Dr. Mark Yoseloff, a gaming innovation icon with more than 60 patents who was the founding executive director of the Center for Gaming Innovation at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV), has died at the age of 79.
UNLV’s International Gaming Institute released a statement honoring Yoseloff, who it described as having a long and decorated career as an inventor, entrepreneur, and executive.
“As a CEO, a prolific inventor, and a member of the American Gaming Association’s Hall of Fame, Yoseloff was a giant in the industry,” the statement said.
Originally from Queens, New York, Yoseloff moved to Nevada in 1997 and was appointed chairman and CEO of Shuffle Master, a role he held for more than a decade.
Yoseloff taught at Princeton and Arizona State. In 2012, following his time at Shuffle Master, he approached the executive director of UNLV’s International Gaming Institute with what the school called a bold proposition: that the future of gaming requires constant innovation, and Yoseloff saw a need to introduce an educational pathway in game development.
“He recognized that true preparation for the industry required more than exposure to theory,” the school said. “It needed to include the opportunity to develop and create. He envisioned a classroom where students would be challenged to design, develop, and refine original gaming concepts with real commercial potential. The next year, in 2013, he brought that vision to life by teaching the inaugural Gaming Innovation course at UNLV.”
UNLV said Yoseloff invested not only his expertise, but his time and personal commitment, mentoring students as they worked to turn their own ideas into viable products.
“What began as a single course soon became something much larger,” the statement said.
With support from the Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development, the class was formally established as the Center for Gaming Innovation at UNLV International Gaming Institute in 2014. Yoseloff served as the center’s inaugural executive director, a position he held until 2020.
The Center for Gaming Innovation has become a patent powerhouse, with numerous games and products designed by UNLV students successfully commercialized and launched. The center’s current director, Dr. Daniel Sahl, said the success of UNLV’s Center for Gaming Innovation rests on Yoseloff’s generosity and commitment to the industry and the community.
“As a professor, Dr. Yoseloff brought unmatched expertise, and passion to the classroom,” Sahl said. “He will be remembered for his willingness to share his talent and knowledge to future generations of creators and leaders in our industry.”
UNLV professor and former IGI executive director Dr. Bo Bernhard said when Yoseloff taught his classes at UNLV anyone could see that this was the place where he was happiest.
“He would bounce from table to table, fascinated by our UNLV students’ ideas, amazed at their brilliance, and then helped them with the math as he had a unique knack to help them achieve that really, really hard part,” Bernhard said.
In its statement, UNLV IGI and Center for Gaming Innovation officials said they are appreciative of Yoseloff’s “immeasurable contributions to UNLV, our students, and to the gaming industry at large. We share our condolences with Dr. Yoseloff’s wife, Patricia, their children, and the entire Yoseloff family.”
