ShuffleMaster Gaming Software

ShuffleMaster is a gaming industry software company that produces the background technology for dozens of different table games, focusing specifically on your regular casino table tame types like Poker, Blackjack, and so on.

About ShuffleMaster

Shufflemaster technically began in 1983, when John Breeding created his first mechanical card deck shuffler. By 1992, they were offering the product to various casinos and building up a real business for themselves, selling the shufflers to dozens of businesses. By 1995, the Let It Ride game was released, which became a casino favorite and led to the company setting up in Las Vegas by 1998, and later began working on software-focused versions of their original machines.

By 2012, the company had changed it’s name to SHFL after moving into games like roulette, and is now part of the Scientific Gaming group that acquired them in 2014. Their focus on creating systems that are designed to shuffle a card hand in a truly random fashion has earned them a lot of recognition, and they’re known as one of the kings of internet card game software.

In 2018, there was a small patent issue with another company over the idea that they were trying to create a monopoly. This didn’t affect the player experience at all, and Shuffle Master has been able to continue operating, so it’s only a minor detail in the history of the company. The statements and press release information that came out about the story eventually died off with no major controversy.

ShuffleMaster’s Table Game Software

Shuffle Master offer three different types of technology to help enhance table games and provide more entertainment to each player, letting each site adjust the service to suit their needs and the games they already offer.

Electronic Tables

The electronic tables created by Shuffle Master are designed to be cost-effective and high-performance, often acting as a self-managing game that doesn’t require a dealer or any kind of physical machine to operate. One of the reasons for the original machines so many years ago was to prevent card counting, and this has continued into the modern designs, offering better security overall compared to regular physical games.

The company has many different game types on offer, mainly various forms of card game. The most obvious is Texas Hold’em Poker, but there’s also Craps, Blackjack and Baccarat, as well as the possibility of getting other versions made for more specific game types and rules. Each of these devices is sold as products to any casino company willing to buy one, and can be installed as a slots cabinet would be.

There are also three special types of tables: Fusion (acting as touch-screen roulette with a real-life mechanical roulette wheel, mixing real-world and digital games), i-Table (a touch-pad-based version of Blackjack that has a special card distributor system) and PRIZM (massive touch screens around 65 inches long that act as giant-scale gaming tables for individual players).

Shufflers

Alongside the tables, Shuffle Master also create shuffler machines that randomly sort and distribute card decks without any kind of bias, ensuring that it’s completely random every single time. Not only does this prevent card counting and rigging by either the dealer or the players, but they can also be installed into nearly any game, even existing physical ones.

Alongside the shufflers, Shuffle Master also produces companion equipment that works with them, such as betting chip sorters, scoreboards and even custom utility products like deck analyzers, touch screen house rule systems and even a drop box that’s designed to keep chips or other forms of currency secure after a bet has been placed.

Table Games

Not only do Shuffle Master create the shuffler systems and digital tables, but they also create the games themselves, all based on a mixture of online and offline games that people play quite regularly. This makes them quite unique, and ensures that the games themselves are built around the digital tables, rather than just being based on whatever they can find that works.

Many of these games are seen as innovative, either due to the level of unique features in them or simply because of how they play. Let It Ride and Caribbean Stud Poker are two major examples, which have spread to dozens of other gambling sites all across the market, picking up thousands of customers and even holding their place on some of the current top gaming sites and casinos in the world.

Shuffle Master’s Other Technology

The shuffler machines and digital tables are the two most well-known pieces of hardware and software offered by Shuffle Master, but that’s not all they create. They also have a side bet system that adds an extra dimension of play to the gaming experience. While none of their products are designed to be used completely online, they also offer their slots to certain online casino businesses, and ever oversee the distribution and management of the software platform they run on.

It’s worth mentioning that their online content (both slot systems and digital cards) work well regardless of the device you’re playing on, and are supposed to play the same way no matter what. They might be subject to certain changes depending on screen sizes and other graphical limitations, but no matter whether you’re playing on a large device or a small one that fits in your hands, the navigation and gameplay will be exactly the same.

Bonuses

Like all casino software companies, Shuffle Master had to include bonuses into their products. The majority of their games, including the experimental or gimmick-focused ones, have a full-sized bonus system. The bonus list varies between each product, often including things like free spins, short-time multipliers or other helpful extras.

ShuffleMaster Limited’s License

Like most gaming sites, especially ones that physically operate in places like Las Vegas, Shuffle Master have had to get the proper licenses and make a working deal with each place they put their games. Since they’re a distributor, they don’t actually run the Vegas casinos or online gaming sites, so it comes down to the individual casino sites (or Vegas properties) to handle that themselves. However, Shuffle Master is still properly licensed to operate properly, and gets the right set of new licenses every time it expands into a new area.

Fairness

As a legitimate company, SM is focused on including all of the proper regulations and fair gaming restrictions in their products. This goes for both the physical tables and online products, including the utility tools, hardware and software they create that can’t be considered games on their own, such as the shuffler systems.

Like most companies, they’re checked by all the usual gambling commissions and groups to make sure that nothing is unfairly rigged against players. This goes for the Vegas casinos they work with, too, meaning that there’s two levels of checks for fairness and legitimacy. Even better, you have the option of playing some of their game-types online for free as a demo, which you can use to test them out and see how the odds stack up against sites or casinos that you might be used to.

Should I Play ShuffleMaster Casinos?

Shuffle Master is a company that’s had a long life and plenty of innovations, making it a great place to look if you want something new, both online and offline. The bulk of their software is meant for offline use, but still has wireless capabilities, and you never know when they’ll start to expand more into the online market. For this reason, even if there’s nothing that interests you right now, you should keep an eye on their new creations: it’s very likely that they’ll create something new and exciting very soon, especially since they’re always creating new and interesting hardware to go with their software.

So, yes, Shuffle Master is a good platform to watch out for if you’re looking for an interesting set of games to try out. They create some unique games and always seem to be looking for the next great innovations they can create, which means that they’ll never just settle with what they have and stop developing new features or gaming tables.

All Gaming Software Providers

There are different factors that affect which software you should opt for. But here are all the online gaming software providers: