Joe Kaminkow was, until recently, Vice President of Game Design for IGT, the world's largest casino game manufacturer, and has introduced more than 1000 successful casino products that have collectively changed the face of modern gaming. He was named one of the top 10 most important people in the history of gaming, an accolade also held by the casino magnate Steve Wynn.

Joe has designed over 100 pinball machines, video games, and novelty games. Dozens of his designs became industry-chart-topping games and received countless "Game of the Show" and "Game of the Year" awards. Joe is a member of the Pinball Hall of Fame.

Joe is also a founder of Back Lot Tour Productions which recently recorded the pilot episode of "Generation Gap," a game show hosted by Arsenio Hall, and produced in partnership with Mark Burnett Productions.

IGT designated Joe with the honorary title of "Master Inventor" for his contributions to IGT's intellectual property portoflio. IGT also presented him with the prestigious "Inventor of the Year" award for Wheel of Fortune Super Spin.

Joe holds 130 patents throughout the fields of game design, operations, and networking.

I Dream of Royalties

Larry DeMar is an MIT computer wizard. In 1980, he won the coveted Ernst A. Guillemin award at MIT for the best undergraduate thesis in Electrical Engineering. This award was for the creation of a video game system which provided lecture demonstrations for MIT's introductory probability and statistics class. Video games and probability would serve Larry well through 30 years of wildly successful game development.

Larry wrote the software for classic video games, such as Defender, Robotron, and Stargate, and hit pinball machines, such as Black Knight, High Speed, Fun House, and The Addams Family.

Larry's amusement games racked up 18 "Best of Industry" awards from Amusement and Music Operator's Association and Playmeter Magazine during the 80s and 90s. Larry is one of the coin-operated industry's most respected figures and he is a member of the Pinball Hall of Fame.

Larry also founded Back Lot Tour Productions and Leading Edge Design where his creative staff has been creating games for casinos, arcades, and TV shows for the past decade.

Larry holds 33 US patents in the fields of amusement games, bowling systems, and casino games with many others patents pending in the United States and other countries.

Larry DeMar What cherished games would you take to the island?

Ted Estes started programming computer games for fun in his high school and college years. After college, he started his career at AT&T Bell Laboratories as a Member of Technical Staff focusing on embedded system programming. After hours, Ted spent his time reverse-engineering and reprogramming pinball games. Eventually, he leveraged his background in embedded systems and interest in pinball to land a job at Williams Electronics Games, where he became Manager of Pinball Software Development and developed software for several games, including Twilight Zone, Demolition Man, and The Addams Family.

Prior to joining Spooky Cool Labs, Ted worked at Authentify, Inc. as Director of Product Delivery overseeing new customer implementations, new product definition, quality assurance, and technical support. Authentify provides real-time, multi-factor verification and authentication services to online banking and eCommerce businesses, including several Fortune 500 companies.

Ted's IT and management expertise also includes senior technical management positions at Cisco Systems (Manager, Software Development) and WMS Gaming Inc. (Manager, Advanced R&D). At Cisco Systems, Ted led a groundbreaking development team which received the prestigious "Cisco Pioneer Technology Award." At WMS Gaming Inc., Ted led the design team for an operating/game system to be used in a new product line of casino gaming machines.

Daniel Marks served as Managing Member, Chief Operating Officer, General Counsel, and Game Designer for High 5 Games. During his 12-year tenure, High 5 Games became one of the premier independent casino game companies in the world with numerous top-selling games for IGT, WMS Gaming, Bally Technologies, Action Gaming, Konami Gaming, Sigma Game, Park Place Entertainment, and Foxwoods Resort Casino.

With over 60 issued patents and patent applications, Daniel is a prolific game inventor with a long history of commercially succesful gaming products. Daniel graduated from Stanford Law School and is currently licensed to practice law in New York, Washington, D.C., and Georgia.

Brian Eddy has been developing video games for over 27 years from the first home computer systems to pinball and video arcade machines to the latest Xbox 360 and PS3 home console systems. Brian is recognized as one of the top pinball game designers in the world (Play Meter Magazine's Best Pinball 1996, 1997, and 1998) and is the designer behind the hit snowmobile racing game Arctic Thunder.

Brian has also been the project leader on highly successful console games such as Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy (IGN Editor's Choice Award 2004, GameSpot: Best Original Game Mechanic Award 2004) and John Woo Presents: Stranglehold (Runner up for IGN Best Action Game of E3 2006 & 2007, Winner IGN PC E3 2006 Best Action Game Award).

Chuck Hess created his first commercial computer game by the age of 15. Since then he has architected and lead the development of key applications for companies such as Kellogg, Keebler, Hertz, Stryker and Eaton. He was also key in developing viral marketing/entertainment sites for key brands such as Disney's Virtual Magic Kingdom, Lucasfilm, Kellogg, Pop-Tarts, American Idol, American Airlines, Frosted Flakes, and many more. In his spare time Chuck put together a team and drove the development of Nucore which is a replacement computer system for Pinball 2000 games. Nucore has become a very popular product and a recognized brand in the pinball community.

Chuck served as the co-owner/Director of Development for Source9 Inc., and as a Partner/Designer/Developer for Gilligames.

Stan has over 16 years of professional experience in the entertainment field, including the film, television, and gaming industries. As the founder of Black Point Studios, he directed cutting-edge digital art and animation projects for over 15 AAA game titles, including EA's "007 From Russia with Love," Midway's "Stranglehold" and "Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe," and THQ's "WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW."

In recent years, his film credits include "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within" and "Lost in Space." Stan has helped many companies achieve their goals, including the production and sale of a children's television series at Mipcom Jr. His knowledge base includes art direction, managing, and coordinating projects.

Steven De Mar is a serial entrepreneur. His focus is on emerging technologies about to reach critical mass. He recognizes these trends, and creates profitable companies in fast growing sectors.

Steven was one of the first Cellular Airtime Resellers in the country. He sold the recurring revenue stream from his customers to AT&T. He kept all his stores and sold them two years later to a regional operator.

InfoRamp was an early Internet Service Provider. Most small towns in Illinois were provided Internet service from the InfoRamp. This company served as a Gateway for a substantial part of Microsoft's WEBTV service. Mr. De Mar sold this company to a subsidiary of the Weather Channel.

Leading Edge Design has been his focus for the last ten years. Steven has served as Director of Business Development bringing the company's Slot Machines and Table Games to locations in the United States and Europe.

Steven has a BS from University of Illinois (76) and an MBA from Kelly School of Business at Indiana University (78).

Benita Riley Kaminkow is senior partner at Riley & Allen, PSC, the law firm she founded in 1994. Her previous twenty-nine years of legal experience have included serving as Staff Attorney for the Court of Appeals of Kentucky, General Counsel for the United Mine Workers of America and in private practice representing Kentucky employers and businesses. She has served, by gubernatorial appointment, as Special Justice of the Supreme Court of Kentucky and is a former member of the Kentucky Charitable Gaming Commission.