High-tech gaming moves into Fort Collins space

FORT COLLINS - A publicly-owned, Las Vegas-based casino supplier is expanding its Fort Collins presence, nearly tripling its current office space.

Shuffle Master Inc. (NASDAQ: SHFL recently leased a 7,200-square-foot building on Whalers Way in southeast Fort Collins that used to house the nowdefunct

Shuffle Master develops, manufactures and markets automatic-card-shuffling equipment, table games, slotmachine software and an operating system for the gaming industry.

The company got a foothold in Fort Collins last year when local computerengineering company BME Designs caught Shuffle Master's eye with a Linuxbased operating system for the gaming industry. Shuffle Master acquired the rights to the system, absorbed BME Designs and its nine employees and established a research and development department in Fort Collins.

"We've gone from nine employees to 22," said Tim Wasinger, site manager for Shuffle Master's Fort Collins operation and former president of BME. Wasinger said BME still exists but only to collect royalties from the sale of the operating system. "It's nothing but a corporate shell at this point," Wasinger said.