Casino Dominoes uses a 56-card deck with two sets of 28 cards with domino tile combinations on them.
Casino Dominoes just finished a 45-day trial as a table game at the Plaza. From 6pm to 2am daily, a six-seat Casino Dominoes game took place. The Nevada Gaming Commission watched the trial play out and decides on final approval on Thursday this week.
Harold Moret, a 42-year old UNLV graduate and founder of the Universal Domino League (UDL), is the inventor of Casino Dominoes.
Like previous generations of game designers did with various table poker games, Moret took the popular game mechanics of dominoes and translated it into a balanced, entertaining casino table game.
A Casino Dominoes gaming table has six player seats and a deal seat. Each player position has a place for a connector card and three dominoes cards. It has a place for game wagers, and optional doubles bet, and Casino Dominoes paytable and a Doubles Paytable.
Harold Moret: Designer of Casino Dominoes
For Harold Moret, the attempt to become a recognized, successful casino game designer has been the experience of a lifetime. He told other possible game inventors they have to be patient and persistent. Creativity is not enough.
He told the Las Vegas Review-Journal, “You can’t just get excited and do something for a couple of weeks and think that it’s done. You really have to stick to it.”
Moret has met with casino bosses to convince them to give a new game a try — to give it casino floor space. The Casino Dominoes game table has the same footprint as an average blackjack table, so the gaming manager has to consider whether Casino Dominoes will generate more revenues than another blackjack table ould.
Since the trial started, Harold Moret has worked The Plaza gaming floor four times a week. He distributes brochures about the game, while selling the game to potential players. He also gives instructions for how to play Casino Dominoes.
Casino Dominoes Card Deck
The game should be easy for any dominoes player to pick up, but it isn’t hard for other new players. Harold Moret replaced traditional domino tiles with a playing cards. The deck of cards has domino markings instead of the traditional card faces. The deck includes 56 cards or two sets of 28 cards with all combinations of domino tiles.
Having two sets of 28 is important, because that gives players the ability to play for high-payout side bets. Multiple doubles are key to those side bets, so having two options in a deck of 56 gives players a sense they have a realistic shot at winning big.
How Casino Dominoes Is Played
Casinos Dominoes begins with the player being dealt 4 cards. Up to six players can play at a table, so each player would receive their own 4 cards. The fourth card in the sequence is the connector card.
Like in classic dominoes, the player’s goal is to connect the connector with other dominoes that have the same value. For instance, if you have a 6-1 card, then you would look through your other three cards to see if they have 1s or 6s to connect.
Casino Dominoes Paytable
A player’s score is based on the point values on the unconnected ends of their cards. If you have a 6-1 and you choose to make the 1 the connector, then the 6 would add to your score. Payouts are 500 to 1 on a score of 40 or more, though a more likely score of 20 would generate a 12 to 1 payout.
The Doubles Paytable includes 300 to 1 payouts on the Maiden’s Hand and Double-Doubles for 100 to 1. Other doubles receive lower payouts.
Casino Dominoes House Edge
The game has a house edge of 5.34%, the same as 3-Card Poker. Three-Card Poker has gained popularity since it first appeared in the Grand Coast Gulfport casino in Mississippi back in 2002, so a game with a 5.34% house edge can succeed if it is entertaining enough.
From the casino’s perspective, Casino Dominoes would be more profitable, if it gets the attention of players and they return to play time and again. If not, then blackjack makes more sense for the casino. If a game doesn’t pay back to players enough, then it will not be successful no matter how entertaining it is — unless it has huge jackpots.
If a game has a low house edge but is boring to play, it won’t be successful, either. That is why the 45-day game trial at The Plaza is important, but Harold Moret has to convinve people to play the game first if he is going to impress Las Vegas casino bosses.
How 3-Card Poker Gained Popularity
When Derek Webb shopped Three-Card Poker around from 1997 to 2002, he was rejected by casinos in Las Vegas, Reno, and Atlantic City. Mississippi’s Gulf Coast was his fourth choice and, truth be told, probably his fifth choice, given the prominence of Tunica County casinos in Mississippi at the time.
Whatever the case, Webb’s persistence paid off and he launched a game that has become popular in land-based casinos and online casinos alike. You’ll even hear about Live 3-Card Poker in live dealer casinos these days. Casino bosses are looking for entertaining new games all the time, though they stick with popular standards for the most part. Once or twice a decade, a new game comes along that sticks.
