This Is Not The Way To Gamble,
Part II
By Tom Dyson
August 29, 2007
We tipped the barman and headed back to the hotel room. Upstairs, my mind was still racing from the buzz of a great idea.
I started daydreaming... I saw electronic poker tables in every card room in America, stamped with my "Digidealer" logo... I was the owner of the largest card-room supplier in the world, with hundreds of millions in annual revenues...
My friends and I were in Las Vegas a year ago to watch the World Series of Poker. While we were there, we came up with an idea for an electronic poker table. We called our idea the "Digidealer."
We thought this idea was so good, my friends and I spent three hours in a bar arguing about its marketing. We got so wrapped up in the product details, we didn't notice when the bar closed. The barman had to come over and ask us to leave.
To see why I was so excited, read the DailyWealth article I wrote about electronic poker tables in August 2006.
When we got back to our hotel room, I searched online to see if anyone else had the same idea. One company did. A company called PokerTek was already manufacturing our Digidealer, and it was busy marketing the innovation to casinos. It had all the patents, the prototypes, and some early sales. Product name? PokerPro.
Shares in PokerTek traded on the Nasdaq. The stock price was expensive. The company had virtually no revenue, yet it had a $100 million market cap. I was still eager to buy its shares. That's how good I thought this idea was. But before I sunk any money in, I wanted to play at one of the tables or, at least, see one in action...
So I went to the Hard Rock Casino in Tampa Bay, Florida. It has two PokerTek tables in operation there. I found the card room and then spotted the electronic tables at the back. The card room was packed. This was a weekend. Poker primetime. But guess what?
Nobody was using the automatic poker tables. They sat ignored.
"Players would rather hang around watching for five hours and wait for a seat at a live table, than sit at the PokerPro," explained the casino's card room manager.
Next, I asked her if she could see a future for electronic tables... or maybe even the death of the live dealer in 10 years' time. "No way. Our clientele come to the casino for the full experience. These things have their use, but replacing dealers is not one of them."
I thought the PokerPro was a great idea. But the market didn't. No one was using the table. As I wrote up the story up in DailyWealth, I concluded: "In ten months, this could be a zero-dollar company..."
That was one year ago. This weekend, I found two more electronic poker tables by PokerTek, this time in the Hard Rock Casino in Fort Lauderdale. Both tables were still ignored. I was there several hours, and no one even looked at the electronic tables. They were a waste of space. Nothing more.
Here's the thing:
Since I wrote my report one year ago, PokerTek's market cap has risen by about 15%... to $115 million... yet it still had less than $1 million in revenue in the last quarter and more than $5 million in losses in the last six months.
This company is a real dud. The market hates its product, it's losing tons of money, revenues are tiny, and it's trading at a nosebleed valuation: market cap of $115 million.
PokerTek's electronic table is a bad idea, and its stock price will eventually fall. I'm not going to bet on it either way and I suggest you leave this stock alone, too. The real point of this article: Some things can't be understood from a desk. Sometimes you have to hit the road to get the real story.
That's what I intend to keep doing in DailyWealth. I hope you keep reading...
Good investing,
Tom
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