Primm Valley Resort & Casino, which today is owned by Affinity Gaming, opened in 1990.
Primm Valley Resort & Casino in the Las Vegas suburb of Primm is debuting a brand new casino table game, Super Easy Aces, on October 4. Paul Harry, a local resident, spent the past 3 years developing the game.
Mr. Harry says Super Easy Aces is a combination of craps, roulette, and Casino War. If the game proves to be popular, then Paul Harry hopes other Las Vegas area casinos will license the game.
Super Easy Aces rids the deck of most card values, so only the Ace, Two, Three, Four, and Joker remains. The 54-card deck contains thirteen apiece of A-2-3-4, along with 2 jokers.
The object of the game is to predict which card will be drawn next. Payouts depend on the rarity of the card. Some card values pay out at 1:1, but jokers pay out at 25:1.
Paul Harry Describes Super Easy Aces
The game’s creator says Super Easy Aces is easy to learn, but has enough ways to win that it keeps players interested. Explaining the thought process a Super Easy Aces player might go through, Mr. Harry said, “I have the three of diamonds so these two bets are going to lose. I am going to win 5-1 here. Plus I win an extra even money bet because I have it in diamonds.”
Paul Harry said he spent the last three years developing the game. Game development requires a lot of mathematical calculation, rules design, and play-testing. Such a process takes three years because the developer has to tweak the rules often — and get the game’s probabilities calculated fully.
Super Easy Aces: Game Balance
Often, a table game rises and falls on its house edge, expected return, and payouts. Playing the game has to be fun, but however entertaining the game is, the game designer has to get the numbers right. If the house edge is too small, then casino operators won’t consider it worth their time to organize games. Casinos have to pay dealers and other staff members, while paying all the other bills. Games with too small of a margin cannot support those expenses and still make a profit.
At the same time, players won’t come back to a game if the house edge is too high. If the expected return is low and players feel like they do not have a realistic chance of winning, the game will lose popularity and no one will play. Once again, the casino will get rid of the game. The balance has to be just right.
Super Easy Aces: Payouts
Beyond that, payouts on a game like Super Easy Aces have to be interesting. Players know they play at a slight disadvantage, but they are willing to play by those rules if they sometimes can win big. Having 25 to 1 payouts means a player can get lucky on certain sessions and have a big win. Games like blackjack only have 1:1 and 3:2 payouts, but the house edge is really low; still, blackjack has lost some popularity in Vegas casinos the past 15 years, because of low payouts and negative changes in the rules.
As readers can see, even successful games sometimes lose interest among players. Even though casinos might tweak the rules to gain a bigger advantage, players notice the changes and figure out if the game isn’t fair. Especially in the age of the Internet, players write reviews and give strategy tips, so word gets around if a game is not fair.
When Vegas Casinos Debut New Games
Just like new slot machines appear on slots row periodically, Las Vegas casinos introduce new games from time to time. Many of those games were popular in another country or culture, so the casino sees if an American audience will like it. Games like Pai Gow Poker and Sic Bo fall in that category.
Other table games are invented by someone on the spot and sold to a casino operator. Games like Caribbean Stud Poker and Let It Ride fall under that category. Both were introduced in the last generation or two and proved popular.
Caribbean Stud, Let It Ride
Caribbean Stud was either invented on a cruise ship to Aruba in the 1980s or gambling author David Sklansky created the game and sold it to a Vegas casino owner. Let It Ride was marketed in the 1990s by Shuffle Master in order to sell their automatic card shufflers to casinos.
If Paul Harry is lucky, Super Easy Aces will follow those games’ path to success. He spent years developing the game, so one hopes his hard work and consideration pay off. Anyone in the Las Vegas area who wants to be one of the first to play Super Easy Aces should take S. Las Vegas Boulevard to Primm Valley Resort & Casino. They might see the start of something big.
