For years, Keith Winters belonged to a rare group of global visualization experts trusted to bring to life some of the largest building and infrastructure projects on the planet. One day he decided to move to Las Vegas to produce interactive media while creating architectural visualization projects for casino design pioneer and innovator Paul Steelman.
Then came the brain bleed.
During his healing and recovery phase, the world class 3D architectural visualizer and animator suddenly became a world-class casino game disrupter. Winters stepped into that journey with no prior experience in casino gaming.
And it all started with a steering wheel.
Quite an interesting story
“So, it’s quite an interesting story. Towards the end of 2014, I had a severe brain bleed caused by a prescription blood thinner. Supposedly it was bleeding all of 2014 and on October 20 of 2014, I ended up in the hospital. They had to put me in a coma for a week because the bleed was now taking over my brain,” Winters explained.
“I came back from that coma and was going into rehabilitation. I wasn’t supposed to go back to work, but my family and my work are my life, and I ended up coming back and tried to jump back to the animated film I was helping create.
“Paul Steelman and his son Steven said, ‘Hey, Keith, you know that movie that you’re working on; we’re going to put it on hold. Have you ever made a video game before?’ I said ‘No, but I’ve played a lot of video games.’ Paul said, ‘All right, how about a gambling video game?’
“Sitting down, we came up with the idea of, ‘Let’s create a driving game.’ Everybody knows how to drive, right? If you’re 16 and over, you know what a steering wheel is for, and you know how to get behind the wheel and drive.
“So, roughly March of 2015, Inviro Studios, the animation studio, was now going to pivot and work on the IP for a new driving game. We sat back and Stephen and I thought, ‘This is going to be just like Mario Kart.’ And we created our own characters with a small group of artists. We set off to create a game like Mario Kart, and it started with characters and tracks.
“I didn’t necessarily know how we were going to make it a gambling game, but we knew to start with what we knew, which was creating the characters, creating the story, creating the tracks, creating the cars,” Winters said.
Running Rich franchise
Three guys sitting in a room created the Running Rich franchise, which includes Running Rich Grand Prix, Running Rich Racing and Running Rich Reels, the world’s first and only hybrid games of chance and skill using a steering wheel. As they figured, “Everybody knows how to drive!”
Winters’ role as a co-founder of Competition Interactive, formed in 2015, sees him leading teams which transform the casino experience through a mash-up of elements, including video-game competition, that has historically been a chance-based gaming floor.
Competition Interactive specializes in creating next-generation, arcade and counsel hybrid chance/skill-based games for the casinos.
Visualization
Growing up in Ann Arbor. Michigan, Winters studied Urban Geography at the University of Louisville. “There was always a need for me to visualize. I’ve always thought spatially. Always thought of looking at things from an aerial perspective from 40,000 feet up in the air but looking down. I needed a way to visualize what was going on in cities,” Winters said.
Winters earned a Master of Community Planning, specializing in Urban Design, from the University of Cincinnati, and “Started diving into 3D applications. I taught myself 3D visualization and for my master’s thesis created a two-minute animation of 200 years of urban development, which was presented in Florence, Italy,” Winters said.
Winters acquired a position as Visualization Analyst at Landrum & Brown, Columbus, OH, where he created high-end 3D architectural visualizations and animations for international airport master plans and terminal expansions.
“I created these large exterior animations of airport master plans at Phoenix, Sky Harbor, Detroit International, Baltimore, Chicago O’Hare and Chicago Midway. We would create these very high-end presentations that would be given to the stakeholders, local governments, and in meetings with the public. My experience with visualization and architectural animation expanded to a point where we were doing big international projects in Shenzhen, Beijing, Hong Kong and Dubai.
“From there, I saw another opportunity as a creative director starting the architectural visualization US Studio with URS Corporation, which at the time was the largest architecture engineering and planning firm in the world. At that time, they had over 30,000 employees and over 300 offices worldwide,” Winters said.
The godfather of integrated resorts
Pursuing another opportunity in 2008, Winters met Paul Steelman of Steelman Partners in Las Vegas.
“Steelman Partners had seven different offices across the the world and was big in Macau at the time.
“Paul said to me, ‘I have a group of 14 animators, and I need somebody to come in and organize them, get them on track, and make things more efficient.’ So, I decided to pack up my wife and my two small boys and bring them across country, not even knowing what I was getting into,” Winters recalled.
“So, with Paul Steelman, I led this group of animators doing visualization for large casino master plans all over the world with designers, architects, planners and interior designers, all under one roof.
“Paul Steelman is the godfather of integrated resorts. He designed and built, for Steve Wynn, with Joel Bergman and Roger Thomas, the Mirage, which was the first mega resort on the strip here in Vegas.
