FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Ex-dealer says he has gift for gaming industry
By Carol Vogel
Reno Gazette-Journal
Monday August 14th, 2000
Ted Gottlieb only bets on sure things. Like the Win Cards he and his business partner Pam Butler market to casinos around the world to teach people how to gamble.
Yet, he doesn’t gamble. Which is strange when you consider that Gottlieb has spent more than two decades of his life earning a living from the gambling industry. But to him that’s not strange at all, just plain common sense.
“The more you know the less likely you’ll play,” he said, “especially when you realize that you can’t beat the house.”
At 47, he still remembers the first rent check he blew trying to beat the house when he was a kid fresh out of college. It’s an experience that left an indelible impression on him like the summer of 1973. That’s when he came to visit Lake Tahoe as a 21-year-old University of Connecticut graduate with a degree in marketing. All he knew back then was that he liked the area.
“The next thing I knew I was a craps dealer,” he said.
In casino lingo he was there to “book action,” not to baby-sit novice gamblers.
After 10 years of booking action as a craps and blackjack dealer he was ready to move on. Then one day in walked Bill Denington.
He showed him a new gambling concept that he designed called Win Cards using three cards to teach novice players how to shoot craps, play blackjack and spin the roulette wheel. The cards also explain how to play the game, the odds of winning and how to follow the action.
The whole point of these cards was to “bet with your head, not over it,” he said.
Gottlieb was convinced that this concept of teaching novice gamblers how to play would pay off big. He knew that casino managers focused a lot of attention on the high-rollers and more experienced gamblers and ignored the rest.
As an experienced dealer he watched many novice gamblers walk away from the tables because they were too intimidated by the action to play. That’s where he felt casino executives were missing the mark by ignoring these players.
So he decided to do something about it and bought the rights to the “Win Cards.” He added his own strategy and design and agreed to pay Denington a royalty.
Gottlieb then went to his casino boss and suggested that the cards would be good for business. He looked at them, immediately liked the idea and suggested they go to Las Vegas to present it to the executives at Del Webb Headquarters. They also were impressed.
Days later High Sierra in Lake Tahoe immediately placed an order for the first 10,000 Win Cards and Gottlieb’s new business known as Gaming International, Inc. took off “to a flying start.”
“I felt like Cinderella. It was a hit right away,” he said.
Within three years he was able to quit his $30,000 a year dealing job to earn $100,000 a year, along with Butler, promoting these cards in English, Spanish, French and Italian, in casinos, riverboats and cruise ships around the world.
The cards are plastic with a dial design that allows the player to spin the wheel to understand the odds. For example, the craps card shows the exact odds for the pass and don’t pass, come and don’t come action, as well as placing bets. The blackjack card shows possible hit, stand, double down and split options.
The roulette card spells out the correct payoffs for three common bets from straight up on a number, split between two numbers to corner bets, and split between four numbers.
Instead of handing out the Win Cards to people as they enter a casino, Gottlieb set it up here so they’re handed fliers stating “for $10 you receive $15 in casino chips plus a free set of Win Cards.”
“It’s a beautiful offer because it really gets the people involved in table games,” he said. “It’s a very nonthreatening atmosphere and then when they get done playing they have a nice little souvenir to take back to their rooms. It (the cards) gives them more information and the ability to be a better player the next time.”
Today, Gottlieb and his partner Butler, the company’s marketing director, travel every month visiting cruise ships and casinos around the world using these cards in seminars to teach people how to gamble. One of the most often asked questions is: Can these cards be used at the tables?
Yes, they can, Gottlieb said, but there was a time when casinos were apprehensive.
In the beginning, he said some casino executives were concerned that if people used these Win Cards to play it would “hurt” the win margin of the casino. Some were even concerned about the name “win” on the cards.
“They actually felt like someone might come into a casino and win using these cards,” he said. “They didn’t want anything to do with that word win. I told them I wasn’t going to change the name of the product. The illusion was to help attract people to play the games.”
Although Gottlieb and Butler continue to lead an exciting life of travel and fun while teaching people how to gamble in some of the most glamorous places in the world, it still has its limits. After 10 years of constant travel they want to settle down.
Home to Gottlieb is Stateline, while home to Butler is Johnson Lane.
“We want to cut down on the traveling and stay home more,” Butler said.
To make that dream a reality, Butler and Gottlieb recently co-produced a video, based on the same concept of the cards. They’re pretty confident this video also will be a hit.
Meanwhile, Gottlieb feels grateful for what they’ve achieved and said recently Circus Circus signed up to offer their cards.
“I still wake up every morning and feel like I have a gift for the gaming industry,” Gottlieb said. “Every single day of the 14 years we’ve been doing this, it’s been in varying degrees that the casino industry has realized what a gift I have for them and if they can accept it.”
****
To learn more:
For more information on Win Cards call Ted Gottlieb at (775) 588-4222 or contact his website at: www.wincards.com.
[ CLOSE ]
|