Career
From astrophysics to the casino floor. Each role below with the problem it set and what came of it.
Post-doctoral fellow, then astrophysicist
Harvard University; Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics · 1992–1997
Problem Model shock waves in supernova remnants.
Result Theoretical models built in computer code and simulation, and papers in refereed astrophysics journals, among them a multiwavelength study of the supernova remnant N49 in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
Instructor, casino gambling
Tufts University · 1995–1997
Problem Teach the mathematics of gambling to students while still working as a scientist.
Result He created and taught a course at Tufts on the mathematics of gambling and wrote the textbook Smart Casino Gambling, published in 1996.
Co-author with Ken Fuchs
Knock-Out Blackjack, Huntington Press · 1998
Problem Card counting was seen as too hard for most players: classic systems ask the player to convert a running count into a true count.
Result The Knock-Out (K-O) count is an unbalanced, single-level count that needs no true-count conversion. In simulations of billions of hands it compares favorably with established systems.
Founder and president
EnterGaming · 1997–2004
Problem Casino game makers needed outside game design and mathematical and regulatory analysis.
Result A consultancy for new game design and for the mathematical and regulatory analysis of games.
Vice President of Game Development; Chief Creative Officer (2004–2006)
Mikohn Gaming / Progressive Gaming International · 1997–2006
Problem Turn familiar board games and brands into casino games that keep a real element of player choice.
Result Games such as Battleship, Clue, Ripley's Believe It or Not! and Trivial Pursuit, which pioneered an element of skill in a straight slot machine.
Vice President
Gaming Entertainment, Inc. · 2008–2009
Problem Design casino table games and prove their mathematics.
Result Design and mathematical analysis of casino table games.
Founder and president
Game Ingenuity · 2008–2012
Problem Build a game design company of his own.
Result A start-up game design company whose rights were sold to American Gaming Systems.
Vice President of Game Development
American Gaming Systems · 2010–2014
Problem Shorten the development cycle of new games. In 2011 his goal was less than six months per game.
Result He set product strategy and ran game development, including the creative studio in suburban Toronto. The studio went from 4 to 25 titles a year.
Founder and CEO
Free Slot Games of Las Vegas · 2014–2021
Problem Bring casino-style games to phones as free-to-play social games.
Result A mobile social casino company; with Huntington Press it launched the Comp City Slots app for Las Vegas Advisor players.
Chief of Product and Technology Strategy
Pace-O-Matic · from March 2025
Problem Lead research and development and new products at a developer of skill games.
Result Named to oversee R&D, new product creation, game content and product lifecycles.
Disclosure
He has worked for casino game manufacturers and skill-game companies, and has been retained as an expert witness by counsel for Bally, IGT, Scientific Games, the State of Kansas, Diogenes / Colossus and Pace-O-Matic.