A table game inspired by a 1986 music video and bearing the names of two Las Vegas superstars will debut today.
Penn & Teller Casino Monte, the first offering from Adventura Gaming, will be launched at the
Rio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas in an event featuring an appearance by the namesake magicians and television hosts. Adventura calls it the “first celebrity-branded casino table game of its kind.”
“Table games could use some innovation,” Adventura co-founder David Anthony said. “We’re trying to bring a different kind of audience to the casino.” Cinnamon Booth, the company’s other co-founder, has led companies involved in esports and video gaming. She was the first to place video games on national television and led the development of an esports broadcast studio at Microsoft’s flagship store.
Unlike the infamous three-card monte street hustle, Casino Monte gives players a realistic chance of winning. In Casino Monte, players bet on which of three face-down cards will have the highest rank. Cards are dealt from a shoe and the roll of a die determines which card is exposed first. Players then have the option to raise their initial bet before the dealer exposes the other two cards. If two or three cards tie for high, bets on each are paid. A “Full Monte” side bet pays when the three cards form a poker hand of a pair or better. The pay table ranges from even money for a pair to 100-to-1 for suited trips.
Anthony and Booth, both longtime fans of Penn & Teller, traced the idea of incorporating the pair into the casino game to the magicians’ role in the music video for Run-D.M.C.’s “It’s Tricky.” In the video, a young Penn & Teller play hustlers whose sleight-of-hand card tricks took cash and jewelry from an unsuspecting crowd. One victim calls Run-D.M.C. for help and the rappers win everything back. The magicians gain vengeance by learning the group’s moves and lyrics and ultimately posing as them at a concert.
“Their card tricks are legends,” Anthony said of Penn & Teller. “The partnership just made perfect sense.”
A few years after the Run-D.M.C. video, Penn & Teller did several public-service announcements warning people against card scams such as three-card monte. In a social-media video promoting Penn & Teller Casino Monte, Gillette Penn calls it “way more fun than pulling a rabbit out of a hat.”
Anthony said the unbranded Casino Monte game had a trial run about a year ago as part of the regulatory process, but the Penn & Teller version has full approval.
Booth and Anthony formed Adventura in 2023. They first met 30 or so years ago at Bennington College in Vermont. He went on to lead a film and video distribution company, while she pursued an esports and video gaming career. They reconnected during the COVID isolation period in New York City and began to see opportunities in casino gaming. While Anthony has the title of Adventura president, “We actually call David’s fiancée our boss,” Booth joked.
Anthony said Adventura has more table games in development, including one that is already in brand partnership negotiations.
“As a company, what we’re really trying to do is bring some of this excitement from the entertainment business into the (table game) pit,” Anthony said. “These kinds of brand partnerships aren’t just about ‘branding’, but about having fun at the table.”
