The idea to spin this television legend into a casino-ready game stemmed from one of Shuffle Master’s creative meetings, in which a committee gathers regularly to brainstorm potential game concepts.

“We asked ourselves, ‘What is a classic?,’” says Brooke Dunn, senior VP of Shuffle Master, Inc. “We [already] have Let’s Make A Deal, and The Three Stooges, and they’re classics. Let’s Make A Deal was on the air for 27 years, The Three Stooges for 50, 60, 70…what has longevity? Somebody mentioned The Honeymooners, and then we went on a mission to go find it.”

Shuffle Master turned to the pros at IGT to help them develop the game. In the past, they’d teamed up with the Reno-based slot giant to create the wide-area progressive game Five Deck Poker. “We’re more of a software house; we do not manufacture the box,” says Dunn. “We found a great partner in IGT, which has incredible engineering and creative capabilities…I’d say the [Honeymooners game] idea was ours, but the game itself is the brainchild of IGT and Joe Kaminkow [IGT’s VP of engineering and design]. His team did a phenomenal job.”
Obtaining the necessary licenses then became the priority—no easy task when you’re dealing with a classic network television show involving multiple stars, some of whom are deceased. Despite the hurdles that needed to be cleared, Shuffle Master and IGT were committed to incorporating all of the show’s famous faces into their game.

“We came to the conclusion that we needed to use the entire Honeymooners cast, so it took several months—almost a year—to get all of them to agree to be in the game,” says Dunn.

Negotiations began with Jackie Gleason’s estate (the star died in 1987), now controlled by his daughter. The game needed to be cleared with the CBS network as well, since they own the rights to the broadcasts of the shows. “It was very complex,” says Dunn of the process. “Multiple owners, multiple images, multiple personalities. But everyone cooperated.”

When the game was finally completed three years later, the Shuffle Master/IGT collaboration received the ultimate stamp of approval: an enthusiastic response from Gleason’s daughter. “She’s phenomenal to work with—we love her to death,” Dunn says. “She was just here. She’s very proud of the game. Her only wish is that Jackie could have seen it.”

The multidenominational game employs the standard IGT video platform, and is available in both slant-top and upright formats. Payback percentage with all paylines active ranges from around 88 to 95 percent, and the average number of spins needed to reach a bonus round is 48 (more frequent than most video slots).

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