Jerry Yurkins has held a plethora of jobs during his four decades in the gaming industry. He's been a dealer, a consultant, a teacher. Now, he's an inventor.
About three weeks ago POJACK LLC in Briarcliff Manor received a patent for POJACK, a casino game that combines the popular games of poker and blackjack. Yurkins, the sole inventor and a Brooklyn resident, is developing the game with his business partner, Ron Fish, who lives in Briarcliff Manor.
Yurkins' invention comes at a time when casino games, especially poker, are growing in popularity due to the proliferation of online gambling and increased exposure in popular culture, with television shows such as "Celebrity Poker Showdown."
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"I always liked playing blackjack and I always liked playing Caribbean poker," said Yurkins.
Yurkins, 60, recalls sitting at blackjack tables and furtively glancing at nearby poker tables to see if they were about to become available. He developed POJACK as a way to play both games at once.
In addition to marketing POJACK, Yurkins leads casino seminars at people's homes and catering halls, where he teaches game strategy and how to get free meals and rooms at casinos. He organizes and works at casino parties, where guests use play money that they cash in for prizes. Yurkins also is working on a book, "The Hows and Whys of Casino Gambling."
Yurkins met Fish at a casino party a number of years ago and told him about the game. Fish, who was not available for an interview, invested in POJACK and introduced Yurkins to a patent attorney who helped them apply for patent protection.
In essence, POJACK allows a player to play blackjack, then use the blackjack cards as part of a poker hand. Players also can choose to play just blackjack or just poker. Players — up to seven at once — compete against the dealer; all cards are dealt face up.
"What makes my game unique is customers never touch the cards," said Yurkins, who also developed the table design. The game is currently at Holiday Inn Ponce & Tropical Casino in Puerto Rico and has been played at a couple of casinos in Aruba, he said.
Yurkins is working with a gaming company in Las Vegas to usher POJACK through the Nevada approval process. He anticipates it will debut in Las Vegas this fall.
"Once it's in Vegas, the rest of them will take it," Yurkins said.
But first, POJACK, like all casino games, has to pass a rigorous approval process.
While rules vary from state to state, in Nevada — the state with the highest casino revenues — table games must be approved by the Nevada Gaming Commission and State Gaming Control Board before they can be used in casinos.
The board first runs a series of laboratory tests on a game, checking for probability, win percentage, ease of operation, susceptibility to cheating, and a host of other factors, said Ray H. Koon, a former chief of investigations for the Nevada Gaming Control Board. Now retired, Koon is a Las Vegas-based consultant.
After lab-testing, the game then moves to the floor of a casino for 60 to 90 days of field testing. The board oversees the trial, conducted to see how players respond to the game and whether the game keeps its integrity during normal playing conditions. The game's manufacturer must find a licensed casino to test it.
The Nevada Gaming Commission must give its approval before casinos can begin buying the game. The approval process takes three to six months, Koon said.
And just because a game's approved, it's not necessarily a hit.
Yurkins said the game will appeal to players because it is familiar and allows them to play two favorite games; he thinks it will appeal to casinos for its relative simplicity.
"If a dealer can deal blackjack and poker, they learn this game in 10 minutes," Yurkins said.
Yurkins plans to rent the game to casinos, charging about $500 a week per table. He would charge less to gambling boats and other enterprises that have shorter hours than casinos.
Casinos can set up their own tables of games that are in the public domain, such as blackjack or craps. But casinos must buy or rent patented or otherwise protected games like POJACK and other specialty games.
Gaming consultant Fredric Gushin, former assistant director of gaming enforcement in New Jersey, said casinos are constantly looking for new games.
"They look to create excitement. They look to create new interest and, most importantly, they look to create new revenue streams," said Gushin of Spectrum Gaming Group LLC in Pennington, N.J.
"Getting a game through the regulatory process is not an easy process, but getting a game adopted by the casino is probably a more difficult process. There are regulatory approvals that have to be satisfied, but at the end of the day it's going to be public acceptance that determines the popularity of the games," Gushin said.
The trends bode well for POJACK. "Blackjack is probably the most popular casino table game in the U.S. and poker, obviously, is increasing in popularity," Gushin said.
Source: Abigail Klingbeil, The Journal News
