In Las Vegas, dominoes aficionados could reportedly soon be able to visit the Plaza Hotel and Casino in order to enjoy a new table game that was developed by a 42-year-old graduate of the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV).

Cards for tiles:

According to a Saturday report from the Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper, the new innovation is called Casino Dominoes and is based on the ‘Muggins’ variation of dominoes. The brainchild of developer, Harold Moret, the game substitutes traditional tiles with 56 playing cards featuring domino markings and challenges players to connect three identically-marked symbols to a ‘connector’ card.

Attractive house edge:

The newspaper reported that each table game can serve up to six players but offers no competition between participants with each hand standing on its own for competitors to win or lose. It explained that Casino Dominoes is more profitable than craps, blackjack or baccarat as its house edge stands at around 5.34%, which is about the same as for three-card poker.

Licensing hopes:

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that the Plaza Hotel and Casino recently finished a 45-day trial of Casino Dominoes that saw games offered daily between 6pm and 2am with the innovation now set to face final approval from the Nevada Gaming Commission on Thursday. If this proves successful, Moret has hopes of rolling his advance out to casinos across Nevada and earn fees of up to $1,000 per table every month.

Successor in the works:

Moret told the newspaper that he has been enamored with dominoes ever since his grandfather taught him the rules of the game some 30 years ago. If Casino Dominoes is a hit, he purportedly declared that he would like to bring to market a second dominoes-based advance to be themed on the game’s ‘Mexican Train’ variation.

Moret to 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.”