Shuffle Master switches partner for 'Let's Make A Deal' slot

'Jumble' slots

Slot machine maker WMS Gaming Inc. announced a licensing agreement with Tribune Media Services giving WMS the exclusive right to develop and market slot machines based on the newspaper scrambled word game "JUMBLE."

WMS said this will be the first of several participation games called Puzzle Pays -- each featuring a highly recognizable puzzle game at its core.

While embroiled in a legal battle with Bally Gaming & Systems over the rights to the "Let's Make A Deal" video slot machine, Shuffle Master Inc. of Las Vegas has signed over those rights to Bally Gaming rival International Game Technology of Reno.

Last week, Shuffle Master announced it had licensed the rights to a "Let's Make A Deal" slot machine to IGT, along with the rights to video slot versions of "The Honeymooners" and "The Three Stooges." The companies expect to introduce a Three Stooges video slot by year's end, with slots based on the other two themes shortly afterwards.

IGT is by far the largest manufacturer of slot machines in the United States, with a market share exceeding 60 percent. Its closest competitors in market share are Bally Gaming, a division of Las Vegas-based Alliance Gaming Corp.; and Monopoly maker WMS Gaming of Chicago.

Shuffle Master executives said the new alliance was prompted by IGT's strong performance in the video slot field in recent months.

"Over the last year, (IGT) has just produced an awful lot of good video (slots)," said Mark Yoseloff, executive vice president of Shuffle Master. "They're a good home for our licenses. We thought they really could do justice with the concepts ... putting them on machines."

IGT will be responsible for the development of the slots, while Shuffle Master will handle marketing, sales, installation and service of the games. The two companies will split costs and revenues 50-50.

Though it will be the first time the Honeymooners and the Three Stooges have been captured in a video slot product, the same cannot be said for Let's Make A Deal, the former TV game show hosted by Monty Hall. A Three Stooges slot machine is currently being marketed by Shuffle Master, though the current version is a traditional reel machine, rather than a video slot.

In 1998, Shuffle Master inked an exclusive pact with Bally Gaming to produce and market a Let's Make A Deal video slot. To get these rights, Bally Gaming said it paid an upfront licensing fee of $1 million.

The resulting product was licensed and sold in Nevada and New Jersey, and can still be found in casinos in both states.

But sales of the slot did not go as both partners had hoped, triggering a bitter feud between the partners. On April 4, Shuffle Master filed suit against Bally Gaming, saying its partner failed to pay Shuffle Master its 50 percent share of profits. Shuffle Master also alleged that sales of the slot were hurt because the machine lacked the proper software protocols to interface with the slot accounting systems in use in many casinos.

Shuffle Master followed its lawsuit with a terse letter to Alliance Chief Operating Officer Robert Miodunski on May 1, which said that Shuffle Master was terminating the 1998 deal because of Bally Gaming's alleged failure to pay its 50 percent cut of profits.

Mark Lerner, Alliance's assistant general counsel, declined to comment on Shuffle Master's new pact with IGT, citing continuing litigation. But in a response to Shuffle Master's May 1 letter, Lerner made it clear that his company planned to fight any attempt to end the Let's Make A Deal partnership.

In the letter, Lerner denied that any grounds for killing the contract existed. In fact, he argued that Bally Gaming was owed in excess of $400,000 by Shuffle Master.

"We see no grounds for Shuffle Master terminating the contract, and we will resist with every legal and equitable remedy, any attempt to circumvent it," Lerner wrote.

Four days later, Bally Gaming countersued, accusing Shuffle Master of breach of contract and fraud, and claiming that "deficiencies in design and development criteria" provided by Shuffle Master were to blame for the poor sales. Bally Gaming claimed it suggested to Shuffle Master that changes be made to the design, but said these suggestions were rejected.

The twin lawsuits are still pending. Let's Make A Deal slots produced under the former Shuffle Master-Bally Gaming partnership will remain on casino floors, though Shuffle Master said no more slots can be produced under this pact. The new slot produced by IGT will be "a totally different rendition of the game show," Yoseloff said.

By partnering with IGT, Yoseloff said, Shuffle Master hopes to increase the number of games that can be released with the intellectual property rights his company now holds. Shuffle Master plans to release several new games it will develop by itself, Yoseloff said, though he didn't identify which new themes the games would use.

"In the case of each game title, we decide how to get the most bang out of our buck for each license," Yoseloff said. "We couldn't get all of these done (alone), and we knew IGT had great creative people.

"We hope we're getting the best mix of new games in a timely fashion. We could not have gotten all of these games done (by ourselves) in a timely manner."

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