Beyond Gaming eventually filed to liquidate under Chapter 7 bankruptcy, and gaming commissioners couldn’t reconcile Graboyes’ taking abandoned intellectual property from Beyond to GameCo. That’s what led to Thursday’s denial vote. Graboyes was accused in a social media post of taking intellectual property from Beyond Gaming for GameCo when he worked as consultant and CEO. He said Beyond, teetering on bankruptcy, never paid him.

He was hired as a consultant to a small Toledo, Ohio, company, Beyond Gaming, in 2014, and top investors eventually named him the company’s CEO. In testimony Thursday, he described how he cut off power to his own house to save money in his effort to develop GameCo’s video game gambling that would attract more GenX, millennial and GenZ customers to casinos with his machines. Graboyes went through hard times to get to licensing consideration. Graboyes said his next project would be to establish an esportsbook in Colorado that would enable gamblers to wager on the outcomes of video game tournaments and matches. All have a skill-based component to them that give players an edge to win more money if they play the game strategically. Graboyes’ attorney, Sonia Vermeys of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, did not return calls or emails inquiring about whether Graboyes would appeal the commission decision.Īfter receiving a temporary license for two years in Nevada in 2019, GameCo developed video game titles that encourage young players to move to casino versions of the same game.Īmong GameCo’s slot titles are Nothin’ But Net, Steve Aoki’s Neon Dream and Terminator 2.

Graboyes said he has 12 video gambling machines operating in Nevada and four in Oklahoma. The denial prevents Graboyes from operating in Nevada or collaborating with gaming licensees in the state. GameCo LLC CEO Blaine Graboyes (his legal last name on the state application is Goldman) was denied licensing in a 4-1 vote after four hours of sworn testimony and deliberations by the commission. (Las Vegas Review-Journal)Ī leading proponent of skill-based video game slot machines and video game gambling in the state will need to regroup after the Nevada Gaming Commission on Thursday denied him a gaming license. In this March 10, 2017, file photo, Blaine Graboyes, the CEO of GameCo, near two of his unique gaming machines he hopes will change the industry.

Skill based video games in casinos