It might surprise you to learn the person credited with changing the landscape of the video poker industry can’t explain the inner workings of a slot machine.
“I’m not a computer person. I’m mostly an idea person,” said Ernie Moody, founder of Action Gaming, which operates under VideoPoker.com, where he has spent the last two decades inventing and developing slot machine and video poker content that has become commonplace in almost every casino in America.
Triple Play Poker via videopoker.com
One of his ideas, which developed from a multi-hand poker concept, converted low-earning games into financial powerhouses that are now found on more than 5% of the slot machines installed on casino floors throughout the U.S.
The development of Triple Play Poker and dozens of other patented titles earned Moody a place in the American Gaming Association’s Gaming Hall of Fame. He will be inducted on Oct. 15 in Las Vegas during an invitation-only reception at the Global Gaming Expo.
“It’s humbling to realize an idea that I had 20 years ago still persists to this day,” said Moody, 71. “Our games are much different than (typical) slot machines. Slots might have a life of six-to-12 months. Some of our original video poker games are still being played 20 years later.”
Some 20,000 slot machines across North America utilize Moody’s patents and inventions, which include Five Play Poker, Spin Poker, Super Times Pay Poker, Ultimate X Poker, All-Star Poker, Super-Star Poker and other unique titles.
The innovations have propelled International Game Technology – Moody’s longtime manufacturer and distributor – into the dominant supplier for video poker machines. Moody’s innovative video poker concepts created games that generated three to five times the house average revenue.
Moody was operating the Gilpin Casino in Black Hawk, Colorado in the 1990s when he thought about what could be done to give new life to video poker. He received inspiration from a chance meeting with automated card shuffler developer John Breeding, who was then in the early stages of launching Shuffle Master Gaming.
Breeding, who was inducted into the Gaming Hall of Fame in 2017, was sitting behind a little table at a gaming show with his first automated card shuffler. A few years later, Shuffle Master had one of the larger booths at the show and was featuring several company products, including “Let It Ride,” an outside-the-box table game concept.
Having witnessed the challenges Breeding experienced in developing a new table game, Moody turned to create a new video poker concept. He took several decks of cards and began formulating theories.
What stuck was an idea where a player could use the same poker hand in multiple rows during one game. For example, one hand of three-of-a-kind gives the player three more chances to hit four-of-a-kind.
“The math was there, and I got a patent for the game,” Moody recalled. The next challenge was getting the game in front of a slot machine executive.
It so happened his Colorado casino was sponsoring a charity golf event. Moody rigged the lineup to put himself in a foursome with Bob Bittman, IGT’s then-executive vice president of product development.
The time on the golf course led to a meeting with Bittman at IGT’s offices in Reno so Moody could explain Triple Play Poker.
“We weren’t sure at first that the math worked out,” Bittman said. “It seemed like we would be paying out over 100 percent.”
Bittman said he turned the idea over to the company’s mathematicians, who confirmed Moody’s projections. They struck a deal for the game, at the time situated in an ancient cabinet Moody likened to a 1970s Zenith television screen.
During a field trial at a Station Casinos property in Las Vegas – without any marketing from either IGT or the casino company – players lined up to try out Moody’s invention. Bittman said IGT quickly moved Triple Play Poker a modern cabinet and began churning out the product.
“The win per unit made a ton of money,” Bittman recalled. “The beauty of the game was that we didn’t have to market it. Video poker players are very sophisticated.”
Moody is not done inventing. From his “airport hangar-like” offices near McCarran International Airport, Moody and his company created the free-play videopoker.com website as a way to educate players before they visit a casino. He said the website now has more than 450,000 members and is used to launch the newest video poker games before they land in a casino.
#exclusive – Gaming Hall of Fame: Moody changed how the industry viewed video poker. –@HowardStutz, CDC Gaming. https://t.co/7bNgjzqJnV #CDCgaming @AmericanGaming @IGTNews
— CDC Gaming (@CDCNewswire) October 7, 2019
“It’s fun to create and come up with new ideas,” Moody said. He admitted his concepts are sometimes hit and miss. One product, Barnyard Poker, had exploding animals.
“It was cute, but it didn’t get a lot of play on the site,” Moody said.
(First of three articles about the Gaming Hall of Fame inductees)
(Disclosure: CDC Gaming Executive Editor Howard Stutz was a member of the Gaming Hall of Fame selection committee.)
Howard Stutz is the executive editor of CDC Gaming. He can be reached at hstutz@cdcgamingreports.com. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.