“In 2010, Paul came to me and said, ‘Keith, the stories that you’re telling with your animations in our casino projects; can you do the same with characters, and can you create animated stories? So, I built an animation studio for character animations. That is Inviro Studios. I built that from scratch.
“My partner at Inviro Studios, Steven Steelman — Paul’s son — collaborated with me on the stories and artwork that defined our early projects. I learned a great deal from Steven, who today is a successful Hollywood director.
“We did animation for television, television commercials, and we started to work on a feature film called James Bird; imagine the animated film Rio mashed up with the Jason Bourne series with a little bit of Despicable Me,” Winters said.
I had no idea
I asked Winters what it was like going from a serious medical condition to learning an entire new industry.
“A year after having this severe brain bleed and being told that I was going to have to learn to walk again, would have to learn to eat again and that my life is not going to be the same, I came back and started learning an industry that I had no idea what I was getting myself into. However, I do realize that people come out of severe brain injuries with talents that they never knew that they had,” Winters stated.
“Paul Steelman has been a casino visionary for nearly 50 years, and it was his idea to, instead of making these movies, make a video game and turn it into a gambling video game. We were going to create something new,” Winters declared.
Competitive and interactive
In 2015, Winters and Steelman formed Competition Interactive on the principle that casino gaming’s future will grow through hybrid games that emulate video games with competition, and reward-based interactivity. With Competition Interactive, Winters is developing games with traditional casino play and immersive entertainment with real skill elements that generate casino rewards.
In 2018, working under the New Innovative Beta (NIB) program through the Nevada Gaming Control Board, Competition Interactive went into Planet Hollywood, The D and the Venetian with a strictly skill-based racing game called Running Rich RACING, using an arcade like cabinet, built-in seats, steering wheel, and paddle shifters.
“The NIB program allowed smaller companies such as us to get on casino floors here in Nevada under strict NGCB watch.
“We hired curators for three hours a night to sit out there and tell people how to play this game. It was a multiplayer game where we had three cabinets: a cabinet with red lights, with blue lights, and with green lights, and we have the ability to play multiplayer. So, it was a server-based game.
“The race game was way too hard, so we had to dumb it down. Nobody knew how to use the paddle shifters, because the paddle shifters were used to fire your weapons and to drift around corners; players had problems with that. Players even had problems with the gas pedal. They didn’t know what to do with the gas pedal. Players said, ‘If there’s a gas pedal, why is there no brake?’
“We said, ‘Let’s just remove everything that is making this too complicated. Let’s remove the paddle shifters. Make it an auto drift. Let’s put a big button on the steering wheel so you push the button to deploy your power up; and let’s get rid of the gas pedal. Let’s make it 100% foolproof for somebody that’s been drinking for five hours and sits down at our machine and would know what to do. That’s what ended up happening and people started to flock to the game.
“It was well-received by operators in the sense that it’s incremental income. They were getting players that they have never seen before; but they said, ‘Your machines are really big and they’re taking up a lot of space, and they’re not doing close to house average. You know, it might not be your game’s time.’ So, we left the Innovative Beta Program and came back and retooled,” Winters said.
It’s tough to gamify skill
“Many lessons were learned during the Beta Program, the most important being we shouldn’t push a ‘skill game’ onto operators and their players. We needed to redesign the game in a format that casino players were already familiar with,” Winters said.
Realizing that the obvious thing was to turn the game into a slot machine with a steering wheel using the existing IP, Winters’ team created a slot game using standard five by three slot wheels. They ramped up the staff to accommodate the new math and hired a project manager with gaming experience.
“The second iteration of Running Rich was called Running Rich Reels. We made that a slot game with a bonus that entered the player into a one-lap skill race. It’s much easier to accommodate skill with the bonus system, as opposed to just doing a straight-out skill game.
“In 2022, we went into a standard slot trial for the Nevada Gaming Control Board. We went into eight different casinos in Las Vegas and in Laughlin, and that was still with the very big arcade-style cabinet. We did well for a slot slash skill hybrid. On Dec 22, 2022, the Nevada Gaming Commission unanimously granted final approval. It was new territory for us, made even more challenging by the fact that it came during a sharp industry decline in enthusiasm for skill-based gaming,” Winters said.
Running Rich Grand Prix
“I knew that our cabinet had to get smaller. I knew that our game had to have a quality with the rest of the games in terms of its animation, in terms of its graphics.
In 2024, Competition Interactive received approval for a revamped game built on an off-the-shelf Chinese cabinet that the team completely reworked with a custom dashboard, a steering wheel and enhanced monitors.
“We got the approval for the new game, with the new cabinet, which is Running Rich Grand Prix. And we’re doing all of this with one software engineer and one hardware engineer and a part-time compliance officer sitting up in Reno,” Winters related.
Running Rich Grand Prix is the current approved game sold by Competition Interactive and is now live in nine casino properties: New York-New York, Palace Station, Green Valley Ranch, Palms, Durango, Sunset Station, Red Rock, Boulder Station and Santa Fe Station.
Running Rich Grand Prix is currently approved in Nevada and Tribal casinos in California.
Web site description
Competition Interactive’s web site describes Running Rich Grand Prix as “A first of its kind interactive slot game that brings the thrill of racing to the casino floor. Featuring nine unique racers, vibrant track environments, and classic arcade style power ups, every race is a high energy battle for first place – and bigger winnings.
“With real time competition, skill-based driving, and placement-based payoffs, Running Rich Grand Prix transforms the casino floor into an interactive, adrenaline-fueled racetrack where every spin of the wheel could lead to victory.”
The demonstration reel on the web site shows a player inserting money to choose a bet. Then the player uses the steering wheel to connect a series of symbols which contain three winning symbols, taking the player to a bonus round, which is the actual skill-based race. As in an arcade of video games, players use the button on the steering wheel to power up and compete in the race. Players can win on skill, and they can win based on chance.
The math of skill and chance
I asked Winters how the math blends skill and chance to create a hybrid game.
“The math behind the game allows us to create cash pools. The difference between a first-place finish and a lower finish is contributed to that pool. When you complete a race, you’re paid based on your placement, your multiplier is tied to where you finished, and you also receive an RNG-driven percentage of the cash pool. Essentially, every player feeds the pool with the gap between their actual finish and a first-place finish. Our math is always designed under the assumption that the player is highly skilled and finishes first every time,” Winters explained.
I asked Winters about the floor average for the innovative Running Rich Grand Prix games.
“We’ve hit floor average at particular locations, and we have been below floor average at particular locations. So, I’m happy, and Mr. Steelman is extremely happy with our results. We’ve proved the concept. We’ve proved that there is money to be made in the casino industry with this concept and these types of games. We have proved that people do play the game, and we proved that a small startup company can pull this off by ourselves,” Winters said.
The next generation of casino gambling
I asked Winters about the target market for interactive hybrid competitive games created by Competition Interactive.
“That’s the beauty of the game that we created. Everybody that drives has the ability to play that game. Everybody that plays slots has the ability to play that game. Everybody that’s played Mario Kart or any arcade driving game has that ability to play the game.
“I like to call it the next generation of casino gambling and casino gambling entertainment. Something that I’ve noticed is that there is not a particular type of group that will come to the game. You have old, you have young, you have middle aged, you have male, you have female. There does not seem to be a restriction on who plays it,” Winters said.
Beyond Running Rich Grand Prix, Winters and his team at Competition Interactive are developing a slate of new titles that expand the company’s hybrid gaming vision. Upcoming releases include Running Rich Grand Prix 2, featuring both local and wide-area progressives; Running Rich Racing, the multiplayer evolution of the original concept; and additional projects such as Star Striker Racing, Star Striker Neon, Star Striker Reels, and the company’s mobile competitive platform Cash Clash, further highlighting CI’s commitment to merging video-game energy with regulated casino play. Each title pushes the boundaries of interactivity, competition and player engagement on the casino floor.
Multiplayer and prop bets
“The notion of interactive casino floor competition among players is where I see the future of this game. We already have created Running Rich Racing, which was our first iteration of Running Rich. The notion of head-to-head playing is where we’re currently taking this game in developmental, back to multiplayer competition.
“Players are going to be playing against the house, and players are going to be playing against each other, and spectators are going to be able to have the ability to passively participate in those races with small prop bets. Small prop bets being who’s going to win the race, who’s going to fire the first missile, who’s going to come in third place, just to get the spectators involved.
‘Running Rich Grand Prix Two is the next iteration of that series with the ability to offer a progressive, and more features that slot gamers are more accustomed to, and we’re adding more features that video gamers are more accustomed to,” Winters said.
“I also foresee this as an event-based and tournament-based environment on the floor,” Winters related.
Unique perspective
Keith Winters has the unique perspective of working on the cutting edge of architectural visualization and interactive skill-based casino games. I asked him how that felt.
“I never thought that I’d be doing it. It’s incredibly challenging. It’s one of the toughest things that I’ve ever done. My two kids are my greatest achievement. But right up there is building the Running Rich franchise.
“Only a handful of people in the entire world were doing airport animations. Then going into animations at URS, I was one of a handful of people that were doing visualizations for a worldwide architecture engineering and planning firm. Then getting involved with Paul Steelman, I was one of just a couple of people worldwide that were doing things for Paul Steelman and working on animated projects for mega integrated casino resort properties.
“And then you get into the world of gambling and the world of animation and game design. l find myself truly blessed to be able to do what I’m doing and being only one in a handful of people that are able to say that they have a gambling video game on the casino floor. It’s been a ride,” Winters said.
Entries in the Faces of Gaming series:
- Keith Winters – Disrupting casino games with chance, skill and a steering wheel (now reading)
- Joe Billhimer of Cordish Gaming Group – from Katrina recovery to playing the long game
- Erica Kosemund, Choctaw Casinos & Resorts – The oracle of branding and partnerships
- Bill Miller, CEO American Gaming Association – From a family of lawyers comes a political optimist
- Steve Neely – Casino career lessons built on a frame of life
- Circa owner Derek Stevens – A sports-specific brand with a downtown Vegas vibe
- Phil Satre – Chairman of the Boards
- Michael Kaplan – Writing the book on advantage players, for gambling and for life
- Andrew Cardno — Data Scientist, Dyslexic, Taekwondo Master, Author, Futurist, A Modern Renaissance Man Who Really Should be Dead
- Dr. Katherine Spilde – There’s no place like home
- Mattress Mack – Furniture mogul, marketing genius, sports betting champ
- Jeff Connor, owner of Lockdogs – A better mousetrap
- Antonio Perez – An optimistic realist
- Kara Napolitano – Human rights advocate and trafficking expert
- Next Gaming CEO and skill-based slots evangelist Mike Darley
- Dennis Conrad – Executive, founder, creator, speaker, author, columnist, and innovator
- Adam Wiesberg – A journey from sign salesman to dealer to El Cortez GM
- Gary Ellis – Las Vegas entrepreneur
- Alan Feldman – From Mirage and MGM to responsible gaming expert
- John Acres – the Thomas Edison of gaming
- Alex Alvarado — Vice President, Casino Operations at MGM National Harbor and Casino Aficionado
- Lauren Bates — A successful VP at Konami and Chair of Global Gaming Women, all before her 40th birthday
- TJ Tejeda and EZ Baccarat – Reimagining a centuries-old game
- Chris Andrews — Don’t cry for the bookmaker
- Wes Ehrecke — From gasohol and pork chops to president of the Iowa Gaming Association
- Steve Browne – Casino philosopher, master gaming instructor and father of a rocket scientist
- Noah Acres – Shaking up the industry one player record at a time
- Kate Chambers – ICE queen, casino exhibition maven and keeper of fairy dust
- Joe Asher — From the newsstand and racetrack to sports-betting icon
- Paul Speirs-Hernandez — Randomness, chance, reward, and luck
- Ainsworth’s Deron Hunsberger — From finance and sales to president
- Roger Gros — Chronicler of the gaming industry for four decades and counting
- Debi Nutton — Everi board member, gaming trailblazer
- Cache Creek’s Kari Stout-Smith — Dancing backwards in high heels
- Andrew Economon — Making downtown Las Vegas cool again
- Richard Marcus — From the wrong side of the casino tables to the right
- Willy Allison — From New Zealand bloke to world game-protection leader
- Tom Jingoli — From gaming enforcement agent to COO of Konami Gaming
- Tino Magnatta — Interviewing the interviewer, 3,000 and counting since COVID
- Deana and Brady Scott — Still talking shop with the owners of Raving Consulting
- Kevin Parker — “Putting everything into everything I do”
- Laura Penney — Putting in the Work as CEO of Coeur d’Alene Casino
- Andre Carrier — Paying it forward
- Jean Scott — The original casino influencer, still frugal gambling after all these years
- Anika Howard — From Harrah’s First Interactive Employee to CEO of Wondr Nation
- Anthony Curtis — Gambling Guru, Las Vegas Expert, Customer Advocate with Street Cred
- Mark Wayman — An executive recruiter with a brand and something to say
- Melonie Johnson — From rural Louisiana to resort-casino leadership
- Brian Christopher — From actor, Uber driver, and cater waiter to slot celebrity
- Allan Solomon — From accountant and tax lawyer to pioneering casino owner
Tom Osiecki is a casino consultant who writes an occasional column for CDC Gaming called Faces of Gaming, about interesting and engaging people in the gaming industry.
Tom Osiecki is a marketing and management consultant for Raving Consulting and can be reached for consulting engagements at 775-329-7864.
If you know of a fascinating personality in the gaming industry you would like to see profiled, please send Tom Osiecki an email at tosiecki@cdcgaming.com
